‘Something had to change’ – Séamus Flanagan on switching jobs to balance hurling and family life

Earlier this year, Séamus Flanagan made a lifestyle choice to help balance his family, work and hurling commitments.

When wife Laurie gave birth to twins last autumn, it doubled the number of children in the Flanagan household.

Being a radiographer, an elite hurler and father to four was so time consuming.

Something had to give.

His decision was to leave his job at University Hospital Limerick and the unsocial hours he was required to work.

Instead, he took up a position at US telecommunications company Verizon, who had set up a centre in Limerick.

It was a big decision, naturally, but with so many balls in the air, one he felt that had to be made.

Working at the hospital was making it increasingly difficult to train with Limerick. It was also robbing him of the time he needed to devote to his family.

“It was tough,” conceded Flanagan. “There was a lot of ‘on-call’ that I had to do, a lot of night shifts, weekend call. You’d be on call and have to get to the hospital,” he said.

You wonder how he had done it all in the first place.

“I found it hard to balance that. Then when the ‘smallies’ came along, it was just another plate to spin. I found that a little bit tougher at the end of last year,” he admitted.

“I said to myself, ‘Something’s going to have to change here’. Verizon ended up setting up in Limerick, so I jumped at that opportunity.

“I’m with them since January to help balance my home life. It’s two days in the office, three days at home. It allows me to balance that [home life] and training.”

Even being married and having four children goes largely against the grain of most inter-county lives, but Flanagan has learned to multitask.

“I come in with my hurleys and get thrown a nappy and a bottle and ‘Daddy duty’ hits you in the face fairly quickly,” he laughed. “I’ve a brilliant ‘Mrs’. She’s so allowing and forgiving, as I’ve gone training at short notice or a gym session.

​“But I love it. When I go home, that’s my switch off from what’s going on inside the four lines. But my switch off from my home is inside the four lines as well. It works in tandem with each other.”

Having family is crystallised on those big days they’ve enjoyed in Croke Park when they’ve won All-Ireland finals and have the pitch to themselves.

“Being able to get my family out in Croke Park and having pictures on the wall at home. All my family have those pictures, that’s something special. That’s what it’s about, really,” said Flanagan.

“We always speak about family. You have your family in the set-up, you have your family at home. They intertwine really well.”

A further family angle is that he is a first cousin of Clare’s Paul Flanagan, who briefly marked him in the 2022 Munster hurling final in Thurles. “It’s a cool experience,” remarked the Limerick full-forward. “In that 2022 Munster final, we came together once or twice in the game.

“Myself and Paul go way back. There’s pictures at home of us pucking around. My grandad would have been where we were living [at] my parents’ house.

“Paul is working as well and has a busy life at home. You don’t get to meet up as much as you’d like to. It provides a bit of entertainment at home for the parents.

“The family WhatsApp group will be be flying back and forth. It’s more so for them, but it’s good to look back at it. In years to come, we’ll cherish those moments.”

Flanagan missed the Munster final win over Clare at Semple Stadium last month with a hamstring injury picked up against Waterford in the Munster round robin, but he is now back in contention for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

The injury came at a time when he had hit a rich vein of form. He hit a hat-trick against Cork in the previous game [in May]. He put that goal treble at Páirc Uí Chaoimh down to “luck”.

Sitting out the Clare game was a “tough” experience, he admitted, but there was a small upside in that it allowed him to analyse the action more closely.

“It was really different,” he said. “In a sense, it was interesting because I saw all of the off-the-ball stuff. I saw all the boys making our movements and what the Clare boys were doing.

​“It [the injury] probably couldn’t have come at a worse time for me, but they’re the cards you’re dealt. It’s about getting myself back up to speed again because Shane [O’Brien] has taken that jersey and done a really good job. It’s up to me to put my best foot forward again.”

Flanagan nailed that memorable hat-trick with a 34-inch bamboo hurley.

Part of a growing number of players now migrating to the alternative as ash dieback hits harder, he had been using a supplier in Dromina in north Cork who packed up for a period because of the supply crisis.

“He had stopped making hurleys for six or eight months, and I was like, ‘What am I going to do?’ recalled Flanagan.

“I started using Torpey ash, then he came up with the bamboo [alternative]. I love bamboo because it’s the same weight always. It’s not handmade at all, it’s only hand finished. So when you pick up one, it’s the exact same as any other.

“It comes in three different ways: light, medium and heavy. I’m weird about this. I don’t like the light because it’s too light, but I don’t like the medium because it’s too heavy. So I use a light with a band and it’s perfect weight.”

It takes getting used to, but with few breakages and consistency, Flanagan has what he wants.

“I was chatting to Tony Kelly. He uses the ash and he loves the ash, but he tried the bamboo and he couldn’t get used to it, whereas I’m the opposite,” he revealed.

“I used it for a club season in 2019, that is how I got into it and came out in 2020 and loved it. I love the balance of it. I have four at home and they rarely break. You just pick up one and it’s the same as the next one.”

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