AFTER five years as the National Hurling Development manager, Martin Fogarty’s term has come to an end. The Kilkenny native is as passionate a hurling man as there is in the country and a lot of his good work has been completed in Ulster, which formed a large part of the ‘Tain’ counties in need of hurling promotion.

“If you draw a line from Dublin across to Galway, going North of that line, with the exception of Antrim and possibly Down, the greatest need was within those counties,” he said.

“There are 13 counties up there that have nine or fewer adult hurling clubs. And there’s six of those counties that have five or less adult hurling clubs. That hit me straight in the face.”

Promoting the game of hurling and using some famous faces to encourage coaches were top of the former school principal’s to-do list.

“Coming from Kilkenny, I had an advantage in that we were perceived as knowing something about hurling.

“To go into counties and teach ordinary, simple techniques and coaching practices that people were already doing, it was a great boast to them. I tried to expose the coaches to some of the top players and coaches in the country.

“We were looking at people like Jamesie O’Connor, Fergal Hartley from Waterford, Eamon O’Shea and people like that and a plethora of former Kilkenny players. The real purpose of those workshops was to give the ordinary coach an opportunity to speak to some of these people that had excelled in the game.”

Working alongside some Games Promotion Officers like Ryan Gaffney, Aidan Morgan and Pauric Dowdall, Fogarty realised that clubs needed a “meaningful games programme.”

“We started the ‘Tain Og’. The ‘Tain Og’ in its first year was basically a competition for u-13s that was going to wipe away the county boundaries. I think we managed to get 24 teams into it. We eventually build it up into u-13, u-15 and u-17 and grouped the clubs across that ‘Tain’ area and basically played league.

“We had hoped to do it in 2020 but Covid stopped it so in 2022 we’re adding the Cuchulainn League for adults. We were looking at anywhere between 40, 50 and 60 teams across those counties. We’re hoping this year that we will be in a position to have an A and a B (competition) and that would make a tremendous difference.

“Those leagues are the future of hurling up in the Tain area. They’re going to give all the clubs at least one meaningful competition each year. A meaningful competition that they can play at their own level, that they can compete.”

One of the biggest obstacles Fogarty and his team faces is the impact of Gaelic football, but Fogarty highlights Sleacht Néill as a club that have demonstrated that the two sports can go hand in hand.

“Unfortunately, sometimes our greatest challenges are from within the organisation.

“Sometimes the greatest threat to hurling in some places is football and in others the greatest threat to football is hurling. I would have come across quite a number of clubs where basketball is tolerated, rugby is tolerated, soccer is tolerated but hurling is not. That’s the reality of it in quite a lot of places.

“If we’re trying to run a competition across various counties then we need a particular night. So, if we’re trying to run a u-15 ‘Tain Og’ on six or seven Monday nights in a year, if there’s a round of football on in any one county on that night then it totally destroys our Tain Óg.

“Sleacht Néill have shown that not only have can they live together but they can be one of the best clubs in the whole country at both codes. We’re not looking for every club to be as equal at hurling as they are at football, all you’re looking for is a little bit of tolerance that players are accommodated and basically their allowed to play the other game.”

Although Fogarty is no longer in the role, he hopes his impact will continue.

“We have some great people there and I think as a unit they’re going to be strong enough to pull together.”

“I have had commitments from Croke Park that these things will be taken seriously and that they will be followed up on and I have no reason to believe that they won’t. We’re looking at trying to get funding for clubs in those areas that just need a little bit of a leg up.”