Tag Archives: Clonlara

26 March, 1972 Newmarket-on-Fergus 5-8 Ballygunner 4-3 at Sean Treacy Park, Tipperary Town A note in The Munster Express the week before the game said much about this Munster final showdown that had been a very long time coming — three years in fact. “It’s been a long time coming and without question the game has lost all of its appeal — except, of course, for the clubs involved,” the short preview noted. And it was true because when it came down to the winning and playing of this 1969 Munster final there were plenty of takeaways from a contest that The Clare Champion said was “tough and uncompromising” before the Blues emerged with an eight-point victory to put Munster Club titles back-to-back. The first half decided it as “after playing into the jaws of a near gale force wind, victory was as good as on its way to Newmarket”. This was all down to their great finish to the …

Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship Final Clonlara v Ballygunner (Waterford) at FBD Semple Stadium Thurles, Sunday 3.30pm (Ciaran O’Regan, Cork) Momentum is a sporting phenomenon that is impossible to manufacture and easy to lose but when that wave does come, one has to make the most of it. Undoubtedly, not unlike Ballyea in 2016, the stars have aligned for Clonlara this year as while their potential has never been questioned, their own application and ability to reach that optimum made most including themselves wonder would regaining a first Canon Hamilton since 2008 ever happen. It’s what has made this journey all the sweeter and heartening as this year’s succession of highs has even surprised themselves at times but scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find that the pieces of the jigsaw have been gradually put into place over the past few seasons. Experienced stars: John Conlon, Colm Galvin, Ian Galvin, Check. Maturing youth: The minor class of 2018 please stand …

The last time Clonlara were in a Munster final Jim Gully was the manager — 16 years on from the club’s provincial victory at intermediate level comes the opportunity of winning a senior title with the family connection being Séimí, who mans the gap in goal, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh. As dusk fell over Clonlara on a famous evening 15 years ago Jim Gully remembers everything about the day as if it was yesterday. The build-up; the team marching behind the Tulla band with Paul Collins at the head of affairs; the game; the win and Paul’s speech that announced the Canon Hamilton Trophy’s return to the village that gave the GAA the redoubtable cleric. Meanwhile, Jim’s son Séimí can only see the fires burning brightly on the hills as the Clonlara cavalcade made its way back to the village as a senior championship title was won for the first time in 89 years. It’s October 2008 and Clonlara have …

While their college and inter-county careers flourished, a coveted county senior hurling medal had eluded brothers Colm and Ian Galvin until Clonlara’s breakthrough six weeks ago. Now they stand only 60 minutes away from an unprecedented double as Clon look to stop Ballygunner from creating provincial history and open a new chapter of their own according to Eoin Brennan. Clonlara’s surge to a first Canon Hamilton crown in 15 years is completely justified now but in the overall context it was still a major shock. After all, manager Donal Madden wasn’t exaggerating when he said that avoiding relegation was their chief objective and anything after that would be a bonus. What a bonus it turned out to be though as once Clonlara gathered confidence and momentum, they have blossomed to unprecedented heights and are now preparing to take on back-to-back champions Ballygunner (Waterford) in Sunday’s Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship Final in FBD Semple Stadium (3.30pm). Let’s start with that …

There’s nothing like winning with a local team to ingratiate yourself into the community so for Alan Murnane, he couldn’t have chosen a better year to get involved in his new home of Clonlara. The Parteen native who, two decades on from first lining out between the sticks for the Blue and White, is still Parteen-Meelick’s custodian but now living in Clonlara for the past six years, the parish leap, from a coaching perspective anyway, was perhaps inevitable. Perhaps it’s no coincidence even that Alan’s introduction has come amidst Clonlara’s greatest ever season to date? “I’m glad you said it.” He laughs. “Ah no seriously, I’ve a young family now and that was one of the first things Donal [Madden] said to me was it would be a great way to get to know more people in the community. I think said in an interview after the Kiladangan game that there’s isn’t much there but that people in Clonlara love …

It was clearly Clonlara’s day but undoubtedly John Conlon’s too as the sole survivor of the 2008 breakthrough had finally gotten his hands on a second Canon Hamilton. Having arguably been made to suffer more than any other club in the county when it came to the business end of the senior championship, that the sequel came in a year in which little was expected of the side obviously made the achievement all the more special for the 2018 All-Star. “I just dropped to my knees [at the final whistle]. Look, I never thought at the start of the year that we’d be in this position. I suppose we had been playing Senior B for the last few years and not performing really well but it just goes to show you the work that has gone in. Donal [Madden] and his management team have just put in a serious effort and all the players have bought into everything they’ve done. …

Poet and GAA man Brendan Kennelly once told a great story about his undergraduate days in Trinity College when he lined out for a motley crew of footballers that had the good fortune to be sprinkled with the stardust, belligerence, and derring-do of the great Kevin Heffernan. Kennelly was a county minor in his day and even played in an All-Ireland final in the grade, but the ‘Uncrowned King’ of Marino and the Big City that was Heffo was the nonpareil — the man apart and above all his peers on that Trinity team that tried to put it up the traditional powers of the universities’ game like UCD, UCC and UCG, even Queen’s. And in putting the Dublin legend on this pedestal the Ballylongford bard recalled one game in the late 1950s when he and others felt humbled and were left “humiliated by Heffo’s greatness” in the way he just bent proceedings to his will, just because he could …

Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final Clonlara 3-18 Crusheen 2-16 It was the perfect Cinderella story as arguably having suffered more heartbreak than any other team in the county, Clonlara soared to a first Clare Senior Hurling Crown since 2008 in Cusack Park, writes Eoin Brennan. Three agonising final and six semi-final reverses in the intervening 15 years were wiped away by a commanding final performance that saw them lead from Micheál O’Loughlin’s emphatic breakthrough goal in the 18th minute to the finish. Having somehow been denied a hat-trick of goals up to that juncture including a break taking Donal Tuohy stop from Colm O’Meara in only the fifth minute, O’Loughlin’s strike following great work from Aidan Moriarty and Ian Galvin felt like a weight was lifted off Clonlara’s shoulders as they outscored Crusheen by 1-3 to 0-2 for the remainder of the half. Again Moriarty raced through the centre, this time offloading to Colm Galvin to flick to the net from …