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THE KERRY McKEON BLOG ...ISSUE 59

TUBBERCURRY ... THE  COUNTY  G.A.A.  STRONGHOLD

There can be no question about the strength of the G.A.A. in Tubbercurry. Founded in 1888 under the saintly title of Tubbercurry St Patricks they have for many decades now competed under the title of a straightforward Tubbercurry having dispensed with the more religious image.  With their vast collection of senior club titles – 33 in total – they are by far the most successful club in the history of Sligo G.A.A. Thirteen of these titles have been won in hurling while a whopping twenty, which is double the amount of their nearest challengers St Mary’s, have been won in football. They do not have any Intermediate or Junior titles for the simple reason that they have never been down there but of course they have a vast array of under age titles some of these won with the assistance of players from their own half parish of Cloonacool. It is a remarkable record of resilience and loyalty to the association itself that they have achieved so much and maintained it over such a lengthy spell given the fact that the neighbouring parishes of Curry, Tourlestrane and Mullinabreena comes right up almost to their doorsteps. However the town itself has and always has had a decent sized population but it is the zeal and work rate  of the administrators within that population that makes them tick with names like Kilcoynes, Brennans, Murphys and several others synonymous with that zealous work rate which has over the years included many Co Board briefs.

 

However they havn’t been slow to avail of  players from their neighbouring parishes over the decades should those players have found themselves not able to find enough playing colleagues to make up their own team of fifteen, using Co Board sanction of course. A good example of this was in the fifties when the great Nace O Dowd, a Mullinabreena native, assisted  Tubbercurry to a number of senior championship titles. In fact when Tubbercurry won the senior championship in 1951 not only did they have the dynamic assistance of Nace O Dowd of Mullinabreena, their first fifteen selection included a whopping seven Tourlestrane players !. They were Richie Goulden, Ted Nealon, Paddy Kennedy, Johnny Durkin, Ned Durkin, Jimmy Walshe and Joe Kirrane. Tourlestrane woke up after that and decided they could do this for themselves. Forming their own club from their own parish they grew in strength to reach the county final of 1955 where they met – guess who ?  Tubbercurry. Tubbercurry prevailed on that occasion but the two sides met again in Ballymote in the county senior final of 1956 and this time the four year old Tourlestrane club had a handsome victory giving them their very first senior championship title. Didnt they do well since !.

 

Four Gurteen players, again affected by a shortage of playing colleagues, Noel Daly, T.J. McDonagh, Vincent Flannery and Tommy Joe Hunt all minors in 1955 threw in their lot with Tubbercurry in the county minor championship. Under the Tubbercurry banner of course they won the 1955 minor championship beating Riverstown in the final. Two players from Tourlestrane Eamonn O Hara and Ollie Kirrane  and one from Curry Padraig Keane also assisted that team, a team that included at corner back Michael Fingleton later to come much into the news as the chief executive of Irish Nationwide Building Society. All of this might appear a bit weird today but who can blame Tubbercurry for availing of such talent if allowed to. Who can blame the outside players either ?  The alternative would be no summer football for these  fine young players and perhaps the end of their careers. At least now they have their memories and they have their medals.

Lean  na  Clairsigh
Bye for now
P J McKeon    for  Kerry McKeon  R.I.P.