'Michaela's brother' hoping to savour his own day in the sun with Shinrone

EVEN if he achieves his own place in local immortality by being one of the first Shinrone men to collect a Senior Hurling Championship medal, Mark Morkan knows that he will now shed one distinction that most brothers would grimace at - “I am known as Michaela Morkan's brother”, he smiled last week as he spoke about Shinrone's date with destiny against Kilcormac-Killoughey in the Senior Hurling Championship final on Sunday.

His famous sister Michaela Morkan has been arguably Offaly's greatest ever camogie player. A brilliant performer, she has been one of the best in the country and retired from county fare just last year.

When it was suggested that he might be known as Mark Morkan if Shinrone win on Sunday, he laughed: “Ah no I won't. I will never be known as Mark Morkan. I am Michaela Morkan's brother.”

The Morkan family are entrenched in Shinrone GAA Club. His uncle Seamus was on the Offaly senior hurling panel in the early 1990s and the Morkan name has featured on Shinrone team for years – his father is Donie Morkan.

At 36 years of age, Mark Morkan is one of the elder statesmen on the Shinrone panel. A long serving defender, he has been a sub this year but remains a valued part of the panel – his experience, knowledge and leadership is a great asset to the many youngsters he is now training with.

He spoke with great enthusiasm about the central role that hurling plays in Shinrone. Shinrone is one of those rare split parishes that has territory in two counties – the Knockshegowna area is in Tipperary and they have their own club.

They have a wide geographical area and a lot of people go to National School in Shinrone from Ballingarry in addition to the Knockshegowna end, where they don't have their own school. Clonlisk National School also caters for the parish - “There would have been a bit of competition when we were growing up between the two schools and now we all hurl together. We have a fairly big parish and they are massive schools for hurling.”

He is happy that numbers is not an issue for Shinrone. “There is a good effort going in at underage”.

He played his first senior hurling game in 2003 and he said he “remembers it like yesterday” as he came on at half time against Killavilla in Kinnitty.

Did you ever think you would see this day? “No, never, never. I dreamed of this day for a long time now. It is massive. You wouldn't believe what it is after doing for the parish. Even this week has been brilliant. It is what we have dreamed of for years.”

He has seen Shinrone transition in recent years from being among the championship no hopers to a vastly improving one with decent prospects but a tendency to lose big games.

He agreed with that summary. “We couldn't win big games, we found it tough to get over the line but we have a lot of good lads now who are around a while. We won a minor in 2013 and all those lads are nearly 27-28 years of age now. We won 3 under 21s so they are around a while. It is great to be in a final.”

Morkan is now the oldest on the panel but was never really considered calling it a day. “You would always be tempted every year but you just don't want to give it up. They are a great bunch of lads and I love being a part of it and the panel. You just stay going and going and now we have got to a county final.”

He knows that Shinrone have blown hot and cold this year but was delighted with the wins over Coolderry and St Rynagh's. “We all know how good they are. It gave us massive belief by beating both of them.”

Shinrone reached the semi-final last year and while definitely second best on the day, they performed creditably in a defeat by Coolderry. He reflected: “We knew how good Coolderry were and we definitely didn't take that for granted but we didn't seem to perform that well on the day. It was a big blow for us being knocked out by Coolderry as well.”

They came back from the dead to pip Belmont in the semi-final. “A great comeback. People will probably say we robbed them but the boys stayed going and there was a bit of belief. Trevor (Fletcher) is after instilling that in the team massively. To stay going and believe in themselves. It shows that we didn't give up and in other years we might have faded away. This year seems a bit different.”

Now Shinrone find themselves in virgin territory, unaccustomed to all the things that accompany a senior final, including media interviews etc. “We are in unknown territory. It is hard to know what to do or what to say. How to prepare but it is a very grounded bunch of lads and they won't get too carried away. There is nothing won yet.”

Hurling is by far the dominant sport in Shinrone and very few in the area opt to concentrate on other sports. “We don't really lose anyone. Hurling is number one here. A few lads play a bit of soccer during the Winter but it is only a bit of craic.”

The final is in O'Connor Park, a second home almost for Kilcormac-Killoughey but a venue that Shinrone have very rarely played in. “Someone said to me the other day do we mind hurling in O'Connor Park but we would hurl a final anywhere. A lot of the younger lads would have played a lot of hurling there and the lads with Offaly would be well used to it. It is a bit of a bonus for Kilcormac, they have played a few games that we haven't but I don't think it will make much of a difference to be honest.”

Shinrone and Rahan are the only two parishes in Offaly who have never won a senior championship. Does stuff like that matter? “I don't think so. We can't look in the past, we just have to look forward and make our own history if we can at all. It is not going to be easy. We all know how good Kilcormac are. I was down there last weekend watching them and they are a very balanced team. They have a lot of youth and they have some great leaders there. Look at Ger Healion and the two Kiely's. They have a fine team and it is not going to be simple.

“They have a good balance. They have youth and experience. They are small around the edges but they are big down the middle. If we just look for a performance, we will see what happens after that.”