St. Finbarr's GAA

St. Finbarr's National Hurling and Football Club is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in the Togher area of Cork city, County Cork, Ireland.

St. Finbarrs, with the distinctive royal blue and gold jersey, and are the only club in Ireland to win All-Ireland club championships in both hurling and football. The club has won Cork County Senior Championships in every decade bar the first decade of this century. This proud record was almost upheld in 2009 when the club reached the final in the Cork County Senior Football Championship only to lose out by a point to Clonakilty.

1980 to 1982 represented a notable period in club history, when it won three Cork County Hurling Championships in a row. This feat has not been repeated since.

Hurling

Honours

Finbarr of Cork

Saint Finbarr or Finnbarr, in Irish Fionnbharra, very often abbreviated to Barra, (c. 550–25 September 623) was Bishop of Cork and abbot of a monastery in what is now the city of Cork, Ireland. He is patron saint of that city and of the Diocese of Cork. His feast day is September 25.

Life

Born in Templemartin, near Bandon, and originally named Lóchán (modern form, Loan), he was the son of Amergin of Maigh Seóla. He studied in Ossory, corresponding approximately to the present County Kilkenny. He was renamed "Fionnbharra" (Fairhead in Irish), reportedly when, on being tonsured, the presiding cleric remarked: "Is fionn barr (find barr, in the Irish of the time) Lócháin", meaning, "Fair is the crest of Loan"), and he then became known as "Findbarr" ("Fionnbarra" in modern Irish). He went on pilgrimage to Rome with some of the monks, visiting St David in Wales on the way back.

On completion of his education he returned home and lived for some time on an island in the small lake then called Loch Irce. The island is now called Gougane Barra (the little rock-fissure of Finnbarr). He is reputed to have built small churches in various other places, including one in Ballineadig, County Cork, called Cell na Cluaine, anglicized as Cellnaclona and sometimes referred to as Cloyne, causing it to be confused with Cloyne (Cluain Uamha) in east Cork.