Camogie star flying the Offaly flag proudly in the county's most infamous border hotland

THERE has been loads of contested land, grey areas and acrimonious GAA flash-points along Offaly's borders with neighbouring counties but none have had a more powerful, long-standing hold on the county's psyche than Moneygall's presence on the Tipperary hurling fields, it's best players wearing the blue and gold.

There has been some very strange happenings along Offaly's borders with Westmeath, Meath, Kildare, Laois and even its short one with Roscommon, over the years but the whole Tipperary one is a real hornet's nest and Moneygall is at the epi-centre of this.

Their departure to Tipperary in 1911-1912 was a boil on Offaly's skin for several decades. It may have lessened with time, it may not register much with the younger generations but there are people it matters to, it has dictated Offaly GAA policy in a variety of ways for years and continues to do so. The welcome mat has been there for several years in the very unlikely event that they wished to return and it has resulted in a steadfast determination not to cede any other land to any other county.

There have been very unlikely applications from key Offaly clubs to join other counties over the years: Coolderry and Shinrone made some sort of attempt to get into Tipperary in the 1920s; Edenderry applied to go to Kildare in the same decade, Gracefield made a ludicrous application to join with Portarlington in Laois in 1952.

Ballyskenach played in Tipperary for several years in the 1940s and '50s, only returning to Offaly in 1961 – after a Tipperary bye-law was put in place that there could only be one football and hurling club in each parish. This meant that Ballyskenach would have had to play with Roscrea and they came back to Offaly rather than go out of existence. People from Clonmore Harps had to play with Ballinabrackey in Meath for decades until reformation in 1989 and Tubber players lined out with Rosemount in Westmeath for years until they formed again in 1979.

It hasn't all been one way traffic: Carrig-Riverstown which is in Tipperary play in Offaly and nearby Lorrha made a bid of some sort to come into Offaly in the 1920s – it is not that long ago when these two clubs were on war footing over the legality of players before an agreement was brokered with players ceded, including high profile ones. There were also occasional bids way back to allow players from the Tipperary end of Shinrone parish in Knockshegowna to play with Shinrone in Offaly but these never got anywhere.

There were plenty of other furious battles, tug of wars over players playing where they weren't entitled to and specific townlands that had to be dealt with in county, provincial and central board rooms – agreements reached, regularly breached and people suspended. Famous players or personalties were sometimes at the heart of these and a Westmeath chairman had to step down in the 1930s as he was living in Offaly in Horseleap. Then there is the myriad of cases where the great GAA policy of heads turned and eyes closed came into operation and players were allowed to play illegally – in most of those cases, the cows in the fields knew where they lived but they went through their careers playing illegally, and occasionally, this has included county players.

There is some great stories along the borders and these will all be outlined in much more detail in a special chapter in an Offaly GAA history that I am bringing towards publication but the whole Moneygall one is particularly painful from a purely Offaly GAA perspective.

The bulk of Dunkerrin, Barna and Moneygall parish is in Offaly and by any logical, unbiased, neutral examination, the part in Offaly should be playing in the county that they are in – notwithstanding the view that they have been playing in Tipp so long and some people have such an attachment to Tipperary that they couldn't be uprooted now unless they wanted to return.

Moneygall's presence in Tipperary was the major factor in applications by Carrig-Riverstown to affiliate in North Tipperary being rejected in the 1960s. And this rejection showed the Moneygall influence at its most powerful. The North Tipp chairman at that time was Moneygall's greatest GAA personality, Seamus O'Riain. A former Tipperary junior hurler and footballer, he became chairman of Munster Council before reaching the pinnacle in the GAA, serving as president from 1967 to 1970.

Carrig-Riverstown's application was turned down by the North Tipperary Divisional Board as they knew full well what the stakes were: Offaly were in agreement on the very simple proviso that the parts of Offaly playing in Tipperary be returned to Offaly, this meant one area and they were not willing to give up Moneygall and their chairman.

It was long accepted as fact that Moneygall went to Tipperary and Carrig-Riverstown came to Offaly in a swap but this is wrong. Players from Carrig had played with Birr from the early days after the 1884 formation of the GAA and Tipperary officially ceded the part of Birr parish in their county to Offaly in 1914, three years after Moneygall had went.

