Ladies Gaelic Football

www.ladiesgaelic.ie | SPRING 2021 | 5 FEATURE By Jackie Cahill F RANKIE Honohan remembers "a very honourable person." Kieran Dwyer recalls the attention to detail, and Mary Collins speaks about the "in-depth knowledge" of local club players. Moreover, all three are united in their love and affection for the late, great Eamonn Ryan. Word filtered through in mid-January that Ryan, the mastermind behind Cork's march to ten TG4 All- Ireland Senior crowns between 2004 and 2015, had passed to his eternal reward. Honohan, a trusted sidekick and a key member of successive backroom teams, was with the Cork seniors a year before Ryan joined them, and left a year after him. "I could say a lot of things about Eamonn," Honohan smiles. "Eamonn first of all was very thorough – at all levels. "I did the transport and the meals for years – and he'd be happy that it would be done right." Honohan recalls Ryan as a calm and measured individual, but he agrees with Dwyer's point on attention to detail. There was an occasion when there was a mix- up with a pre-match meal – the hotel's fault, not Honohan's – and Frankie recalls Ryan being "fairly p***ed off" over it. Honohan adds: "He'd be unhappy about things like that – and people not turning up for training and saying nothing about it. "But Eamonn was very decent – he enjoyed things, and I enjoyed them with him. After a match away, especially in the League, we'd have a meal somewhere and a bottle of Bulmers together. I'd pay one week, he'd pay the next." Cork's rise to the top under Ryan was meteoric. In 2005, they were crowned TG4 All-Ireland Senior champions for the first time, an achievement that was achieved following a 2004 National League Division 1 Final reverse to Meath. "We were playing the League Final up in Galway," Honohan recalls. "I had come back that morning from Lanzarote – my son took me up there. "We were seven points up at half-time but lost the game. "I said to him 'we'll win yet.' 'How do you say that?'" Honohan's reasoning was that Cork had never previously found themselves in a position where they led a Division 1 League Final by seven points at half-time. That, in itself, was progress, and the rest would follow. While huge success would follow, some of it was mined from adversity. Take 2014, for example, when Cork trailed Dublin by ten points at Croke Park in the Final with a quarter of the game left. "The sensation of '14 was mighty," Honohan smiles. "We were beaten – he'd admit that himself. But we brought Angela (Walsh) out and put in a couple of subs." Rhona Ní Bhuachalla and Eimear Scally were both introduced – and both scored goals. In the pantheon of all-time sporting comebacks, this game ranks right up there. "We used to ring (each other) every fortnight or three weeks," Honohan remembers of a relationship that endured after the Cork adventure ended. "I was on the phone up until (last) Christmas. I rang him and I knew well that his voice was so weak. I let him be because it would have been a Left Hand Page: Cork manager Eamonn Ryan celebrates after the game. TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Final, Cork v Monaghan, 2013 Bottom Left: Cork manager Eamonn Ryan celebrates with Juliet Murphy.

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