{"id":237402,"date":"2026-01-10T06:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/237402\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T06:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:44:08","slug":"up-the-ambers-cork-parish-prays-for-all-ireland-win-with-a-little-help-from-the-priest-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/237402\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Up the Ambers!\u2019 \u2013 Cork parish prays for All-Ireland win with a little help from the priest \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr Pontianus Jafla knew nothing about Kilbrittain before he moved there to minister, but will be shouting \u201cUp the Ambers!\u201d with the rest of the community this weekend. <\/p>\n

The west Cork<\/a> club will take on Easkey from Co Sligo in the All-Ireland Junior Hurling Club Final in Croke Park<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never heard of Kilbrittain until I moved here, but within a week of arriving here Kilbrittain felt like my home \u2013 people were so warm and welcoming and everyone seemed to know me,\u201d smiled Fr Pontianus, as he is known locally.<\/p>\n

A keen soccer player who lines out in local five-a-side games, Fr Pontianus admitted he had also never heard of hurling<\/a> until he came to Ireland five years ago to study. Now he is a big fan of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had seen a hurley before \u2013 my parish priest in Nigeria<\/a>, the late Fr Colin Fives from Dungarvan, had a hurley in his house but I did not know what it was or how it was used. I thought it was like a machete,\u201d laughed the native of Taraba State in the north of the African country. \u201cBut since coming here, I\u2019ve learned all about hurling.\u201d <\/p>\n

He has seen Kilbrittain, in their black and amber Kilkenny-style striped jerseys, beat Glen Rovers in the Cork Premier Junior Hurling Final, and Kilrossanty from Waterford in the Munster Junior Hurling Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a beautiful game. It is faster than football \u2013 when you play football you have moments when you can take a breather, but in hurling, from start to finish it\u2019s all go and end-to-end stuff. And the players are so skilful the way they control and strike the ball,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fr Pontianus, who offered his services as a priest to the Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr Fintan Gavin, after he graduated with a PhD in Sociology from University College Cork a year ago, has seen first-hand the role the GAA plays in communities like Kilbrittain. <\/p>\n

\u201cKilbrittain is a small community but the sense of unity here is very great. You go to some places and you see they are trying to act [with] a sense of unity, but here the unity is so organic and just flows and the GAA is central to that \u2013 a real point of connection for everyone, young and old,\u201d Fr Pontianus said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cork man Aidan Walsh hopes to bring All-Ireland silverware back to KerryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He watched last year\u2019s All-Ireland Senior Final between Cork and Tipperary on TV and was disappointed when the Rebels lost. But he has never been to Croke Park and is looking forward to seeing GAA HQ when he visits Dublin to cheer on the Ambers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am travelling up with the team on the bus,\u201d he said, \u201cbut first I am saying Mass at 7am here for people going to the game. I will be praying for everyone to get to the game safely but also, if it\u2019s God will, for the team to win and hopefully bring the cup back to Kilbrittain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fr Pontianus Jafla knew nothing about Kilbrittain before he moved there to minister, but will be shouting \u201cUp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,764,4183,61,60,43,21913],"class_list":["post-237402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork","tag-croke-park","tag-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237402","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=237402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}