Moneygall played a pivotal part in the early days of the GAA in Offaly. While the years before 1893 were subsequently knocked off the Offaly GAA records and declared as “unofficial” - a very questionable decision that is also a story for another forum -, there was loads of activity before then.

Thomas Davis of Moneygall, Dunkerrin and Barna won the first Offaly senior hurling championship in 1888 and they conceded controversially to Cadamstown in the 1889 final. The club was later called Dunkerrin or St Flannan's, Dunkerrin and then went as Moneygall in the 1900s, losing to Coolderry in the 1906 Offaly senior hurling final. It was Dunkerrin when they defeated Killoughey in the 1910 Offaly junior hurling final, played in 1911, but lost it on an objection and reacted furiously, switching to Tipperary at that stage. It should never have happened and Offaly have to take a huge portion of the blame as the switch could not have been allowed without their agreement but they took a remarkably negligent, dismissive attitude, allowing them to go and more or less telling them to take a running jump!

History does not reflect well on the people at the coalface of that Offaly GAA stance but it happened and Moneygall have went on to play a great part in the Tipperary GAA story – winning championships and providing excellent Tipp hurlers.

Yet the area remains full of anomalies. Most people there vote in Offaly; when US president Barack Obama visited his ancestral home in Moneygall in 2011, it was very much an Offaly affair – there were Tipperary dignitaries present but it was Offaly politicians out in force, Offaly County Council who had to do a lot of the preparatory work. Yet when he landed in the grounds of Moneygall GAA Club, St Flannan's Park, on the outskirts of the village, he was in Tipperary – the border is that close.

An examination of the map of Offaly and Tipperary shows that Moneygall is at the southern most tip of Offaly, jutting out into Tipperary and Roscrea is its nearest big town while Nenagh is only a few kilometres further away.

Offaly camogie star Mairead Teehan is a perfect example of the type of anomaly and conflict of emotion that can arise in the wider Moneygall parish – another Moneygall player, Ciara Maher is also on the Offaly team that is playing the All-Ireland intermediate camogie final next Sunday. Teehan grew up in and still lives in Dunkerrin, she plays her club camogie with Moneygall in Tipperary and played county camogie for Tipperary at all levels, including senior.

There was little choice in the matter and she says it simply wasn't an option for her to go into the Offaly camogie underage development squad system when she was growing up, attending National School in Dunkerrin and secondary school in Roscrea. After years of playing, she needed a break in 2017 and took a year out. The goalposts changed for her then as a club mate Niamh Larkin got permission to continue playing with Moneygall in Tipperary but to play county with Offaly.

That paved the way for Teehan to play for the county she loves and she switched county allegiance to Offaly for 2018. Her surname is a bit of a give away when it comes to trying to guess where her heart has always lay – the Teehan's, and extended family, have been synonymous with Coolderry and Offaly GAA from the earliest days, supplying great county and club players and fiercely dedicated administrators.

Her branch of the Teehan family have been in Dunkerrin for four generations now – her great grandfather, Cornelius Teehan initially moved from Coolderry to Dunkerrin several decades ago. She is a third cousin of fellow county player Grace Teehan, who plays with Naomh Brid (Coolderry, Killavilla and Ballyskenach). Their great grandfathers were brothers while former Offaly and Leinster GAA chairman Pat Teehan, currently Offaly assistant secretary, is an uncle of Grace, a second cousin of Mairead's father Rody – the name Rody crops up all over the Teehan family tree and Pat Teehan's father was also Rody.

Mairead's family tale is an endearing one that shows the way loyalties can be divided in those type of border areas.

Brothers of Mairead, another Rody and Tomas, both hurl with Moneygall. Her father Rody helped instil a love of Offaly in them while her mother Una is from Moyne in Tipperary, not to be confused with the Una Teehan, retired principal of Coolderry National School who also lives in Dunkerrin - “We both live literally beside each other so it gets very confusing,” Mairead smiled.

Because of their mother, they went to both Tipperary and Offaly games as children. “Dad would have brought us to Offaly games and you would be looking at them on the telly. The same as the Tipp matches,”, though she quickly clarified: “We mightn't have gone to as many Tipp ones, I suppose. We would very much be Offaly people.”

