THE HURLING heartbeat of Na Piarsaigh GAA Club - its young club members - were playing out of their skin at the Cúl Camp ahead of this weekend's clash between Limerick and the Cats.
Four players from Na Piarsaigh are currently on the Limerick senior hurling panel: Mike Casey, Peter Casey, William O’Donoghue and Conor Boylan.
The atmosphere around the grounds ahead of the All-Ireland final is “incredible” and success seems to be all the younger club members know.
“A lot of the younger children have grown up seeing Limerick win matches. They barely know what defeat is,” Na Piarsaigh Bord na nÓg chairperson James Ryan said.
“The [Limerick] hurlers are very good to the children. They’re very good to help out. A lot of the children would know the hurlers, talk to them and say hello.
“It’s brilliant to promote hurling in Na Piarsaigh and Limerick,” Mr Ryan added.
The children are getting into the hurling spirit due to the Cúl Camps at the moment and the All-Ireland excitement levels are rising as the end of the Cúl Camp week will be met with the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny.
Na Piarsaigh as a club are no strangers to success having won seven Limerick County Senior Hurling Championships since 2011.
“Things like that don’t continue the whole time… It can dry up unless you put the work in” according to Mr Ryan.
“We organise a lot for the children and bring them to some of the county matches. We organised to bring them to the county semi-finals, county finals, as many Na Piarsaigh matches that we can because it’s good for the children to see their heroes in action,” he added.
According to Mr Ryan, everyone needs a role model in life and somebody you aspire to be.
“We want the kids to go ‘oh I’d love to be Will O’Donoghue when I grow up or I’d love to be Peter Casey scoring points’,” he said.
“When you have a hero you look up to and aspire to be, it makes you strive a little bit more… they want to replicate what they are seeing on the pitches with Limerick,” he added.
Na Piarsaigh will be getting back into the swing of things shortly after the All-Ireland hurling final when they take on Patrickswell in the first round of the Bons Secours County Senior Hurling Championship.
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