Kildare Senior Hurling Final 29 Nov., 1964, Athy and Eir Og

The game of hurling has over the years had a limited degree of success in Athy. The first Senior County Final in which the Athy club played was against Clane in 1909. Athy’s footballing club members had to wait until 1924 to contest their first senior football County Final. The immediate post-Civil War period was a barren period for many clubs as players emigrated in the face of mass unemployment and sometimes blatant discrimination against those who had taken the anti-treaty side. Matters improved insofar as Athy’s hurlers were concerned in the latter years of the 1920s. The 1928 Senior Hurling Final was contested by Johnstown Bridge and Athy and a year later Athy lost by 1 point in the 1929 final against McDonagh. The 1930s was the Athy Gaelic Football Club’s most successful decade with the club winning county football finals in 1933, 1934 and 1937. The Club’s hurlers won the Hurling Senior Final in 1936 defeating Broadford on the score of 6-1 to 3-1. Broadford was to exact revenge when winning against Athy in the 1961 final. Two years previously Athy lost the County Hurling Final to McDonaghs by a losing margin of 2 goals and 5 points, yet were declared the county champions after lodging an objection. Three years after losing the 1961 County Final to Broadford the Athy hurlers played yet again, this time losing to Éire Óg on a score of 5-9 to 2-6. The members of that 1964 team showed how dependent the game of hurling in Athy was on players whose skills were nurtured and developed in the traditional hurling counties. The team’s composition also showed the importance of local industry and commerce in bringing together players whose hurling skills were so important in keeping alive the ancient Irish game in a county not readily regarded as a hurling county. The team which togged out in the County Senior Hurling Final in Newbridge on 29th November 1964 included four native Athy players. In goal was the legendary Dan Foley, while on the half back line was John Dooley, whose father was the principal mover in the revival of hurling in Athy in the 1950s. Ted Wynne, better known as a footballer, lined out on the half forward line and in front of him was Hugh McDonnell. The team substitutes included Jim Malone, Tommy Kirwan and Teddy Kelly who made up the remainder of the Athy/South Kildare natives. The other team members came from as far afield as Cork, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary and nearby Kilkenny and Laois. In the full back line were Tom Heskins from Cork, an employee of Minch Nortons, Willie Coogan from Kilkenny, a barman in Purcells and Liam O’Connor from Limerick. The half back line included, in addition to the earlier mentioned John Dooley, Gus O’Shea from Cork who was a local bank official and Claud Goff from Kilkenny, manager of Bachelor’s pea factory. The mid-field pairing were two Gardai Mick Cullinane from Kilkenny and Padraig Harte from Galway. Ted Wynne in the half forwards was partnered with John Breen, a bank official from Cork and Tipperary man Stephen Nash, a fitter in Bord na Mona. The full forwards were Mick Dempsey of Laois, a barman in Paddy Lambes with Billy Wilkinson of Kilkenny who worked in the sugar company and Athy’s Hugh McDonnell. Apart from the earlier mentioned substitutes there was also Tom Harte from Galway and Thomas O’Connor from Limerick. The team was trained by the team captain Claud Goff, whose brother Oliver won All Ireland medals with both Kilkenny and Wexford. The Athy team were defeated and it was often claimed that this defeat was due to the absence of their best player, Tom O’Donnell, a bank official who normally played centrefield. He failed to turn up for the final without telling his team mates or the team mentors beforehand. It turned out that Tom was that same day playing in the Tipperary County Senior Football final. This was the Athy club’s last appearance in a County Senior Hurling Final, although it won intermediate, minor and junior championship finals in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays it appears that the hurling club is separate from the football club which to a neutral observer seems a most extraordinary state of affairs. Now that Athy Gaelic Football Club is about to embark on a major development scheme which would give the club an extra playing pitch and a juvenile pitch, perhaps it is time for the hurlers and the footballers to come together as one Gaelic Athletic Association club for the town of Athy. During the recent football match against Clare I saw several players falling over while trying to pick up a ground ball. I was reminded of that classy footballer Kieran O’Malley who played for Kildare from 1957 to 1962. He was the first player whom I witnessed chipping a ground ball into his hands without stooping over it. It’s a skill that could usefully be learned by today’s players.