She explained: “When I was U12, 14, playing with Offaly just wasn't an option for us. If we were lucky to be selected from the club, you were sent for Tipp trials and at that age, you just want to go and play. There would have been Emer Ryan, Julie Kirwan, Mary Ryan who would have played with Tipp from my club and Emer and Julie would have won an All-Ireland with them. You see those girls, they are from your club and your parish and you just want to emulate what they are doing.”

She played the whole way up to senior but in 2017, she was gone into the red. “I just needed a break from camogie. I was just fed up of it, I was playing for an awful long time. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and I just wasn't enjoying it. I said I would take the break for the year.”

Both her and Niamh Larkin live near each other “very much on the Offaly side of the border” and around this time, Niamh examined the legality of being allowed to play with Offaly because of their address. After her year out, Teehan was approached by Offaly camogie officials about coming in. “When I was asked I couldn't say no. I always grew up very proud to be from Offaly. With the club and everything, it took me in a different direction but I was very happy to be asked in and was delighted that I am playing for Offaly. Niamh paved the way for us and now the underage girls in our club have the option of playing for Offaly. We are a split parish so we are allowed to play for either. Anyone who is living in the Offaly side of the parish can play for Offaly and anyone living in the Tipp side can go and play for Tipp.”

Teehan was asked back in by Tipperary manager Bill Mullaney after her year out. “I had nothing against him or Tipp but for me it came down to, I am from Offaly. I knew myself fairly straight away that it was the right decision to go and play for Offaly. That this was who I wanted to go and play with.”

How did that go down with the girls you play with in Moneygall who are still playing with Tipp? “There was a bit of banter but it was well known that my family was from Offaly. It was never a big issue or anything like that. I had some great times playing with Tipp at underage and there is some great people involved there. There was never anything like that but when it comes down to it and you are asked to play with your county, you just want to play with your county.”

After joining Offaly, Teehan has been one of their great stars and her value has been shown powerfully this year as they qualified for the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship final – playing Kerry in Croke Park on Sunday next. She has been brilliant all season and was at her best in the dramatic semi-final win over Antrim, scoring a decisive 1-2 including the decisive winning point in a great player of the match display.

Offaly set their targets high from the start of the year but broke it down into parts: focusing on the league first, winning Division 2A. “That was a great thing to do and gave a great buzz around the camp,” she said, adding that they knew they had potential of going further after making the All-Ireland semi-final last year.

She has been happy with their form, particularly the league form. The defeat to Wexford in the Leinster senior quarter-final was the one black spot on the year. “We were a bit disappointed on our performance that day. We were going up against senior opposition and off the back of the league win, we were hoping we could push on and put in a good performance. We came back at them in the second half but weren't happy with our first half performance.”

Their only other loss was against Antrim in the first round of the championship but they turned the tables in the All-Ireland semi-final. “We learned a lot from those two defeats and have pushed on. We knew having played them in the first round of the championship that they had a very strong side and some very good individual players. We knew we were up against it but took good confidence from the first game. We were 8 or 9 points down in the second half but brought it back and lost by two points. We knew we had it in us, that we were there or there abouts if we could get the performance for the full sixty minutes rather than dipping for some of it.”

Offaly were relegated out of senior two years ago and she talked about the importance of getting back up. “It is incredibly important for the county. I remember going to the All-Ireland's back in 2009 and 2010 when they won junior and intermediate. Watching them progress at senior level, they did well for a long time. It is massively important for us to get back up to senior. It was a difficult few years because we were going through relegation semi-finals and finals but even last year, getting to the semi-final, this year we are in the All-Ireland final, it creates a buzz around the group. Girls want to be involved and that is massively important. Especially in a county like Offaly where there are so few clubs. You need to have a consistent group and that has been a big thing from last year. A consistent group has stayed and continued on to this year. You need to add to it as well but you need a consistent group from year to year.”

She agreed that taking a step back to make one forward might have been a good thing. “Exactly, we were at a point where we couldn't get that consistent group to stay. It was because it was so demoralising to be losing matches. You want to be enjoying it and it is very hard to enjoy your camogie when you are constantly losing. Taking that step back to intermediate is after having a massive impact on pushing us forward and being able to get that buzz around.”

