I met Jackie Lenihan by referral but Jackie is well known as the sacristan of Berrings Church and in a sense is the first port of call for all church-community related activities. However, Jackie also a great knowledge of the game of road bowls and in a sense grew up with the sport on his doorstep. Interestingly in terms of heritage, Jackie talks about the game, the sense of fun, pride, identity plus the interaction of the local and Cork community with the North Kilmurray road that he played on.

Inniscarra Hurling Team, which won the mid Cork junior 2 championship in 1957; Jackie is the last player sitting on the front row on the left (Picture: Lenihan family collection).

"I remember the first big game or as we call it the scór being played as a young teenager around 1943. I remember it was played after the second mass on the Sunday morning. It was played from Reen's Pub in Berrings to Mary Murphy's pub in North Kilmurray. That was the playing space for many many years. It was a distance of about two miles. I remember the road pure black with people. The road was one of the only roads in County Cork where bowling has been kept going from the 1930s to the present day.

I remember the lads coming out on Sundays from Togher and Fairhill and from Waterfall to play bowls. They also came from local places such as Donoughmore, Bealnamoirive and Macroom. I can recall James O'Mahony or Jimmy as we called him winning the all-Ireland bowling championship. I also remember the other great players such as Paddy Cotter of Cloghroe and Jack Dinan of Donoughmore.

The best players in Munster played in the championship, which was played from the church in Cloghroe to the 'yellow house' on the Cloghroe-Kanturk road. The Healy family in Cloghroe owned Blair's Inn and always were involved in bowling as committee members and by looking after players with food and free drink after the game. Mary Murphy of Murphy's pub in North Kilmurray also looked after the players.

I got into it bowls growing up, going to school in Berrings in the 1940s. We used to follow the bowlers along the road looking for the bowls in the ditches - that's how we got to know them. As young lads, hurling was the big game in this parish. When it was not being played, the lads played bowls. I remember going to a house in Ballyshoneen having the craic and around a dozen of us would go bowling until dark in the summertime. We soon found out how good we were. Two or three of us blossomed out of it. I was lucky I was one of them.

As the years went on we began to throw bowls ourselves as young men - small bowls were made by McBrides on Merchant's Quay, 16, 20, 26 and 28 ounces - with a small hand we started with the 16 ounce. We moved onto the heavier bowl at maturity. The late Dermot Murphy of the pub in North Kilmurray and I formed a club under the Ból Chumann na hÉireann rules. I remember in particular in the early days playing against Mick Murphy from Mallow, Jim ''the gent'' Driscoll from Cork City, Mike O'Cealleachair from Macroom and Dooley O'Mahony from Ballincollig. There have also been great players such as Con Desmond from Ballyanley in Berrings, Jackie O'Callaghan of Matehy and the Brennans of Dripsey.

I kept at the game and eventually began to throw down a couple of bob. But you had to be careful as the stakes were high. Back in the sixties, the competing sides played for £300 or £400. The player paid an entry fee of five to ten shillings. There was usually a silver cup if you won the tournament.