Athy's Hurling Club

The first reference I have come across to the game of hurling in Athy was a newspaper report of a Monasterevin team defeating Athy hurlers in a match played in 1890.  Three years earlier Daniel Whelan of Fontstown claimed to have made hurleys for the Athy branch of the GAA but I have yet to find any account of a hurling match involving Athy club players prior to the last decade of the 19^th century.

Athy’s Hurling Club’s first major success was in the 1928 County hurling final when the South Kildare team defeated Johnstown Bridge.  Hurling in the south of the County was clearly in the ascendancy as the following year Athy again contested the County final.  However, this time the Athy players had to give way to McDonagh Barracks of the Curragh who were crowned the 1929 champions. 

The first hurler of note associated with the Athy Club was Joe Delaney who played on the Kildare County Senior team which reached the 1934 All Ireland hurling final after defeating Kilkenny in the Leinster final which was played in Athy.  I don’t have any background information on Joe Delaney and wonder if any of my readers could help me in that regard.  With the name Delaney it is likely he was a Kilkenny man working in Athy.

County Kildare’s involvement in senior hurling was short lived, even though the game remained very popular in and around Athy during the 1930s.  An Athy team defeated Broadford to win the 1936 senior championship.  The earlier mentioned Joe Delaney was not on that team but the names Sullivan, Taylor, Hurley, Thornton and two Feeney brothers were prominent in the list of players of 79 years ago.  The same team reached the 1937 County final but lost out by 2 points to Maynooth.  Earlier in the same year the Athy junior hurlers, having been outscored 6:4 to 1:1 by Kill in the junior final, were nevertheless crowned junior champions after lodging an objection with the County Board. 

Athy junior hurlers were again crowned champions in 1950 but the club appears to have gone into decline for a few years until revived in 1957 by John Dooley of St. Patrick’s Avenue.  As a Kilkenny man working in Athy John had a great love for the game of hurling and his efforts were marked with early success when Athy won the junior championship in 1958.  A year later Athy, now playing as a senior team, were awarded the senior County championship on an objection following their earlier defeat by McDonagh Barracks.

Shortly before last Christmas the members of Athy Hurling Club held a reunion of players and mentors who achieved success on the playing fields in 1988 and 1989.  The junior hurlers of 1989 won the Junior A championship of that year and crowned their success by also winning the Junior League.  The Athy team, captained by Tony Foley, defeated old rivals Naas on the score of 1:11 to 1:9 in the Junior championship final.  The team comprised Paddy Byrne, Richie Foley, Tony Foley, Finbarr Stynes, Christy Myles, Con Ronan, Sean Candy, Mick Doyle, Shane Purcell, Mick Donovan, John McCauley, Joe Kelly, Paddy Purcell, Christy Lawler and Eddie Lawler.  A few weeks later the same teams met in the Senior Hurling League when the Athy players again came out on top and so secured the league title for 1989.  Their victory had followed a year after the Athy minor hurling team had secured the double as county minor champions and league winners for 1988. 

Both teams gathered for the reunion on 5^th December last to celebrate what was perhaps the greatest period of hurling success enjoyed by the club since its foundation.  The minors of 27 years ago were Martin Germaine, Denis Doyle, Mark Wall, David Dobbyn, Pat Maher, Richard Maher, Richard Foley, Pierce Maher, Paul Whelan, Noel Cross, Aodhgan Kelleher, Barry Hughes, Declan Day, Aidan Corcoran and Mick Kelly.  Incidentally I notice that the club crest records the hurling club’s foundation in 1904.  Given the earlier references to hurling in Athy I wonder if there was an earlier foundation date. 

John Dooley, Hurling and the 1936 Hurling Medal

Last week the postman brought me a small parcel of papers which had originated many years ago in Athy, but now came to me courtesy of Mary Shevlin, formerly Mary Dooley of St. Patrick’s Avenue and now of Dublin.  Newspaper cuttings with copies of two local publications, Fintan Brennan’s ‘History of Geraldine Park’ and ‘The Green Hill Magazine’ of Christmas 1964 provided more than sufficient interest.  However, two sheets with handwritten notes on hurling facts relating to Athy, together with a carbon copy of typed poems by Vincent F. O’Brien of Hatfield, Hertfordshire caught my eye.  The notes, I believe, were written by John J. Dooley, who more than anybody else was responsible for keeping the Gaelic game of hurling alive in the ‘garrison town’ of Athy. 

