Tag Archives: Smith O’Briens

Between hurling and football, St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield are contesting their fourth Intermediate Championship Final in six seasons in Cusack Park on Sunday when taking on Smith O’Brien’s for the Paddy Browne Cup. With two senior sides dropping down next year, promotion is almost a necessity for the club’s development according to manager Michael Guilfoyle who spoke with Eoin Brennan this week. Michael Guilfoyle has been down this road before. Part of the management team that ensured that his native Feakle bounced straight back up to senior level in 2018 following a shock relegation the previous summer, the former county star sees a similar unquenchable thirst in his current crop of players and of course the entire St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield club. “A club this size has to be up senior but have found it hard to get back there. For example [my son] Brian has been playing adult since 2013 and he has played four years at intermediate and four years …

Intermediate Hurling Final Smith O’Brien’s v St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield at Cusack Park, Sunday 2.45pm The spoils will be divided between trick or treat on Sunday when arguably the most important intermediate final since 2014 will finally be decided. Considering the calibre of the teams embroiled in the senior relegation series in which Clarecastle, Clooney-Quin, Crusheen and O’Callaghan’s Mills have all contested top flight semi-finals in the past seven seasons and the last three have reached a county senior final in that time, there are two major sides set to come down to intermediate level which only heightens the necessity for either St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield or Smith O’Brien’s to seize their timely opportunity this Sunday. Overall, it’s definitely not outlandish to suggest that the Parish are better equipped to not only go up but stay up such is the strength of the squad and the continuous conveyor belt of underage talent who have been playing at the highest level. Equally as …

HISTORY, culture, sport and memory were combined in Sixmilebridge last weekend, when both Scariff and Smith O’Brien’s intermediate hurlers wore black armbands to mark the centenary of the Scariff Martyrs, who were murdered by British Crown Forces on Killaloe Bridge in November 1920. The idea was proposed by the East Clare Memorial Committee, as part of their Scariff Martyrs 100 programme of commemorative events. The group have been commemorating the Scariff Martyrs, Alphie Rodgers, Michael ‘Brud’ McMahon, Martin Gildea and Michael Egan for many decades and are currently finalising plans for the 100th anniversary. According to the historian, Tomás Mac Conmara, who is part of the Memorial Committee, the unique encounter between Scariff and Killaloe, both areas so closely related to the story, presented a unique opportunity. “Our aim is to create as much awareness as possible of the Scariff Martyr’s story and its context in the War of Independence,” Dr MacConmara said. “It was unique that Killaloe and Scariff …