{"id":235735,"date":"2026-01-09T08:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235735\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:25:11","slug":"cork-man-aidan-walsh-hopes-to-bring-all-ireland-silverware-back-to-kerry-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235735\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork man Aidan Walsh hopes to bring All-Ireland silverware back to Kerry \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the skills Aidan Walsh<\/a> thought he\u2019d ever need to be a dependable team-mate, becoming a dab hand at Google Translate wasn\u2019t one of them. But here he is, a Cork<\/a> man providing the grunt in the engine room for Kerry\u2019s<\/a> An Ghaeltacht team.<\/p>\n

An Ghaeltacht list him as Aod\u00e1n Breath\u00adnach, though there are plenty of other names Kerry fans possibly called the marauding midfielder down through the years during Cork\u2019s abrasive battles with the Kingdom. <\/p>\n

Love brought the former Cork dual player<\/a> to Kerry<\/a> and now An Ghaeltacht are bringing him back to Croke Park<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

But if the football comes naturally, the language not so much. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s improving, but not at the pace of the way they speak it,\u201d smiles the 35-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is difficult, the team-talks and messages, WhatsApp groups, it\u2019s all done in Irish. For the WhatsApp groups I have Google Translate on the go the whole time so that\u2019s been very handy for me this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the team-talks, it\u2019s all in Irish but I\u2019d have a fair idea of what they\u2019d be talking about, football is not rocket science. I\u2019m experienced enough to know what you should and shouldn\u2019t do. I\u2019ve adjusted to it and it\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AidanAidan Walsh playing for Cork in the 2018 All-Ireland football final against Kerry. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

His team-mates call him Walsh or Aidan, and his dressingroom integration has been aided by the fact Doireann\u2019s two brothers \u2013 Tom\u00e1s and \u00d3ig\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9 \u2013 are both on the An Ghaeltacht panel.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Football, Gaeilge, scenery and music: There\u2019s a wildness to west Kerry we\u2019re very proud ofOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Naturally, the genesis of his life-changing and GAA-changing move to the Kingdom started in P\u00e1id\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9\u2019s pub in Ventry, during a trip there for new year\u2019s nine years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoireann was serving me pints for four days at the time,\u201d he smiles. \u201cSo that\u2019s when it kicked off. It would be interesting to see how many relationships have started from P\u00e1id\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9\u2019s pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh, determined to fulfil an ambition of making Kanturk a dual senior outfit, continued to play with his home club<\/a> until finally transferring this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t able to go to a lot of my Kanturk games.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Aidan Walsh celebrates scoring a goal against Clare in the 2019 Munster hurling championship. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, Macdara and Doireann were the real reasons that I transferred down so they could go and see me play for however long I\u2019ve left.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 geansa\u00ed. An Ghaeltacht\u2019s opponents in that decider were Cork outfit, Aghabullogue.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Kerry paradox: Why the aristocrats of intercounty football never dominate club sceneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI wore a Cork training top because all I have is Kanturk or Cork gear. I just wore it \u2013 the boys were going to do red arse on me because I wore a Cork top before the Munster final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at it, football is its own obsession, its own religion in Kerry. It\u2019s all they ever talk about really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The randomness of this current adventure brought Walsh back to an old stamping ground last weekend when An Ghaeltacht\u2019s All-Ireland semi-final against Sallins was fixed for P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was so welcoming. When I got to P\u00e1irc U\u00ed 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a bit strange playing for a Kerry club now, but I don\u2019t see it that way, I play for An Ghaeltacht and I\u2019m very lucky to be playing for them, it\u2019s a great club.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AidanAidan Walsh in the 2010 All-Ireland football final against Down. Photograph: Donall Farmer\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But if his football career continues to blossom, Walsh\u2019s move to west Kerry has placed him in something of a hurling wilderness. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, there aren\u2019t any hurling walls,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I got to the beach, I\u2019d puck a ball every so often. The closest club is over an hour away, Tralee Parnells.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also stepped back from making hurls because, well, the supply and demand ratio doesn\u2019t really tally in west Kerry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s nice to be able to go back and make a few every so often.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ciar\u00e1n Murphy: Geography should decide who you follow in GAA but it\u2019s never as simple as thatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy it as much as possible because more than likely it\u2019ll never come around again for me at my age. I\u2019d say the odds are very slim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, few would have bet on Cork\u2019s Aidan Walsh one day running out for an All-Ireland final hoping to bring silverware back to Kerry as Aod\u00e1n Breath\u00adnach.<\/p>\n

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 \u00c9ire \u00d3g (Tyrone) will take place on Sunday at Croke Park, 1.30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the skills Aidan Walsh thought he\u2019d ever need to be a dependable team-mate, becoming a dab…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6937,1964,4183,49721,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-235735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-gaa","tag-gaa-club-football-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}