Ten years ago today, Lisbellaw claimed the Fermanagh hurling title following a comprehensive 4-14 to 0-10 win over Lisnaskea in Enniskillen.
25 August, 2013 shouldn't have been a landmark date, but it is in Ulster hurling circles as it was the last time a senior championship match took place in the Erne County.
Before that final a decade ago, Lisnaskea player Mark Curran stated: "We’re rebuilding at the moment and next year we’re aiming to give it a rattle."
That rebuild never materialised though, with the side withdrawing ahead of the 2014 season. With no other adult team to fill the void, Lisbellaw were nominated as champions for the provincial stage, as they have been for every season since.
The impact has had many ramifications for the St Patrick’s side. Having won an intermediate provincial title in 2012, they were set for five years testing themselves against the very best in Ulster but they were always coming in severely undercooked.
When Sean Corrigan lifted the trophy in 2013, little did he realise that he would be the last person to perform such an honour. Indeed, the free-scoring forward hasn’t played a hurling championship game inside county boundaries since that day.
"Even though it ended up down as low as two teams, which in itself is obviously not a great thing, it still meant there was a championship final, a day where hurling got centre stage," Corrigan said.
"Any year that we won the final, it gave us momentum to take into the Ulster club campaigns and gave the season a bit more structure."
"Lisbellaw had just won an Ulster Intermediate title in 2012. The rule at the time kept us at senior for five years, so our first championship game of the year was against the likes of Sleacht Néill, Portaferry, Ballygalget, teams like that," Corrigan continued.
"That was going to be a tall order regardless, but when you add in the fact we had no championship sharpness or momentum from a county championship, it was made even more difficult."
It was a challenging situation for those who love the sport to accept. No final was almost an acceptance of a sport dying in Fermanagh, but the green shoots of recovery have been growing taller over the last few years.
In 2021, adult championship hurling returned with Erne Gaels – in their first year back at adult level having last reached a final in 1989 – and Lisbellaw competing in the junior hurling championship final with the latter winning as expected, although it didn’t take place in 2022.
Last weekend, the two clubs met again in another final – the Reserve Cup – and the Belleek men managed to flip the result, claiming a thrilling 3-10 to 2-11 win. The club had four players on Fermanagh’s Lory Meagher Cup side this year - Odhran Johnston, Oisin Gormley, Thomas Burns and Ultan O’Reilly.
Lisnaskea were back competing in the competition too, ten years on from that last senior final.
Shea Curran, a Lory Meagher Cup winner with Fermanagh in 2021, played in that 2013 defeat but hasn’t experienced a final since, but one is on the horizon with the side set to meet Erne Gaels in the junior decider.
Like plenty of players in the county, he had to find regular hurling elsewhere and linked up with the St John’s club in Belfast for a number of years, but he is back home now and just glad to see senior hurling appearing on the fixture list.
It’s a long road back now. In 2005 they won the Fermanagh senior title against Lisbellaw, two years later they came close to repeating the trick. Now the gap is immeasurable.
"I had to transfer away the year after that 2013 final because the numbers were gone," he said.
"Everyone used to slag us and say if we were living in Kilkenny we would be playing football."
"There was no real love for the hurling then in Lisnaskea. At that time we were doing well at the football and we won an All-Ireland Intermediate [2011]. That put the onus back on football.
"It’s always been a struggle in Fermanagh, the hurling, but I used to love going down to it and we’d have had 20, 22 at training and then boys moved away, went to college or further afield for work and slowly but surely it died out.
"Ten year passes, no county final. The reserve league is back but we can’t play against Lisbellaw because they’re too well advanced at this stage. They kept it up at a high standard.
"It’s a pity because some of those finals were tight enough. It was always competitive until the last few years before it stopped.
"It used to be a serious occasion. I would have been buzzing for about two weeks before those games."
For Curran, the issues are quite obvious but nevertheless, not simple to fix.
"I’ll be well retired by the time the senior final comes back around but I’d never say never.
"There are good structures coming through there with the likes of Belleek, Enniskillen, ourselves, there are a lot of young teams coming up and hopefully every club buys into that dual club ethos rather than just having a single mind on football.
"The likes of Enniskillen, I don’t think I ever played hurling against them, even at underage, and now they’re developing that dual club ethos and they’re starting to come good."
The Fermanagh hurling strategic plan 2022-2025 outlined some other issues facing the county. At the time of release there were four dual referees and two hurling referees in the county. No under-20/21 county team existed.
