Red and white of Limerick village is a perfect match for Cork woman Tréasa

OOLA GAA’s Derek and Tréasa Ryan have two red and white flags outside their home but they are county, not club, colours!

Normally the rivalry in Oola is between Limerick and Tipperary but in the Ryan household it is between a Treaty man and a Rebel woman.

Derek Ryan, former Limerick footballer, U-21 county hurler and current Oola GAA chairperson, is married to Tréasa Cusack, from Cloyne, the home of Christy Ring. Her brother is another Cork hurler who will go down in the history books - Dónal Óg Cusack.

Tréasa has brought her love of GAA to Oola where she is the health club officer and co-ordinator of the very successful Gaelic4Mothers&Others. 

Despite being domiciled in east Limerick for 10 years there is no doubt who she will be shouting for on Sunday.

“Obviously Cork! I am so massively involved here I would be shouting for Limerick if they weren’t playing Cork. Limerick are amazing - you would be in total awe of them and everything about them. But when it comes to playing against Cork I have to shout for Cork - if I didn’t I couldn’t go home again!” laughed Tréasa.

She will be a lone voice however, as their girls – Isabelle, aged 7, and Grace, 5 – will be cheering on the boys in green.

“I only said to them a while ago, ‘Who would ye prefer?’ and they both said Limerick. They are seeing the success and joy they are bringing from living up here,” smiled Tréasa, who will be proudly sporting red and white on Sunday, or as her mum Bonnie says the “blood and bandage”. 

Her brother Dónal Og has also been effusive in his praise of Limerick on countless occasions as a pundit on RTÉ.

“I was chatting to him before the Waterford match and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Limerick would win. He was saying you will be going to the final. His heart will be for Cork but he won’t be swayed from what he believes in,” said Tréasa.

Derek said he won’t be having the craic on WhatsApp with Dónal Og ahead of the final.

“He has played in five All-Irelands and has three Celtic Crosses so he knows what he is talking about. He says it straight from the heart. I might be texting him asking to see if he can get a few tickets for me. There will be no slagging. We’ll wait ‘til Monday for that,” laughed Derek, who is quietly confident.

“There is no doubt this Limerick team is a good team and if they perform on the day they’ll be hard beat. There was plenty of years we were beaten before going to Thurles and Páirc Uí Chaoimh and these places but thankfully at the moment we are riding high with this crop of players. I thought in 2008 when Tipperary gave us a bad beating I would never see Limerick winning an All-Ireland final in my lifetime,” said Derek.

There’s a Rebel at the heart of Patrickswell’s Kirby clan

Tréasa isn’t so sure and extra-time or even penalties wouldn’t surprise her. But what they can agree on is the pride that Oola and Doon GAA clubs have in Darragh O’Donovan, Richie English, Pat Ryan ‘Simon’ and Barry Murphy.

And through their involvement on the ground with Oola GAA Club, Derek and Tréasa know firsthand how important the GAA has been at grassroots level during Covid. Tréasa says they have seen an increase in children in Oola playing GAA and more financial support for the club’s split the pot and the Club Limerick Draw.

“So much fell by the wayside unfortunately due to Covid – swimming, Irish dancing, gymnastics, basketball etc – so we were very lucky when the children could go back to GAA pitches. It gave an outlet to children. For years the GAA was seen as ‘take, take, take’ but that attitude is changing. I am seeing this increased sense of community and a new-found appreciation of the GAA under Covid,” said Tréasa. Take off the “blood and bandage”, GAA has been a salve to the wounds of Covid for so many.