Bathshack Antrim SHC
THE dust is just starting to settle on the Ould Lammas Fair when John McVeigh answers the phone. After three days pulling pints for punters in a busy Ballycastle bar at the height of the summer season, you forgive him for being all out of conversation.
But the Carey Faughs manager is lapping up the most unfamiliar buzz as the days tick down to Saturday’s date with their near neighbours, a derby duel which means that bit more than any of the other senior championship fare on offer this weekend.
After finally ending their wait for an intermediate crown last year, this is Carey’s first senior championship campaign in almost two decades, when McVeigh was still putting his shoulder to the wheel out on the field rather than on the sideline.
Overseeing the new crew spearheading this latest revival, these are the days that were craved for so long. With no threat of relegation hanging overhead, and a quarter-final place up for grabs, there is no sign of pre-game kidology.
Instead, even amidst the madness of the weekend past, every moment is to be savoured.
“Ah, it’s been serious,” said McVeigh, whose son Fiachra is a key man for Carey, while another son Peadar – currently on his travels – was the club’s player of the year in 2021.
“I work in the Diamond Bar, so everybody’s in the last few days. Ballycastle must be the only club in the country with a drink ban at the minute, but if I see any of their players coming in I’ll be buying them doubles!”
As an indication of how close ties between the clubs are, McVeigh’s mother and the grandfather of Ballycastle boss Kevin Barry McShane are first cousins, with almost every man known to each other once they cross the white line in Ballyvoy on Saturday afternoon.
Having played their first two games at neutral venues, running out against Ballycastle at St Patrick’s Park for the final Group One clash promises to be a special occasion.
Carey have already issued a car park appeal via the club’s Facebook page, with a large crowd expected – though the weather could have a major bearing on what transpires out on the field.
“I go by the farming forecast,” said club stalwart Jimmy Mulholland, “and I’ll tell you something for nothing, it’s giving force nine gales, and if the wind starts coming off the coast it’ll be a challenge for any living man to stand, never mind play a game of hurling.
“After that, it’s survival of the fittest. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”
Having waited so long for a championship crack at their neighbours, though, McVeigh won’t be paying too much attention to Met Office predictions in the coming days.
“I don’t care if it’s raining or snowing on Saturday, Carey will be packed,” he said.
“It’s massive, absolutely massive – not just for us, but for Ballycastle too. We do go back a long way, we have our own history, the oldest club in Antrim now.
“The last time we probably played Ballycastle was in the late ’60s in Loughgiel when they beat us by a point. I have two uncles, one’s 89, one’s 91 - they both played that day and people still talk about it.
“Honestly, it’s so good for hurling to have everybody talking about Carey and Ballycastle again.”
Both are winless heading into the game, but Carey have taken heart from dogged performances in defeat to county kingpins Dunloy and last year’s beaten finalists O’Donovan Rossa.
The nature of success at any small club is often cyclical, but McVeigh insists the aim is to try and stay at as high a level as possible, for as long as possible.
“We’ve shown we can compete with the best of them.
“We have probably as good of hurlers as any of them, not as many hurlers, which has always been the case with Carey. We’re not a big parish, Ballycastle have I don’t know how many people, we have about 550 maybe?
“But we keep coming back. Last year we won the intermediate championship, this year we won Division Two. I said it at the dinner dance last year, this is where this club belongs, this is where we want to be playing.
“There’s no pressure on them - when we were going to play Dunloy in Loughgiel, you’re saying to them this is where you want to be. Those are the games you want to be involved in.
“The boys have risen to the challenge and they’re loving it.”
