On the trail of the Lilywhites

It takes a particular diligence to be a lifelong follower of Kildare hurling. Joe Fox, who hurled with the Lilywhites back in the day, is JOE’s latest Hardcore Fan.

By Shane Breslin

The sell-out crowds pack Croke Park on the first Sunday in September to eulogise over King Henry or Tommy Walsh or Eoin Kelly. But there’s a flipside to every coin, and it’s not unfair to say that Kildare hurling occupies the alternative to frenzied feverish Croker Sundays.

Not that the Lilywhites haven’t hurled in Croke Park. In 2007, they reached the final of the Christy Ring Cup, where they failed to put their best foot forward and Westmeath ran out comfortable winners.

Joe Fox was there that day, as he has been on so many occasions in the past. A mere handful of followers are there to applaud Kildare’s entrance onto the fields of Mullingar or Omagh or Casement Park, but more often than not Fox – who describes himself as “the local mouthpiece” – is among them, accompanied by his great friend, travelling companion and fellow Kildare hardcore nut James O’Donnell.

“I have a wife here, Chris,” says Joe, “and the way she describes it, when every other gate is shut I come back to hers!”

Promoted to Division 2 of the National Hurling League last year, Kildare squared up to plenty illustrious sides.

“It was a fairly competitive aul’ league, alright,” says Joe. “We were well there against Clare for a while. We played Wexford and Antrim and Laois as well. There was only two points in it against Laois when we had a man sent off – that changed the whole game. That match was my first experience of hurling under lights and it was good now. I was amazed that at my age I could see the blasted sliotar as it travelled!”

Late drama

The League campaign came to a head in the dying moments of the final game, with Kildare coming out on the wrong side of late drama as Westmeath overcame Down in Ballycran.

“The last puck of the ball in the entire League put us down,” he says. “I think it was the fourth minute of injury time of Westmeath’s match. They were playing above in Down and we were hoping that Down would win, because they had beaten Kildare and Kildare had beaten Westmeath, so a Down win meant we would stay up.

“After about quarter of an hour Down were 10 points behind, so we said ‘that’s it, we’re gone.’ But if Down didn’t come back and go ahead by two points going into injury time. We had already finished playing Clare that day and we were waiting the result. We knew Down had been a point or two up. Lads had the radios on, the players were out on the field waiting for news from Down, and there was nothing coming through. Everyone was wondering, any word, any word? And then the word came through that Westmeath were after getting a blasted goal. With the last puck of the ball. The last puck of the ball of that entire League put us down, isn’t it amazing? The lads were devastated.”

Forward momentum

It’s not all bad, though. Andy Comerford, an All-Ireland winning captain with Kilkenny as recently as 2002, has been at the helm for three years and Joe has seen definite progress.

“It would be nice if Andy could stay on because the improvement is there,” he says. “The skill level and commitment is very good, on a par with any senior football team. Twenty years ago we struggled to get a blasted team out!”

Such talk brings us to the past. As the writer LP Hartley declared, “the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”

For Joe Fox and Kildare hurling, there were times when parts of Ireland really seemed like a foreign country.

Lilywhites on their travels

“I played a few years, not too long though,” he laughs. “I remember going up to the north in probably the height of the Troubles, to play hurling in places like Omagh and Keady. I found that strange. One day we went through Newry on the way to a game and there was a riot forming in the square. There were jeeploads of police coming in to clear the way for traffic and I remember thinking ‘Bejaysus we better get this game played and get back out of here!

“It was a bit daunting now, to tell you the truth. I remember going to Keadyand the one thing that sticks in my mind was the amount of grids on windows. The things people had to live with. I couldn’t believe it.

“The British Army stopped us twice or three times and they’d come down along the bus to see who was who but I always found them courteous when they got on. I heard one of them stepping off the bus one day saying ‘Not a bad aul’ day for hurling, lads!’ That sort of thing – I don’t know if they even knew what hurling was!”

Before he rushes off to tend to the counter at his plant hire business in Newbridge Industrial Estate, Joe Fox is anxious to pay tribute to “two great men” in Kildare hurling.

“Gearóid Ó Tiarnán and Davy Dennis were the two men who were at the top of Kildare hurling for years and fair play to them, they kept it going when everyone else was throwing in the towel.”