County final tension evident in Shenzhen

IF Liscannor man John McCarthy decided to travel from Shenzhen in South-East China to Ennis, for Sunday’s county final, he would have to trek 6,300 miles and he calculates that it would take him 24 hours to complete the journey. IF Liscannor man John McCarthy decided to travel from Shenzhen in South-East China to Ennis, for Sunday’s county final, he would have to trek 6,300 miles and he calculates that it would take him 24 hours to complete the journey.
Although he sponsors his native club and as recently as two weekends ago played with Suzhou Éire Óg in the All Asia Games in Hong Kong, McCarthy won’t make it to Cusack Park this weekend.
“Sadly, I won’t make it back for the final. I will be travelling home on October 30 for my son Sean’s graduation in Galway, so the timing is too close. With time difference and jetlag, it’s not something that you would do on a regular basis. It takes about a week to recover after either leg of the journey,” he told The Clare Champion.
An Ennis-based mechanical engineer, with extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, John is currently working in Shenzhen, which is less than one hour from Hong Kong by road.
“Shenzhen is a medium-sized city with a population of approximately nine million mandarin speaking people. It has a warm, tropical climate. Temperatures reach the high 30s in summer and the humidity is about 90%, which can be very uncomfortable and difficult to work in. Air conditioning is a must. We are currently seven hours ahead of Ireland, so it would be similar in distance to Los Angeles or San Francisco going west,” John explained.
He is working as a design and commissioning manager on a new construction project, which is a vaccines plant. It is a joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline and Neptune Biologics. When in production, the plant will produce 200,000 vaccines per day for the Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau markets. It will produce the flu vaccine and also a vaccine to counteract bird flu.
John must surely be the furthest removed GAA club sponsor on the planet. He took on the role after he was approached by Kieran Considine.
“Kieran approached me earlier in the year and I agreed to back them. Like you say, it is probably the furthest removed sponsorship in the GAA but the distance doesn’t matter and I was proud to be in a position to be able to support my home club,” he said.
John has played Gaelic football since childhood and, in fact, played for the Clare minors 31 years ago.
“I have been playing football since I was 12, primarily with Ennistymon (St Michael’s) through my underage and early senior years and then Liscannor after the club was formed. I also played college football with GMIT in the late ’70s and early ’80s and for Round Towers in London in the late ’80s. I played on the Clare minor team in the 1979 campaign and in the Munster semi-final against Kerry, in what became known as the ‘Miltown Massacre’ when the Clare senior team got heavily beaten by that great Kerry team,” he recalled.
The weekend before last, he lined out as a back with Suzhou Éire Óg in the All Asian Games. Suzhou is a small city west of Shanghai with a population of about 6.5 million people.
“When I came to China last year, I worked in Suzhou and joined the GAA club there and have remained with them since, even though it is a three-hour flight from Shenzhen, so midweek training is not an option. We competed in the Bowl competition in Hong Kong and reached the final against Beijing. The Suzhou men’s team has about five Irish players.
“The balance is made up of Australians, English, Americans, Chinese and one Spanish player. Suzhou also have a ladies GAA team but that’s mainly made up of Asians, Americans and Aussies,” John added.
Approximately 70 teams competed in the tournament from all over Asia and the Middle East. Among the other Clare players to participate were Damian and Mike Barry from Ennis and Gearóid Considine from Cratloe.
As for Sunday’s county final, John is hopeful that his native club can get over the line and that by 12 midnight on Sunday night, Shenzhen time, he’ll be the most ecstatic Liscannor man in all of China.
“Liscannor have been unlucky in the last two finals, so they are due the rub of the green,” he concluded optimistically.