Tag Archives: Clare senior football final 2022

Twelve months ago Shane Daniels was, as he put it himself, “a bag of nerves.” A year on from patrolling the line as a selector he finds himself not only back playing but playing between the posts of all places. “Last year I could barely eat, I was a complete bag of nerves. Playing is so much easier because when you are playing you feel you can do something to influence the outcome but as a selector you’re practically kicking every ball as if it was the last ball. You’d be shattered after a match on the line” he laughs. “Seriously though it has been a huge change. I never envisaged being back playing at Senior Level let alone playing in goal but a situation arose and here at this great club it’s all about putting your shoulder to the wheel.” Entering into the County Final Shane has yet to concede a goal in 300 minutes of action, an incredible …

Despite the large injection of youth over the past few years, there is a mutually beneficial respect and bond between Ennistymon’s players and management that has seen the stars align to reach only the club’s second ever senior decider. Getting the management band back together from that 2018 debut decider has been the work of manager Mark Shanahan who along with the likes of Brendan Rouine and coach Ger Quinlan have admirably opted to grasp the nettle and blood as many of their underage stars as possible. That policy was perhaps was justified by the almost incredulous feats of defiance in their epic semi-final victory over Kilmurry Ibrickane that went all the way to extra-time and penalties. “There is probably no easy way of summing that game up but it’s only in tests like that that you really see the character of players.” admitted Shanahan who is in his third stint as manager of his native club. “Kilmurry Ibrickane threw …

Paul Madden is the consummate professional. In every day life he is well known as the manager of the Templegate Hotel and after six years in charge of his beloved Éire Óg he is known the length and breath of the County as a footballing man. When interviewing Paul it’s obvious from the outset that like everything else in his life he has prepared for this. He has all the standard lines ready to go but when it’s put to him how high a regard he is held by all players, hurlers and footballers alike he answers from the heart. “You just try and do your best for your club. I’m with Éire Óg 40 years and I can still remember my first match playing under 10s against Clarecastle and winning,” he laughs at me smiling. “Peter Cosgrove was playing with me and we are still best friends to this day. That is the power of the club. I am …

FOOTBALL teams from the county town have been here before — tasked with the challenge and opportunity of putting county titles back-to-back, and while many good sides have attempted the feat, few have succeeded. Indeed, you have to go back nearly 75 years to when that elusive double was achieved and when a town football team could say that theirs wasn’t a fleeting brush with success, but a sustained thing. It’s so far back that it wasn’t even the storied Jack Daly that was up for grabs — instead, it was the Exiles Cup that was the biggest prize in Clare football from the early 1930s through to the early 1960s. The great Faughs team of the 1940s was the last Ennis side to double up — with Tony Strand from Steele’s Terrace as captain they put titles back-to-back in 1947 and ’48, with victories over Clohanes and O’Curry’s respectively. Since then many Faughs and Éire Óg teams have been …

As the minor championship trophy was given to Ennistymon, what joint captain Oisin Vaughan said had ramifications far beyond the confines of the grandstand in Hennessy Memorial Park where the handover took place. His few words, and it only needed a few, spoke of the grand ambition amongst everyone associated with the North Clare Magpies. By way of background, the county final win in 2011 bookended a glorious run at minor level for the club – it started in 2007 when they beat Kilmurry Ibrickane in the county final in Miltown and culminated with this 2-13 to 1-7 win over Kilmihil. In between they’d been beaten in the finals of 2008 (Cratloe), 2009 (Lissycasey), 2010 (St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield), but the fact that they’d reached five successive finals on the bounce was something no other club in Clare came close to achieving. No wonder, Oisin Vaughan articulated this grand ambition when he said: ‘We’re going to win a senior championship’. And, …