Clare hurling will once again rise to the top of the pile in years to come, but the Banner might never again see a hurler with the swashbuckling style of Jamesie O'Connor. The Doora-Barefield man talks to Ciaran de Paor about All-Irelands won and lost during a ten year intercounty career. Anybody who is fond of a flutter and the craic usually attends the Galway races every year. I went to this famous race meeting at Ballybrit a few years ago where my attention was drawn to a uniquely named horse on the programme. No, it wasn't Moscow Flyer or Kicking King but this particular horse went by the name of 'Jamesie O'Connor'. Needless to say, I placed a small wager on the horse because of the name alone but to my dismay my money vanished. The horse was never in contention but the same cannot be said of it's namesake from Clare who is one of the most famous names in hurling. Jamesie O'Connor, who announced his retirement last year, is without doubt one of Ireland's most celebrated players. He exits the inter-county scene with an incredible array of honours which include two All-Irelands, three All-Stars, three Munster titles and an All-Ireland club honour. The Banner, containing many of O'Connor's old team mates, are currently enjoying a fruitful league campaign notching some impressive scalps in recent weeks. The magic of the Munster championship action is only weeks away but Jamesie has enough on his plate at the moment. He's a teacher and coach in the famed hurling nursery in St Flannan's, Ennis "No, I don't miss it at the moment, I'm involved with the senior team at the school and we play St Kieran's Kilkenny in the All-Ireland colleges final so literally since last September I'm training the school team 3 nights a week," O'Connor commented. "It's been a long and tough campaign so far and I've also been involved with the Clare minor team as a selector recently. "Waterford beat us in the back-door system last week so I feel like I've done a year's hurling already. "Even looking at things now, I've no regrets at all, I watched Clare's victory over Cork recently and I've no great desire to be back out there. "I know when I see the championship this year my feelings might change looking on, but whether they do or not we'll see." O'Connor will forever hold a special place in the annals of Clare Hurling as he contributed a colossal amount to their hurling revival in the 90's. Clare were regarded as a poor relation in hurling terms but O'Connor and his team mates changed all that. Clare became one of the most feared teams in Ireland, participating in some titanic matches down through the years. Jamesie's speed and skill shone like a beacon and he could be relied on to produce the magical scores. The attacker made his inter-county debut in the winter of 1992 culminating in a Championship debut in 1993. He burst onto the scene in '93 scoring four points off Tipperary's Raymie Ryan where his gazelle like runs and awesome work rate was a joy to behold: "We were beaten in two Munster finals in 1993 and 1994, badly beaten in fact," recalls Jamesie. "1993 was my first championship season with Clare. We managed to beat Tipperary in '94 and we thought we had a great chance to win Munster after that. "Limerick hammered us in the Munster final that year so in 1995 a certain amount of pressure accompanied that season. "There was no way we could contemplate losing three Munster finals in a row. "Ger (Loughnane) and Mike (McNamara) had taken over the team at that stage and we were in fantastic shape. "We trained incredibly hard and felt we had the work done to make the breakthrough. "1995 was obviously very special, the highlight was winning the Munster championship against Limerick that year, and it was all we ever talked about. "We hadn't won a Munster championship in something like 63 year's and that was the holy grail for us." 1995 was the summer of Dublin's Jason 'Jayo' Sherlock and Clare's own prodigal son Jamesie. Clare swept to a famous All-Ireland victory over Offaly after defeating Galway in the semi-final. The celebrations that accompanied Clare's win that year will never be forgotten in the Banner County. "The sense of euphoria and relief at winning Munster in 1995 was very special, the whole campaign took on a life of its own then and there was a huge amount of hype here too. "It was fantastic to win the All-Ireland, don't get me wrong, but the Munster final and the raw emotion it meant to Clare people made it that bit more special." Clare had announced themselves onto the national stage as a force to be feared but were ambushed by Limerick in 1996. "There were no guarantees that we would have won the All-Ireland in 1996 if we had beaten Limerick that day and we wouldn't have won it in '97 if we had won it in '96," says O'Connor when questioned about the Munster first round defeat to the Treaty County in '96. "Limerick were a good side and they were always going to be up for it big time against us. Ciarán Carey's winning score was a great score by a great player. It was a fitting way to win the game even if we were unfortunate to be on the wrong side of it." 1997 was another eventful year for O'Connor and his team-mates as they defeated Tipperary in both the Munster and All-Ireland finals with Jamesie playing a starring role. He scored the winning point in the All-Ireland final and he also picked up the Player of the Year award. "In 1997 we sat down early in the year, maybe not long after the '96 final and things were really laid on the line. "We had to win another All-Ireland because '95 was therefore a flash in the pan otherwise." They duly did that with O'Connor's superb winning score under the Hogan Stand ensuring that Liam McCarthy visited the Banner for the second time in three years. "It didn't really matter who got the winner really," says Jamesie. "The sense of deep satisfaction again to achieve the goal we had set out for the year was brilliant." Clare were now officially the kingpins of the 90's. They defeated Waterford in a tough and bruising Munster final re-play in '98 but lost out to Offaly in the All-Ireland semi-final re-play after referee Jimmy Cooney had called a halt to the first game with three minutes left to play. By the turn of the millennium O'Connor had played in some of the most intense and passionate games in that era. "It was a superb decade for hurling. Guinness came on board in '95 with their promotion of the game. "If you were a marketing man in Guinness you wouldn't have been able to write a better script with newcomers like Clare in '95 and Wexford in '96 winning the All-Ireland. "Hurling reached a whole new audience at the time with the huge media and public interest. "There were so many great games and great players. Guys like Brian Whelehan, DJ, Brian Corcoran, Brian Lohan, Seanie McMahon, Ciarán Carey and Liam Dunne. It was a decade filled with great personalities and great players," said the St. Joseph's Doora-Barefield man. Ger Loughnane was certainly one of those 'personalities' and O'Connor hailed his contribution to Clare Hurling. "He was a fantastic coach, Mike Mac took credit for our fitness levels but Loughnane was a great motivator and fantastic hurling coach, he really improved the speed with which we played the game. "He has great charisma and can hold an audience in the palm of his hand." The fearsome grip that Clare had on hurling was toppled in 1999 when they lost the Munster Final to Cork. Jamesie suffered a broken hand that year which forced him to miss the Munster final. The sands of time were catching up on the team but they continued to battle and compete vigorously with new teams each year. In 2002 Clare reached another All-Ireland final but were defeated by Kilkenny. "Tipp beat us by a point in 2001 in Cork, which was a year that we possibly could have done serious things in; we had trained very hard that year too. "In 2002 we got to another All-Ireland final but Kilkenny were far better than us on the day. "Last year we had the chances against them too and maybe if it had gone to extra time we might have come out on top but Kilkenny really upped things on the second day." Fittingly, O'Connor left the scene last year having played his heart out for the final time against the new generation of hurler that is Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh. He left the hurling landscape like he had entered it, with ceaseless energy and commitment to the cause. His place amongst the hurling greats is assured as his dynamism; drive and talent were adored by supporters. He was successful too with his club, winning an All-Ireland club title in 1999, but it is his exploits with a marvellous Clare team will be remembered eternally in hurling folklore. Tweet

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