- Carlow team boarding the plane for London!
"Though we're not a hurling county I have often heard folks say
Though we won the honoured bounty On that wet September day From the
home of Munster hurling Rebel Cork I mean As they watched our flags
unfurling In the yellow, red and green"
AND having won that honoured bounty, the 1960 All-Ireland Junior
'Home' Championship, Carlow set their sights on further honours ... and
London!
This week's Classic Photo captures that pioneering group of Carlow
hurlers as they prepare to board the plane for London, a cavalcade of
cars having brought them to the airport on Friday evening, the
All-Ireland final proper set for New Eltham oh the Sunday.
Leinster champions for the first time since 1907 - having won just
THREE games in the intervening 53 years - Carlow recorded a famous 6-8
to 3-8 provincial final victory over Wexford in New Ross, then hammered
Down in the All-Ireland semi-final in Dr Cullen Park before Cork were
overcome in Nowlan Park, a game of which highlights were captured for
posterity on an old cine-camera and by John Duggan's song of which the
above lines was the chorus.
The trip to London was a big thing back then and those who made it
with the Carlow hurlers 47 years ago tell us you could fill a book with
tales of their escapades though many might not have passed the censor's
scissors back then!
However, from the hurling field the story was of controversy and
drama, Carlow leading by four points with only minutes remaining and the
scallion-eaters were on the cusp of their first ever All-Ireland title
in either code.
Enter centre-stage one Phil Wilson, later to win All-Ireland senior
hurling honours with Wexford, then in the green shirt of Leinster
he saceered through the visiting defence to register a match-saving goal
and a point for the battling Exiles.
2-4 apiece was the final score line to emerge from a tough, dour final
played on a London mud-bath, the second of the two pitches virtually
unplayable and made life difficult for a Carlow team who prided
themselves in playing stylish, skilful hurling, such slick stickmen as
the Hogan brothers Willie and Martin, Moling Morrissey, Mick O'Brien,
'Red' Liamy Walsh and his first cousin 'Black' Billy Walsh having become
household names while a third Willie Walsh ('Townsman') operated in a
defence alongside Pat Somers behind which dual star Brendan Hayden
guarded the net.
Alas, Carlow lost a high-scoring replay in Croke Park by 4-8 to 2-11,
a game played as a curtain-raiser to a Cork v Tipperary Oireachtas
hurling final, with the loss through a serious facial injury of 'Red'
Liamy Walsh proving a fatal blow.
Carlow were to extract sweet revenge two years later when in the
All-Ireland Intermediate final - having seen off Kilkenny in the
Leinster decider and Munster champions Galway in the All-Ireland 'Home'
final in Birr - the swashbuckling hurlers in red, yellow and green,
captained by Pat Somers, tipped up to Croke Park and beat London 6-15 to
3-3.
- The Carlow Junior Hurling Team
- Source: The Nationalist & Leinster Times July 9th
1960
- Leo McGough
-
Source:
Carlow Nationalist 20th July 2007
next page
Please report any links or images which do not open to
mjbrennan30@gmail.com
- The information contained in these
pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others
researching their ancestors in Ireland.
© 2001 Ireland Genealogy Projects,
IGP TM
TOP of PAGE
