Andy and Martin Comerford: The Kilburn Cats with 10 All-Irelands

Andy Comerford has four All-Ireland medals. Hurling folk struggle with that figure.

He tells them the scorecard and they speed search the highlights of his career, then rattle off the All-Irelands he won in 2000, 2002 and 2003.

“The missing one they never get,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Sure didn’t I win an All-Ireland B title with London in 1995?’

“I’ll tell you another thing,” he says excitedly. “There wouldn’t be many lads who won an All-Ireland Senior B in hurling and then went on to win an All-Ireland at the ‘A’ grade.

“That would be one for the quizmasters up and down the country; that would have them scratching their heads.”

Excelling in Exile

It’s Croke Park in 1995. Kilkenny have fallen to Offaly in the Leinster final. 

The Cats are on the wrong end of the kind of beating that has become their signature this century but despite this, one Kilkenny man leaves his mark on the afternoon. 

In the preceding fixture, London defeated New York in the Senior B competition and Andy Comerford played a key role.

“Leaving the pitch I was shaking hands with the Kilkenny players as they were running out. They were saying to me, ‘You should be here, with us.’”

Hurling is like a drug. You can get sick of it, but it’s like a trigger in your blood when you get a hurl in your hand.

Comerford hurled with the U21s before leaving for London. But after defeat to Galway in the 1993 final, he headed for Britain’s capital.

“I was born in London. We all were: me, Martin, Jimmy, my sister," he says. “We’d go back in the summer and I’d work on the buildings.

“I was 20, I didn’t want to see a hurl in London. I’d planned to do some work with my uncle’s firm, socialise a bit, enjoy the city.

“But hurling is like a drug. You can get sick of it, but it’s like a trigger in your blood when you get a hurl in your hand.”

Old habits

The weeks passed and old habits reeled him in. He began training with Robert Emmetts. 

But a meeting with Tipperary man Bill Reilly - part of London’s hurling furniture - saw him switch to Brothers Pearse near Kilburn.

“He said to me, ‘come down with the Pearses.’ I said I don’t give a damn who I played with so I did, but who did we meet in my first match? The Emmetts.

“It didn’t go down well but I stuck with the Pearses. They were good lads. I didn’t play with anyone else.”

Former Limerick minor and one-time London captain, Gerry Rea, was in charge of the Pearses then and still only 20, Comerford started to take the training sessions.

He was joined by his brothers Martin and Jimmy. 

Whatever role London played in his hurling development, Andy says that Martin blossomed within the tight space of the city's confines.

“He was a late developer; didn’t do much hurling at home but he showed serious potential when he started playing with the Pearses,” he says.

“We couldn’t leave him off the senior team even though he was only 16.

“To be 16 playing senior hurling in London then, the physicality, the pace of the game, the refs just letting teams get on with it. It was a big thing. But Martin was just too clever and fast.”

Redemption

Managed by Comerford and Rea, the Pearses got to the county final that summer only to lose by two points to St Gabriels.

By accident, hurling had become part of life again. He was already involved with the county set-up and redemption arrived in London green.

“There was a fella from Piltown over the team in 1994, Sean Reid,” he said. “He got me out. I wasn’t keen. I wanted to go out and enjoy myself.

“They called to bring me down training and I said I’d no gear. They said they’d sort it. I said I’d no boots! They said, ‘that too'. And I’d no hurl either.

“When we arrived in Ruislip, the guy opened the boot and there was a hurl in the back. I pulled it out and said: ‘Sure this will do.’

“‘You can’t have that,’” he said.

“Why not?”

“'Sure that’s Liam Aldridge’s hurl. You can’t use that.'”

“I was thinking to myself that this Aldridge fella must be the DJ Carey of London hurling.”

If the start stuttered, the relationship solidified then evolved.

Nearly 20 years on Comerford can recall London’s run to an All-Ireland title in vivid detail. He frames that time like an offshore finishing school for the massive success soon to follow.

“There was a fella from Down, Jim Mullins. He was training the team then and had an inter-county background. He used to send us on these endurance runs. He had us supremely fit; as fit as any inter-county team at home that time. 

“There was great camaraderie, players from Tipp, Wexford and Galway and a Wexford man, Tommy Harrell, was the manager. 

“We were training in Dublin ahead of the All-Ireland final and Ollie Baker came along and joined the session. That’s what it was like.”

When the Exiles beat Wicklow in the final they automatically progressed to the quarter-finals of the senior All-Ireland, where they met Down.

“You have to remember it’s only a few years since Antrim played Tipperary in an All-Ireland final,” he says. “Down would have been on a par with that Antrim team.”

London lost by two points and soon the Comerfords filtered back to Kilkenny with the foundations firmed up on their coming careers. Three pending All-Irelands for Andy and six for Martin.

Development

It’s Saturday afternoon and Comerford is relaxing at his home in Kilkenny and reviewing this chapter in his life that seldom gets much airplay.

“How important was it in my development?” He contemplates the question.

“Well, I’ll put it to you like this. Hurling over there in the ‘90s, it toughened you up, made you steelier. 

The referee blew the whistle three times, at the beginning, for half-time and to finish the games,” he laughs.

“And the standard was as good as anything in Kilkenny at that time. The summers were better, the pitches were faster and the pace higher. 

“If I’d been playing in a poor league I wouldn’t have been able to get into the Kilkenny team when I came back.

“We used to get big crowds to the games, pipe bands before the final and all that. If there’s ever been a reunion down the years, we’ve always made it our business to get over, me, Martin, Jimmy, try and bring the Liam McCarthy with us if Kilkenny won it.

“It was a great part of our lives and to be able to play at that standard. I mean if we were playing substandard hurling then we wouldn’t have made it back into the Kilkenny team when we came home.

“I never did this thing of flying back to play for your club because I was living in England and I thought I’d be taking a fellas place who was at home.

“It was a great chapter, and yeah, the fourth All-Ireland, it's there beside the others. 

“That always gets them.”

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