A hurling club was formed in Athy or around 1887, the year that Dan Whelan of Fontstown was recorded as making hurleys for the club.  The first County Kildare hurling championship was held the following year and involved just two teams with no Athy participation.  An Athy hurling team played a Rathdowney selection in 1898 and suffered a defeat on the score of 3-13 to no score.  Quite obviously the level of hurling skill amongst the local Athy players was of a very rudimentary type.

Eoghan Corry’s centenary ‘History of Athy G.A.A.’ notes that the 1924 Kildare County hurling team included a number of Athy players, but regrettably they were not identified.  This was at a time when Seamus Malone, a teacher in the local Christian Brothers School, was reorganising Athy’s Gaelic Football and Hurling Club which had suffered badly due to emigration. 

Athy hurlers secured their first major success when winning the Kildare Senior Hurling Championship in 1928, beating Johnstown Bridge in the final.  The following year Athy were the losing finalists.  1936 was a very successful year for the Athy hurlers when the seniors defeated Broadford to take the championship, while the junior team secured the junior title following an objection when defeated by Kill in the junior final.  Athy junior hurling teams  would win the junior championship title on the playing field in 1943, 1950 and 1958 and a Junior B title in 1982. 

The 1936 Athy senior hurling championship winning team featured Michael Sullivan, Michael Nolan, Dave Taylor, Paddy Fitzpatrick, George Comerford, Sean Feeney, John Campbell, Vincent O’Brien, J. Keogh, John Dunne, Vincent Thornton, Anthony Nolan, Seamus O’Byrne, Michael Noonan and George Moynan.  The final was played in Newbridge on 22^nd November 1936 when Athy defeated Broadford on the score of 6-1 to 3-1. 

Thirty years later John J. Dooley, who soon after his arrival in Athy from Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny and who was the driving force behind the town’s hurling club, read a poem published in the Kilkenny People.  It was written by Vincent F. O’Brien who lived in England and John recalled a championship medal won with Athy in 1936 by a man of the same name which had not been presented to the player.  He wrote to Vincent O’Brien and the championship medal which had remained unclaimed for 30 years was finally reunited with the man who had won it in 1936. 

Vincent O’Brien later wrote a letter which was published in the Kilkenny People explaining how he had played hurling for Athy while working in County Kildare.  ‘I have an idea that there was only one Kildare man on the team.  The others were shop assistants, teachers, Gardai, soldiers, etc. who were from various counties resident around Athy.  The driving force behind the team was Mr. John J. Dooley, 3 St. Patrick’s Avenue, Athy who was from County Kilkenny and who was and still is chairman of the club ..... Mr. Dooley saw my poem “Falling Leaves” which had a Kildare theme in your issue of August 26^th.  This lead to his contacting me and so he was able to pass on to me the Senior Hurling Championship medal which I won with Athy in 1936.’

The success of 1936 was not repeated the following year when Athy, having inflicted a heavy defeat in the semi-final on the Army team McDonaghs, lost the championship final to Maynooth.  In 1938 Athy went out at the semi-final stage, losing by 2 points to the Curragh team.

Athy’s Hurling Club lost a number of its senior players in the early 1940s and found itself restricted to junior hurling for a number of years.  It was again John J. Dooley who revived the club in 1957.  John, who had come to Athy in the early 1930s to work in the grocery  department of Jackson Brothers, spearheaded the drive which lead to the Athy Hurling Club’s success in the Junior Cup of 1958, followed a year later by success in the Senior Hurling Championship.  Again, as happened in 1936 when the Athy junior team won on an objection, the senior team of 1958 won the championship after McDonagh’s were stripped of the title following an objection.  Athy senior hurlers would reach the County Final in 1961 and 1964, but on each occasion fell short of victory, losing to Broadford and Eire Og.

I wonder if anyone can remember the players of 1936 or if any of the senior or junior hurling championship medals won by Athy Hurling Club since 1938 have found a home in the South Kildare town.