By Stephen Gleeson
Called after famed native, Thomas MacDonagh, Kilruane MacDonaghs is a club with a proud and rich tradition. A quick flick through their website sees a rich sprinkling of players wearing the blue and gold jersey as well as countless teams that have achieved success. Among the most recent pictures is the image of the North senior champions of 2018. Girls and boys sit alongside their heroes in the photo and the prized possession, the Frank McGrath cup, is in the centre.
A further look at their website brings black and white photos of olden teams that hoisted other cups high to great cheers. It’s only then you realise that, like all clubs, the current stars are simply standing on the shoulders of giants.
Much like today, the 1970s was an era in which North Tipp teams were strong in Tipperary. Clubs from the division were appearing in, and winning, county finals with regularity. Roscrea won the first modern day club All-Ireland in 1971, but there were a number of teams in the North division hot on their heels. Kilruane MacDonaghs was one of the teams in the mix, but after a long period in the wilderness it took time to gain the sought-after experience needed on big hurling days. Club stalwart and current senior hurling manager, Liam O’Shea takes up the story: “We were building up experience as the decade went on. We got to a county final in 1973 against Roscrea, who were a really strong team across all those years. We got stronger as the decade went on but Roscrea, who were a really top-class team, beat us in the county final. It was our first county final appearance in a long time and in ’74 we went out tamely enough. Then in ’75 we got to another county final against Moneygall where we were beaten in a replay and a very good Moneygall team won the county in ’76 as well.”
Kilruane MacDonaghs were knocking at the door with an ambitious bunch of players eager to achieve the success that was so close but still proving elusive. MacDonaghs centre forward of the time, Liam O’Shea, says they had to win the final the hard way: “If I can remember correctly, there was an open draw in the county up until 1976 but they abolished the open draw in ’77. In other words, each divisional finalist got to a county quarter final. So in ’77 we managed our way through the North getting to the North final. We won it, beating Borris Ileigh who, along with Roscrea and Moneygall, were very strong at the time. We beat Borris Ileigh in the North final and ironically, they got to the county final as well.”
An appearance in a county final was a huge occasion because, as the match programme on the day pointed out, “Kilruane MacDonagh have yet to win a county senior hurling title, [although] their performances in recent years in under-age competition are such that the day cannot be far off when they will achieve this goal.”
And achieve it they did. Albeit not in the triumphant fashion they might have dreamed of, as Liam explains: “The county final was a draw and we won the replay in a low scoring game on a horrible day for hurling.
“Winning the county final for a small club and a village and parish like Cloughjordan was a huge thing. We managed to curtail the celebrations somehow and played Patrickswell in the Munster championship and won it. Then we played Sixmilebridge in Cloughjordan and they took us out. Our inexperience would have shown at that stage in Munster.
“Dinny Cahill captained us in ’77 and then in ’78 Jim Williams captained us. That year the North championship was difficult again to emerge from and we got to the final having beaten Borris Ileigh in an earlier round. We played Roscrea in the North final and managed to beat them but like Borris Ileigh the previous year, Roscrea reached the county final.”
By now, Kilruane had grown stronger and were accustomed to success. Roscrea, who had dominated the early years of the decade, were still a force to be reckoned with and so a huge crowd from across Tipperary gathered on county final day. The two teams from North Tipperary were both filled with household names, such as Tadhg O’Connor, Francis Loughnane, Tony Sheppard and Dinny Cahill. After a titanic struggle and a bruising encounter, it was Kilruane MacDonaghs who emerged victorious on a 2-14 to 2-13 scoreline. It meant back-to-back titles for the club and a second county senior hurling medal for Liam O’Shea who lined out in the forward line.
“Club hurling was really strong at that time, much like it is now,” he recalls. “Our team would have been seen as really strong with no great stars; we had an even spread if you like. Which was probably to our advantage. It was a rip-roaring game between us in the county final and I remember Gilbert Williams got a very late goal. Some people were even gone from the ground at the time!”
From there the county champions looked once more to make progress in the Munster club championship. It was an exciting time in the club’s history, more so when they played at home during the campaign. The atmosphere at the games was hard to top. O’Shea says, “The crowds at the club games right through the 1970s were always huge. North championships, county finals, you’d be talking about 10,000 every time. The crowds when packed in small grounds, like Cloughjordan, looked like 50,000!
“In Munster that year we played the South Liberties in a tremendous game down in Cloughjordan. I remember I was marking the great Pat Hartigan. He was playing centre back. We were beating them well but they came back at us and nearly caught us at the end. We played Blackrock then in the next game. I think we lost Dinny Cahill after about 25 minutes but stayed in the game and again very nearly won it.”
