Tomorrow brings an comórtas áitiúil mór to Macroom when neighbouring Gaeltacht clubs Naomh Abán and Béal Atha’n Ghaorthaigh meet in the Cork Premier IFC first round.

Or Ballyvourney v Ballingeary if you lack the cúpla focal.

The village that stretches along the N22 to Killarney versus the village that sits 10 miles off that artery above in the Shehy Mountain barrier between Cork and Kerry.

The day will have a unique flavour with fellow Mid Cork gaelgoirs Cill na Martra on the undercard.

Appearing at this grade for the first time, they face a fourth Muskerry side in Éire Óg.

A double-bill that will have the Macroom venue buzzing, says Naomh Abán rúnaí Michelle Ní Shuibhne.

I’d expect a massive crowd. Three Gaeltacht clubs playing. Everyone from Ballingeary and Ballyvourney will be there for the first match to see Cill na Martra playing as well.

For more than neighbouring curiosity. Béal Atha’n Ghaorthaigh v Naomh Abán doubles as a qualifier for Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta, with the winners meeting Cill na Martra for the right to represent the Muskerry Gaeltacht at the annual June Bank Holiday weekend festival, held this year in Dingle.

“There’s a lot on the line,” says Ní Shuibhne. “Championship bragging rights and the Comórtas. With the proximity to Dingle, the Comórtas is a massive draw this year. All the clubs are mad to go.”

Naomh Abán have a proud record at the Comórtas, topping the honour roll alongside Gaoth Dobhair with eight senior titles.

Both Muskerry clubs are acutely conscious of their responsibilities to the language and culture.

“We’re big advocates of speaking Irish as much as we can as a club,” says Béal Atha’n Ghaorthaigh registrar Sinead Ní Laoghaire.

“It’s our first language really in the village. Our day to day business is all done through Irish. There are always Irish classes on, to improve the gaeilge.

“Especially for people who have come to live here from outside. It’s a friendly village but people realise they have to brush up on the cúpla focal.

“Even at training and that, it’s Irish. All the players speak it, absolutely. But a lot of them would be múinteoirs anyway.

“It might be an advantage on other days, 100%, but on Sunday the opposition will know exactly what we are saying. It’ll be no help.”

Cork All-Ireland winner John O’Driscoll is Ballingeary’s most decorated footballer.

Notably devoted to club first throughout his inter-county years, the elegant forward last togged for the parish seven years ago, winning a junior B county league medal at 45, before that famous bandaged knee finally gave in.

He’ll be in Macroom tomorrow to watch a fixture he never got to play in.

“Funnily enough, the rivalry is not that huge. Going back along, we were always different grades.

"They were up senior when we were down junior. And even when they came back junior, they went back up quickly. I never played their top team in championship.

“There would be huge respect and huge friendship between the two clubs. And loads of connections.

Though something like this does throw a spanner in the works, in terms of everyone wanting to win, regardless of who it is. But there will always be a strong bond between the Gaeltacht clubs.

“We would have travelled a lot together to the Comórtas on the June Bank Holidays. Going back to 1988, we actually played together in the senior competition as three or four junior clubs.

"Under West Muskerry, we won the championship, beating Kilcar.”

Living in Glanmire now, he returns to the homeplace every few weeks and just presented medals to the club’s U16s and U21s.

“I stay close to it. You never lose affection for your own home club. I played underage football with a lot of these lads’ fathers. I just love the club and everything about it.”

On his last visit, O’Driscoll went down to the field to watch an A v B game, the great wonder being he could see six or seven subs on the sidelines and six or seven more lads of prime footballing age not togged at all.

“They could easily field three adult teams this year, which is incredible for such a small place. Nobody ever leaves the club, they always come back. Even when there are opportunities to play up in Cork or elsewhere.

“And it has been quite barren in terms of medals, but in reality we are boxing way above our weight contesting at Premier intermediate.”

He looks to Andy Concannon and his educated left foot, fluent in any language, but worries about injuries to a couple of the Shortens, fears they’ll be without five or six first choices tomorrow.

“But that will be all the better for the junior team, I heard somebody say during the week.”

A youthful Naomh Abán team will start favourites after “surprising themselves”, according to Ní Shuibhne, on their run to the county semi-final last year, where they were pipped by Fermoy.

Former Cork minor and U21 Maidhc Ó Duinnín will launch big frees and Diarmaid Ó Scannaill will tidy up, even if he is better known as Mr Briege Corkery.

The club would love to mark the 20th anniversary of their last title, the 1999 intermediate crown when Cork star Anthony Lynch was a figurehead.

But “nobody likes to play against Ballingeary,” says O’Driscoll, for whom considerations of culture and neighbourliness must take a back seat to championship.

“It’s a unique day. The Irish is very important, as it is in Ballyvourney as well. And the Comórtas is a great competition in its own right, but the intermediate championship takes precedence.

“Both clubs want to go through the front door, but at least both will still be in the championship after Sunday.

“And the great thing is, whenever one of them goes out, they’ll be wanting the other to go on and win it.”