Over a period of forty years Johnny Ryan was a key figure in the Passage club and during that period he had several periods as chairman.

Johnny, or Seán Ó Riann as he liked to be called, was one of those very popular figures who embraced many activities in the town of Passage and he also spent a number of years as a member of the Passage Town Commissioners.The fact that he resided in the centre of the town and his work in the water department of the Cork County Council, gave him a daily presence in the locality. Johnny was certainly one of the best known figures associated with Passage.

Even though he would readily accept that he was not an expert on the finer points of hurling and football, Johnny would be an ever present at all games played by the club and he played a particular role at all those matches. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the refreshments provided for players at half-time came in the form of an orange or in some cases half an orange.

Not every team in other clubs benefitted from this half-time refreshment but it was guaranteed when Johnny Ryan arrived at a Passage match, he never came without a bag of oranges. It is also worth mentioning that Johnny never once sought any funds from the club to cover the cost of this service.

For many years he also carried out another very important function when he acted as the delegate for the Passage club at the weekly Cork County Board meetings. His political background proved an asset to him when he had to fight any issues for his club and he became well known for his qualities in this regard.

In the 1950’s when very few people in the Passage club, or any club for that matter, were in ownership of a car Johnny, once again, became a central figure when Passage were playing an away game. He had an almost miraculous ability to squeeze at least six hefty players into his mini car to enable them to get to any venue in the City or South-East divisions. When people speak of the continued progress of the Passage club over the decades the name of Johnny Ryan will always be mentioned with great fondness by all who crossed his path.

At successive Annual General meetings down the years, one of the most difficult positions to fill has been that of the club’s board delegate. Whether it was the County Board, City Division or Bord na nÓg, it was not an easy task to get someone to attend a weekly board meeting and to oversee the needs of the club regarding fixtures and any other business relevant to the club.

The Passage club has been lucky to have had some very diligent men represent them at these meetings during the past decades, none more so than Florrie McCarthy who had the distinction of representing Passage at different times at the three aforementioned boards. Indeed, he also created the record of being the only man to serve as a delegate in five successive decades, the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80’s and 90s.

Records show that Florrie was the Passage representative at both the under-15 board (now Rebel Óg, Eastern Division) and the City Division Board in 1958. Only those who acted as board delegates can fully appreciate the difficulties of attending two board meetings per week.

Having spent all his married life living in Cork City, it did not in any way dilute Florrie’s affection for his native club and all those who crossed his path were left in no doubt where his loyalties lay. At any given time, irrespective of which grade Passage were playing in, Florrie could never understand why more players from his club were not wearing the red jersey of Cork. Florrie was so obsessed with getting the right fixtures for Passage teams that it would not be unusual for him to be discussing the next week’s fixtures in the midst of a hectic championship game in Ballinlough.

Florrie never claimed to be a player of any great note but there was one occasion in 1981 when he made an impact on, instead of off, the pitch. Passage junior ‘B’ football team were playing Commercials in a league game at their venue but Passage could only muster fourteen players for the game. Florrie was not prepared to face his fellow delegates at the next City Division meeting, with his club having conceded a walk-over. To avoid such an occurrence, Florrie donned the No. 14 jersey and played the full game in the full forward position. Passage trailed by five points at half time but a great comeback in the second half earned Passage an unlikely draw. Central to that comeback were two goals scored by corner forwards John O’Neill and Daithí Kelly. Florrie always claimed he had created the space to allow his two corner forwards to score those vital goals.

Board meetings, by their very nature, often involved divisive debate with every delegate endeavouring to get the best deal for his own club. It was to his eternal credit that, despite fighting his corner strenuously, Florrie never made an enemy in his role as Passage representative.

Since his untimely passing in 2000, the name of Florrie McCarthy is only spoken of with affection within his beloved Passage club and by all those who encountered him inside and outside the various Cork GAA boards.

