St. Laurence's Football Club

The important part that the Gaelic Athletic Association plays in community life, whether urban or rural, was emphasised for me when I attended a recent book launch in the St. Laurence’s GAA complex. Club members and local residents came together in a display of common identity, the focal point of which was the GAA complex lying at the heart of the local community. I was intrigued to discover that St. Laurence’s GAA Club was founded following a meeting in the National School in Crookstown in February 1957. The meeting was called by the then Parish Priest of Narraghmore, Fr. Joseph Young. A County Cavan man, he had been ordained a few months before the 1916 Rising and after spending 25 years as a curate in Aughrim Street, Dublin was appointed Parish Priest of Narraghmore in 1949. He would serve in that rural parish for the following 9 years before moving to Seville Place, Dublin where he died three days before Christmas 1959. It is somewhat of a mystery why he called the meeting for Crookstown National School as the parish of Narraghmore was already home to two GAA Clubs. Ballytore GAA Club and Narraghmore GAA Club were in existence at that time and indeed I can remember lining out for the Athy minor team against the Narraghmore team in or about 1959. We played in a field in Narraghmore which masqueraded as a GAA pitch and togged out at the side of a ditch. That was a common enough feature of football matches played at that time in rural venues. It is claimed by some that Fr. Young sought to follow the generally accepted policy of the early GAA by seeking to have a club based on the geographical area of the Catholic parish. This had given the GAA in its early years one club per parish, even at a time when the relationship between the Catholic Church and the GAA was not always a harmonious one. Local folklore has us to believe that the relationship between the Narraghmore club and the Ballytore club in the mid-1950s was not good, prompting the local Parish Priest to establish a parish-based club which was called St. Laurence’s. Fr. Young was elected President of the new club which shortly thereafter saw the disbandment of the existing clubs in Narraghmore and Ballytore which merged with the new St. Laurence’s. St. Laurence’s has become one of the more advanced clubs in the county since its foundation and has provided its members with first class playing facilities and an excellent club premises. This has been due to the high calibre of local leadership which has helped to make this rural GAA club an important force in the social and cultural life of the locality. Just a week or so before the book launch in St. Laurence’s John Joe Walsh, President of the Club, died. John Joe, a Mayo man, whose family migrated from the western county with a number of other families in 1956, served for many years as Secretary of St. Laurence’s Club, followed by an extended period as the Club’s Chairman. He was one of the many men and women who over the years provided local leadership which was so vital for the continuing success of the club. John Joe held the unique distinction of being the first footballer from the St. Laurence’s Club to be selected for the County Kildare senior football team. Other players from the area had previously played with the Kildare seniors, including Peter Waters and Jimmy Byrne, both of whom featured on the Kildare team which played Cavan in the 1935 All Ireland Football Final. As I mentioned at the book launch Athy GAA followers still complain of the Kildare County selectors decision to drop the regular county team goalkeeper ‘Cuddy’ Chanders of Athy for the All-Ireland Final. Kildare lost that day after going into the All-Ireland Final as the overwhelming favourites to win the game. Claiming, as I do, that I am a Kilkenny man exiled in Kildare, the story of John Joe Walsh’s arrival in Narraghmore in 1956 and his dedicated service to the local GAA club over many years reminds me that irrespective of club membership we tend to maintain allegiances to the county of our birth. The importance of a GAA club lies in the sense of identity which pulling on the club jersey or supporting the team on the side lines gives us. All GAA clubs are community-based clubs which provide a focal point for communities and help reinforce the sense of place which we all have for the town, the village or the rural community in which we live. That was the sense I experienced in St. Laurence’s last week. Gaelic football and hurling matches inspire passion and sometimes controversy, while the local GAA club holds special importance, not only for its members but also for the wider community, especially in rural areas. The members of St. Laurence’s GAA Club can be justifiably proud of the wonderful facilities which the club now provides, not only for club members but also for the wider local community. The book launch in St. Laurence’s was local man Tom O’Connell’s ‘A Life’s Harvest – Stories from the home place Loraine’. The book is a useful contribution to our understanding of the difficulties, the hardship and the joys of life in rural Ireland in the decades following the economic war of the 1930s. The book should be available to buy in your nearest book shop.