The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Fifty years after winning the All-Ireland Junior Cross Country Championship, Clare will celebrate that success at a function to be held at Fanny O’Dea’s in Lissycasey on Friday, March 8 at 8pm.
Drumcliffe in Ennis was the venue on the last Sunday of February in 1963 for the All-Ireland championships and Clare competitors delivered a top-class performance to score a comprehensive victory.
The Banner County’s scoring six were in the top 11, with Tulla man, Tom Byrnes, capturing individual honours to cap a superb day for Clare.
“We were the runners-up the previous year in Cavan,” recalled Tom this week.
His Tulla clubmate, John Danagher, was the second Clare man home, finishing in fourth place. He was Clare’s first man home a year earlier, when he finished third. Another Tulla man, Joe Lynch, now deceased, was in sixth spot, followed home by Tommy McCarthy from St Mary’s, who was seventh. The late Dan O’Halloran from Kilmihil was in 10th spot while the sixth scoring member of the Clare side in 1963 was Darragh resident John McNamara.
Other members of the Clare team taking part in that championship were Johnnie O’Donoghue (Ruan), who ran with Marian, James Brogan (St Mary’s), Denis Lynch (Tulla), Donal Brassil (Tulla), Michael John Quigney (Tulla) and Paudie Halpin from Lissycasey, who was a member of the Kilmihil club.
The late Dermot Walsh from Tulla was the team masseur.
“We trained a couple of nights a week in our own areas and we would only meet up at races. There were a number of us from Tulla so we were able to train together. I used to train in the mornings as well,” All-Ireland champion Tom Byrnes explained this week.
“There was no such thing as coaching that time,” added Tom, who said that he used to run between three and four miles daily.
He explained that Drumcliffe was a popular venue for cross-country championships. “It was a good, dry course with a good hill.”
How was the Clare team selected? “The first 12 in a trial race qualified to represent the county,” replied Tom, who completed the six-mile course in a time of 33.02, who won by 12 seconds from Niall Hendrick from Wexford.
There were no special diets for the athletes in those days but Tom admitted that he “had raw eggs every day”.
With their scoring six in the first 11, Clare were comfortable winners of the team title, with a points total of 39. Cork, with 121 points, was second with Wexford in third spot.
The surviving members of the All-Ireland-winning team will be joined by representatives of those who are deceased at the upcoming function, tickets for which can be had by contacting Tom in Tulla.
