Enda bags Lory Meagher Cup medal

IT has been quite a sporting journey for Enda Lyons, who is completing a graduate scheme in banking with RBS in Manchester. The St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield dual player played a central role in helping Warwickshire beat Longford in the Lory Meagher Cup final in Croke Park recently. Lyons, who now plays his club hurling for Fulham Gaels in Manchester, scored 1-3 in the final. Éire Óg’s Kevin Halley and Smith O’Brien’s Dwane Sheedy were also part of the panel.

Halley is a masters student in Nottingham, while Sheedy is a Birmingham-based electrician.

Up until late last year, Enda and his brother, Greg, travelled from England most weekends to play in the championship with their home club in Clare. 

“From July to October last year, we were home for 12 out of 13 weekends. It wasn’t easy but it was still a tough decision this year to transfer. But we can’t say enough about the support we got from St Joseph’s.

I’m here now 20 months and it was only 18 months into it that I said I’d play here,” Lyons explained.
Warwickshire pull their players from north of England and midland cities. 

“The two main focal points are Manchester and Birmingham. There’s almost a 50/50 split of players. We also had three players from Nottingham, while Coventry is involved in the county but they had no one on the panel this year. Liverpool and Leeds are also in the county. For the majority of sessions midweek, we’d have separate training where we’d training in Manchester and the rest would train in Birmingham. We’d also have our club players come along as well to make it worthwhile,” he said.

Having trained all winter and spring on a council-owned hurling pitch in Manchester, ending up hurling on the pristine Croke Park surface was almost beyond belief.

“It was some turnaround to get to play in Croke Park. My club, Fulham Gaels, got to the junior club All-Ireland final last year so for some of our players it wasn’t anything new but I don’t think it matters how many times you play there, the experience of walking onto the pitch and that perfect surface is unbelievable. It was amazing.

“We’re a young team, everybody is over here for the same reason. We have to be over here for work. So it’s a young, fit team and Croke Park suited us. We wanted to play hurling in the open spaces,” Lyons noted.
Away from the playing fields, Lyons would ideally like to pick up work in the banking sector in Ireland, now that his graduate scheme is nearing its conclusion. That’s his hope anyway. 

“I’m keeping an eye on opportunities to see if I can get home but, at the moment, work is keeping me here,” he told The Clare Champion this week.

Although he has an eye on home, Lyons doesn’t deny that he has taken to life and work in Manchester.
“It’s almost like a mini family over here. The Irish are drawn together. A lot of them live quite closely together outside of the city centre, whereas I’m in the city centre due to work. Even take hurling out of it and the Irish are still all together,” he concluded.