From the early 1950’s to the present day there have been a number of standout figures when it came to the organisation of under-age games in the Passage club. In the 1970’s and into the 1980’s, one such mentor was Dermot Lynch. Dermot was the central figure in everything that happened in the underage scene at that time and one often wonders how he managed to pack so much unselfish work into any particular week.

Every Passage player who came through the under-age system at that time, will have memories of Dermot. There is one particular aspect of his involvement that they all remember. This of course was his mode of transport which was a very familiar Honda 50 motorbike. If you consider the powerful modern vehicles now driving in and out of Manning Park, it makes it even more remarkable what Dermot could achieve astride that little motorbike. The sight and sound of that Honda 50 chugging up Church Hill laden down with hurley’s and jersey’s, is indeed still a very vivid memory of many Passage players of that era.

For many years Dermot had sole charge of the Passage under-15 and under-16 hurling and football teams and when the under-13 grade was introduced, it added to his already considerable workload. If this was not enough to keep him occupied he also attended the weekly Bord na n-Óg meetings on a Saturday night to arrange fixtures for the teams.

It must also be taken into account that at that time house phones were a rarity and mobile phones had not even been invented. This meant that Dermot had to call to every house, of every player, to notify them of the upcoming fixtures and if there was a change in match times or dates, the same journey had to be undertaken again.

As time progressed Dermot was grateful for the assistance given to him by people such as Ned Harrington, Finbarr Harrington and Joe Nugent. It was becoming impossible to plough a lone furrow in keeping up with the rapidly growing under-age activities, and the said trio of club volunteers also played a key role. As well as the club teams, that period also saw the advent of parish leagues in both hurling and football and not surprisingly Dermot was also to the fore in organising this vital aspect of nurturing the future stars of Passage.

Dermot will always be remembered for his trojan work with the juvenile section of the Passage club but it must not be forgotten that he was a hurler of no mean ability. He was a key member of what was, arguably, the best ever under age hurling team in the club. The 1966 team became the only team in the clubs history to win an “A” grade competition in Bord na n-Óg and produced four Cork minors, and D. Lynch was an ever present on that illustrious team.

Through sheer dedication and a relentless approach to training Dermot managed to make the leap from junior hurling to senior hurling and it was one of his proudest moments when he donned the white and green jersey in the senior hurling championship against Carrigdhoun.

Dan O’Mahony or “Danno”, as he was popularly known, was one of those larger than life figures who attained iconic status in the annals of the Passage club. For a man who had such a great love of hurling it was a huge disappointment to “Danno” that in his formative years the Passage club was unable to field hurling teams for a number of years. This occurred in the 1940’s.

His love of the game meant that while the Passage club was out of existence he played his hurling with St. Finbarrs and a nearby club called Banba (Rafeen).

During this period “Danno” made continued efforts to relaunch his beloved Passage club and after some trojan behind the scenes work his dream was fulfilled in 1943 when the white and green jersey again took to the playing fields of the South-East division.

Shortly after this re-emergence “Danno” had his proudest moment when he captained Passage to win the South-East junior hurling title in 1945. Unfortunately, the team was missing three key players for the county final against Midleton and lost the game by just one point.

In 1945 he also made history, when along with his clubmates Christy Healy and Mick O’Connell, Danno was part of the Carrigdhoun hurling team that lost the senior county to a star studded Glen Rovers team. The Passage club were dealt a huge blow in 1951 when “Danno” emigrated to England, however on his return home in 1964 he immediately threw himself into the activities of the club once more.

He subsequently held the positions of chairman, vice-chairman and treasurer and of course was the Passage delegate to the Cork County Board for many years.

In 1969 he carved out his own unique place in club history when he became the first and only Passage representative to act on a Cork senior hurling selection committee. He helped select Cork teams that won Munster championships in 1969 and 1970 and the All-Ireland final in 1970. He was also a selector for the Cork under-21 hurling teams that won four successive All-Irelands from 1968 to 1971. Danno’s commitment to the Passage club is best epitomised by the fact that at the time of his untimely death in 1983 he was a selector on the clubs intermediate, junior and under-21 hurling teams.