Foundations are not built from the top down though, and most reassuring for the hurling fraternity in the county is that the underage scene is starting to take on real life.
This year’s U13 championship had seven clubs involved - Naomh Aodhán, Erne Gaels, Lisbellaw, Lisnaskea, Ederney, Enniskillen and Belnaleck – with four of those also fielding U15 sides alongside Cavan pair Cootehill Celtic and East Cavan Gaels.
Teresa McNabb, Fermanagh’s games development manager, expanded on other areas where progress is being made at youth level – but also stated that it’s imperative that the GAA appoint a new national hurling development manager after Martin Fogarty’s decision to step aside in December 2021.
"Coaching and games have focused on post primary school hurling coaching to support the great development work going on at U13 and U15 in clubs," McNabb told RTÉ Sport.
"With the support of Ulster GAA regional hurling officer Patrick Delaney, hurling coaching has been delivered in St Michael’s College, Enniskillen and St Aidan’s High School, Derrylin. A post-primary school blitz ran in June welcomed 100 boys to Lissan and featured St Michaels, St Aidan’s, St Kevin’s, Lisnaskea and Dean Maguirc College, Carrickmore.
"In September 2023 we will see St Michael’s participate in Ulster schools' competitions and hopefully St Aidan’s as well.
"The support from national level to development counties can’t be underestimated or forgotten about if serious about growing the game across the country.
"The national hurling development manager Martin Fogarty and his role, [his exit] was a massive loss. The support he offered to development counties was real and on the ground; this role needs reinstated.
"Martin mentored, developed and encouraged the clubs in Fermanagh and encouraged real growth at grassroots."
Fogarty was on RTÉ's Sunday Sport last weekend to discuss hurling in those struggling counties and he points to Fermanagh as an example where considerable development is possible.
"I did a little survey a couple of years ago and there was just one adult club there. But you had seven underage units, so huge interest.
"The biggest problem facing clubs in those counties is the lack of games and a lack of games because of a lack of teams.
"If you draw a line from Galway to Dublin, and take out Antrim and Down, I call it the wilderness of hurling because all of those counties [north of the line] have nine or less adult hurling clubs. Fermanagh one, Leitrim have two, Cavan and Longford with just three.
"It’s impossible to play the game when you don’t have teams but the good news is that in all of those counties there are units starting up. But against the current really because there is very little encouragement or support for them."
The aforementioned Delaney - Fermanagh and Cavan regional hurling development officer for Ulster GAA - is allowing himself to dream big given the recent advances at underage level. He hopes that 10 years on, there could be a competitive senior championship containing a number of clubs.
"At the minute you have seven teams in the U13 championship and you’d like to think in 10 years’ time you could have seven teams in the senior championship. That would be fantastic.
"If we got those teams through fielding senior teams, not just junior teams, it would improve the county set-up big time too.
"The U13 academy was on there in Lissan and there were 34 lads there from all around Fermanagh. Seven clubs may not seem like a lot, but it is a lot in a weaker county.
"If we have seven clubs from all over the county and we are giving them every opportunity to play, then that’s what we are aiming for."
Hurling will never have a free run in Fermanagh given the prominence of football, but Corrigan was full of praise for those who are keeping the game alive.
"Belleek and Lisnaskea both field against our reserve team in an adult championship so that's something. Belleek actually won it and fair play to them.
"There are new underage teams too but it takes an incredible drive, willingness and volunteers within clubs to try and develop hurling from U8 right up to adult.
"You are fighting against football and tradition. So it's very, very difficult to do. You often also wonder if the GAA at central level, or all the pundits who come from the Liam MacCarthy level, really care about the game's development outside the top level. A lot of it is lip service."
The outlier though is the fact that Fermanagh have managed to make progress at county level despite the lack, essentially, of a competitive club scene over the last decade with Lisbellaw having to travel to Armagh and Tyrone and compete in the Táin League to sharpen up.
Since that last county final in '13, Fermanagh have won two Lory Meagher Cups, lost another two finals and won a Division 3B title. Joe Baldwin’s side were relegated from 3A this season, but their three defeats were by a combined four points. Edge two of those and they would have been in a league final.
"The people who are hurlers in Fermanagh are diehard hurlers," Curran continued. "Everyone used to slag us and say if we were living in Kilkenny we would be playing football."
Fermanagh may not be a hurling stronghold, as Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh famously told us, but despite the obvious roadblocks, the county is building up a bit of speed.
