Having represented his native Clare at all levels, Brian Forde is a key member of the London senior hurling team. Hogan Stand caught up with the Kilburn Gaels clubman in the wake of the Exiles' luckless one-point defeat to Armagh in the 2010 Nicky Rackard Cup final at Croke Park.

Over seven years after leaving the Banner County, Brian Forde is as deeply ensconced in the GAA as ever. Perhaps even more so! At the end of the day, it takes an inordinate degree of commitment and dedication (not to mention thick skin) to hurl at club and county levels in the English capital. An integral part of the Exiles' intercounty set-up, Brian has played in three Nicky Rackard Cup finals at Croke Park, including this year's decider which ended in a heartbreaking 3-15 to 3-14 defeat to Armagh on July 3rd.

Back home, Brian Forde first burst onto the scene with a series of swashbuckling displays for a Waterford IT side that stormed to Fitzgibbon Cup glory in 1999 and 2000. Others to feature on that combination included Henry Shefflin, Michael Kavanagh, Eamon Corcoran, Paul Curran, Damien Joyce, Dave Bennett, Neil Ronan, Derek Lyng and Willie Maher, so clearly the Ogonnelloe clubman had a brilliant early induction into competitive hurling at the highest level.

A decade later, he's still going strong. "I'm coming towards the end of my career at this stage, but I'm still tipping away," he notes. Brian left Clare in 2003. He had featured on the Clare senior hurling panel under Cyril Lyons up until 2001, first breaking onto the county scene in 1996. He was part of the training panel in '97, but didn't feature on the championship panel as the Banner men captured the Liam McCarthy Cup. In fairness, it was a big ask to try to break into a half-back line boasting Liam Doyle, Seanie McMahon and Anthony Daly!

Brian's brother David came on as a sub for PJ O'Connell in the All-Ireland final against Tipperary. Another brother, Colm, is centre half back with London while first cousin Niall Forde - a former Gort clubman who won an All-Ireland U21 medal with Galway - lines out at midfield for the Exiles.

Brian himself represented the Banner County at U21 level for three years and was a county minor for two seasons. Silverware was not forthcoming, however, as he quips: "We reached one Munster U21 final against Tipp and Clare won the All-Ireland minor title the year after I finished!"

Reflecting on his days hurling back home in Clare, Brian recalls: "I continued to play with Ogonnelloe up until 2003. We won the intermediate championship in '96 and we went up senior. At senior level, we were up against some of the best Clare sides ever and we pushed them all the way. I was very fortunate in that I got to play club hurling against some of the best players ever to play in the county. The Joe's were All-Ireland club champions, but we stood toe-to-toe with them. It was an amazing era for Ogonnelloe and a brilliant achievement considering that it's a small rural club with just a few families keeping the show on the road."

Things have become even more challenging since Brian put down roots in England and threw his lot in with the London hurling team. "For many of the lads here it's not easy in relation to travelling across the city for 90 minutes or two hours to train in Ruislip or Greenford. It's extremely time-consuming and it takes a huge commitment. But you make do with it and you just keep it going.

"I've been with London since '03, taking last year off due to work commitments, and I wouldn't complain about a thing. We play because we love the game and all the lads give it a lash under very difficult circumstances."

Bearing in mind the phenomenal input of the squad, how disappointing was it to be pipped in the '10 Nicky Rackard Cup final? "Sure you'd be gutted. A lot of energy was invested into that campaign. We had travelled to play away from home seven weekends in a row and maybe we had run out of steam a bit. But we gave it our best shot. To be honest, as well as being disappointed, there was also a sense of relief that the season was over. The lads had worked really hard and it was taking its toll."

How did the London hurlers travel in 2010? There were a lot of air miles to be clocked up - did they use Ryanair or Aer Lingus? "This year we travelled with Air France on the Friday evenings and stayed in Bewley's Hotel near Dublin Airport. The County Board set things up spot-on. But the championship is run off very quickly on successive weekends and there's very little time to shake off injuries or recover between games."

The real positive for London is that - of the three Nicky Rackard Cup finals they've contested - they won the competition outright in 2005, beating Louth in the final. Brian was corner back in the All-Ireland final. "It was brilliant," he states. "Everybody was very supportive of us and people congratulated us and knew all about it. I think they were impressed by the fact that we'd played in an All-Ireland final at Croke Park and also by the standard of the hurling that day."

Regarding his future with the London hurlers, Brian accepts that working careers will always come first for those based in the UK capital… "It's all down to work. This is a working town and I suppose it all depends on whereabouts in London I happen to be working at any given time. I'm working with J Reddington Limited and we always have a lot of work on, so it depends on where I'll be working and the scale of the job, but hopefully I'll be able to continue with London next year…"

J Reddington Limited (JRL) is a recognised industry leading contractor whose core business is groundwork and concrete frame construction. The business was founded in 1996 by John Reddington and Peter Moran and had a turnover of £140m in 2008. Since its inception, the business has continually focused on building and maintaining customer relationships through effective delivery, minimising costs and exceeding programme expectations.

Brian is employed as a project manager, currently working on a new tower block in Canary Wharf as well as nine blocks in the athletes' village at Olympic Park. "John Reddington is a Mayo man and, to his credit, he employs a lot of Irish lads from week to week and he also looks after a lot of young graduates coming over to London and bears with them while they're getting their training and learning the ropes."

As for Clare, the London hurler is quietly optimistic: "They are in transition but they are mostly young lads and they are moving in the right direction. If we can keep them all together, they will definitely improve. There's a good bunch there at the moment and the All-Ireland U21 win has set a milestone and proves that these lads have the will to win."

Brian is hoping his adopted club, Kilburn Gaels, can make a breakthrough in the London SHC: "Emmets and Gabriel's have been the two dominant forces in the senior championship but I believe we have a good gang of lads in this year, so fingers crossed. Teams change here from year to year with a lot of new players coming in each season. We've picked up some good new players this year and we have a nice little team. The management team of Tom Bergin, Brendan O'Connor and Noel Harrison are doing a fantastic job so hopefully we can deliver."

Citing his mother and father Anne and Lar as enormous influences on his career. Brian's family is completed by the aforementioned David and Colm as well as sister Celine and brother Kieran. Tweet

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