Of all the skills Aidan Walsh thought he’d ever need to be a dependable team-mate, becoming a dab hand at Google Translate wasn’t one of them. But here he is, a Cork man providing the grunt in the engine room for Kerry’s An Ghaeltacht team.
An Ghaeltacht list him as Aodán Breathnach, though there are plenty of other names Kerry fans possibly called the marauding midfielder down through the years during Cork’s abrasive battles with the Kingdom.
Love brought the former Cork dual player to Kerry and now An Ghaeltacht are bringing him back to Croke Park for the first time since 2008. He transferred from his native Kanturk this season to join the west Kerry club where he now lives with his partner, Doireann, and their four-year-old boy, Macdara, in Dunquin.
But if the football comes naturally, the language not so much.
“It’s improving, but not at the pace of the way they speak it,” smiles the 35-year-old.
“It is difficult, the team-talks and messages, WhatsApp groups, it’s all done in Irish. For the WhatsApp groups I have Google Translate on the go the whole time so that’s been very handy for me this year.
“With the team-talks, it’s all in Irish but I’d have a fair idea of what they’d be talking about, football is not rocket science. I’m experienced enough to know what you should and shouldn’t do. I’ve adjusted to it and it’s fine.”
Aidan Walsh playing for Cork in the 2018 All-Ireland football final against Kerry. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
His team-mates call him Walsh or Aidan, and his dressingroom integration has been aided by the fact Doireann’s two brothers – Tomás and Óigí Ó Sé – are both on the An Ghaeltacht panel.
Walsh has always tended to veer away from the road most travelled, to be fair. During an era when dual players were largely discouraged from developing their talents by intercounty managers, Walsh carved out a career in both codes.
He won an All-Ireland senior football championship with Cork in 2010 and that same year he picked up the first of his two football All Stars and was named Young Footballer of the Year. Walsh also won a Munster senior hurling title with the Rebels in 2014.
Naturally, the genesis of his life-changing and GAA-changing move to the Kingdom started in Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Ventry, during a trip there for new year’s nine years ago.
“Doireann was serving me pints for four days at the time,” he smiles. “So that’s when it kicked off. It would be interesting to see how many relationships have started from Páidí Ó Sé’s pub.”
Walsh, determined to fulfil an ambition of making Kanturk a dual senior outfit, continued to play with his home club until finally transferring this year.
“I had fierce ambitions to help Kanturk to get senior in hurling and football. I suppose when we achieved that and with Macdara getting a bit older, it kind of started creeping into my head that maybe I should transfer down to An Ghaeltacht because Macdara wasn’t able to go to a lot of my Kanturk games.
Cork’s Aidan Walsh celebrates scoring a goal against Clare in the 2019 Munster hurling championship. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
“So yeah, Macdara and Doireann were the real reasons that I transferred down so they could go and see me play for however long I’ve left.”
The Cork-Kerry rivalry continues to fester nicely on the sideboard all the same, as Walsh discovered after turning up to training before the Munster club final last month wearing a Cork geansaí. An Ghaeltacht’s opponents in that decider were Cork outfit, Aghabullogue.
“I wore a Cork training top because all I have is Kanturk or Cork gear. I just wore it – the boys were going to do red arse on me because I wore a Cork top before the Munster final.
“When you look at it, football is its own obsession, its own religion in Kerry. It’s all they ever talk about really.”
The randomness of this current adventure brought Walsh back to an old stamping ground last weekend when An Ghaeltacht’s All-Ireland semi-final against Sallins was fixed for Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“Everybody was so welcoming. When I got to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, all the stewards and everything were coming up to me and it was great to see all the faces again. Everyone was all very supportive.
“It’s obviously a bit strange playing for a Kerry club now, but I don’t see it that way, I play for An Ghaeltacht and I’m very lucky to be playing for them, it’s a great club.”
Aidan Walsh in the 2010 All-Ireland football final against Down. Photograph: Donall Farmer/Inpho
But if his football career continues to blossom, Walsh’s move to west Kerry has placed him in something of a hurling wilderness.
“No, there aren’t any hurling walls,” he says. “When I got to the beach, I’d puck a ball every so often. The closest club is over an hour away, Tralee Parnells.”
He has also stepped back from making hurls because, well, the supply and demand ratio doesn’t really tally in west Kerry.
“I do it as a pastime now really for my brother and my cousins and stuff when they need hurleys. I still have the workshop and stuff set up at home in Kanturk. So yeah, it’s nice to be able to go back and make a few every so often.”
His last appearance at Croke Park was in 2018 when Kanturk won the All-Ireland club intermediate hurling final. Walsh now has the unique opportunity to marry that achievement with an All-Ireland club intermediate football title.
“I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as possible because more than likely it’ll never come around again for me at my age. I’d say the odds are very slim.”
Then again, few would have bet on Cork’s Aidan Walsh one day running out for an All-Ireland final hoping to bring silverware back to Kerry as Aodán Breathnach.
The AIB All-Ireland intermediate football final between Glenullin (Derry) and An Ghaeltacht (Kerry) will take place on Sunday at Croke Park, 3.30pm. The AIB All-Ireland junior football final between Ballymacelligott (Kerry) and Clogher Éire Óg (Tyrone) will take place on Sunday at Croke Park, 1.30pm