Offaly are slight favourites for the All-Ireland final but Teehan brushes that aside. “I don't know if we are slight favourites either. Kerry have had a very strong championship campaign and haven't lost a match yet. They are in a good place and have players playing with Clanmaurice (All-Ireland club intermediate champions from Kerry) who make up the majority of their team and used to being in big games and All-Ireland finals. They are used to that pressure and being able to deal with that. They are going to be a really tough challenge, we are going to look forward to it and enjoy it. Get a performance out of ourselves and that is all we can do.”

Teehan is savouring every moment of this year after missing the Offaly campaign in 2024 when she did her cruciate in her right knee in training in Faithful Fields in 2023. “It was difficult enough. I just really enjoy playing camogie so you'd miss going training, miss the competitiveness, even the friends. Just meeting up with everyone, the social aspect of it.”

She had hoped to make it back for championship with Offaly in 2024 but the knee “just wasn't strong enough”.

“I went up for tests in Santry and they just weren't happy with it. I had to make a decision in April-May last year to just say I will focus on trying and get back for the club and not be rushing,” she reflected.

She had a great year with the club and it wasn't long before her form returned. “It was disappointing to miss the year with Offaly, particularly when the girls were going so well. You just want to be out playing with them.”

She knew she was right to give it time. “I found even with Moneygall last year, I had a few issues, not with the cruciate but my medial ligament and leg was just a little bit weak in general.”

She took a few months to give her knee time to fully heal after the club championship. “It made me appreciate it more being in this year. Doing well with the club last year, I appreciated it a bit more.”

Sunday will be her second time to play in Croke Park, though this will be a new experience for her – As a sixth class student in Dunkerrin National School, she previously played a Go Games exhibition game on All-Ireland final day in 2009 after being picked following her performances when they won a Tipperary blitz.

She is looking forward to the whole experience. “The last few weeks when management are saying you are in Croke Park, you would be pinching yourself, it is actually happening. Getting to play in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park, you have to enjoy these few weeks, training and the build up to it. There is nerves there as well. Kerry are going to be a big challenge, they are a strong team and will be very much up for it.”

Teehan was very impressed with Offaly GAA's gesture to call off club games to facilitate supporters attending the All-Ireland final. “In fairness to them, it is great to see that support and recognition being given. We are in an All-Ireland final. Hopefully there will be a good crowd there.”

She hopes full integration between camogie and ladies football happens with the GAA. “I think it is only going to benefit female players, and male players as well. I have two brothers and a sister, we are all playing club hurling and camogie all our lives. We are all doing the same thing, male or female but to get that funding will make a massive difference for female players. I am looking forward to seeing that coming in.”

Qualified as a primary teacher, she did a PhD looking at having full time Physical Education teachers in primary schools and has lectured on that part time in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick this year. She also subs in primary schools, covering where required, and is happy with that flexibility at the moment. The PhD has given different opportunities in part time lecturing and she wishes to leave herself open for that but has no ambitions to travel or live abroad.

Camogie is a factor in this. “I am happy enough to hang around and play while I can. I am very much enjoying playing camogie at the moment and am happy to be just involved.”

SEE NEXT: GAA president welcomes football heroes on 65th anniversary of the day that changed everything for Offaly GAA

28 years of age, she is approaching her veteran ranks in terms of womens' sport but hopes to continue playing at a high level into her thirties. “I am enjoying it at the moment and staying injury free is the biggest thing for me. It is a lot, it is a long year. Get over this year first and worry about it then but I would like to stay playing for another few years.”

And the remainder of her county career will definitely be with Offaly. In border areas, I can rarely resist the temptation to try and ascertain signs of mixed allegiance in an individual and slip a leading question into the conversation. Did you go to Croke Park for the Tipperary v Cork All-Ireland senior hurling final and were you wearing a Tipp jersey?

She smiled, knowing exactly what was being asked: “No, no, no, I didn't go. I wouldn't be going supporting Tipp to be honest. It's mad the way it works out. Shur, half of our team in Moneygall would be wearing Offaly jerseys, half of them would be wearing Tipp. You'd have a bit of craic about it but we get on with it. We are all the one parish so that is the main thing.”