The following year Kilruane MacDonaghs set out to win three in a row of county titles but it wasn’t all plain sailing, says Liam: “1979 was a really difficult year for us because it looked as if we were spun out. We laboured in the North championship. We beat Lorrha in the first round but were beaten by Roscrea in the next round. Then we drew with Silvermines so it came down to a crunch match with Moneygall.”
Other results in the North championship went in Kilruane’s favour, setting up another crunch game, this time against Borris Ileigh. “It was a really hard, tough game with Borris Ileigh and then we met Roscrea in the semi-final and Moneygall in the final,” Liam continues. “We met all the other teams who were strong at the time. It was Cappawhite in the county semi-final, and finally we got to the county final.”
It was Thurles Sarsfields who awaited them. Kingpins in the ‘50s and ’60s, Sarsfields had registered one lone title in the ‘70s which they secured after beating Silvermines in ’74. The Cathedral Town side still had heroes such as Jimmy Doyle at wing forward and also had much strength in the side. Michael Maher marshalled the centre back berth awhile formidable pair John Cahill and team captain Michael Dundon lined out in midfield. The clubs had last met in the county final at Roscrea in August 1959, when a certain Jimmy Doyle hit four points to help secure a Sarsfields victory. However, when the teams met on the 7th of October 1979 the tables had turned, and it was Kilruane who were the reigning kingpins of the county and looking to retain the Dan Breen Cup.
For Liam O’Shea, it was an unusual scenario as he was up against many old friends and teammates: “The ironic thing is I had played with Sarsfields for a couple of years in the early ’70s when I lived over there so it was a little bit special for me as I was captain and playing against them. It was a privilege for me to play with Thurles Sarsfields, with the likes of the great Jimmy Doyle, Seán McLoughlin and these guys. You could learn so much from them, which I did. I knew them all or most of them anyway.”
Kilruane stormed ahead in the game and in the end ran out comfortable 2-18 to 3-6 winners. Liam O’Shea brought the Dan Breen Cup back to Cloughjordan amid huge celebrations: “That was our three in a row. Thurles, to be fair to them, probably didn’t perform to a level they could have on that day. We went ahead and they came back at us in the last twenty minutes. Cloughjordan was fairly lively that night and the day after as well!
“Blackrock then beat us again in the Munster semi-final so we were gone out of the championship and that was one of our big regrets that time, that we didn’t win the Munster championship. 1980 came then and that, in my opinion, was one of the best Kilruane MacDonagh teams that I had seen or would have played with. Again, we got to a North final and drew with Roscrea before they won the replay. It was a fantastic game. They got to the county final and so did we. It was the reverse of ’78 when Gilbert Williams had got a goal in the last minute, I think it was big Roger who pounced and got the goal. It would have been historic to get the four in a row but it wasn’t to be.
“North hurling was very strong,” explains Liam. “In the ’60s the Mid was very strong but it had swung back to the North. In ’81 Borris Ileigh beat us in the North semi-final and it looked like we were on the way down in ’83 and ’84. I suppose we were written off by a lot of people at that stage.”
To most, the pendulum had swung and success appeared to be getting further away. However, there was one big event on the horizon for Kilruane MacDonaghs. Liam O’Shea takes up the story again: “The team was changing. New younger guys were coming in. In ’84 people in the club were saying that something needs to happen so they appointed Len Gaynor as manager but it wouldn’t be a term used by GAA teams at the time. I did my cruciate that year and that was me finished playing, so I was appointed selector with Jim Casey. The three of us were strong individuals but we really gelled together in an environment that seemed to get something special out of the lads. We had a team that everybody had written off and we ended up winning an All-Ireland club championship in our first year!
“That was a huge achievement. The team showed grit and determination and a savage will to win. They gave everything. I remember my brother, Éamonn, had gone to Dublin for a couple of years and was gone from the club and I convinced him to come back in early ’85 when it didn’t look like we were going anywhere. He added a bit of verve and a bit of excitement to the forwards and ended up winning man of the match in the county final. The combination of that and a couple of new fellas that came in allied to Len’s management and coaching really made the change. We never changed from the style of hurling we always had which was fairly tough. Hard but fair hurling. Typical Tipperary hurling.”
Naturally, Liam says they were delighted to win the All-Ireland in club hurling but that looking back, years later, they would have been disappointed they didn’t win more in Munster and in the All-Ireland. Liam says that’s because the team was certainly capable of doing it: “There were savage club teams going at that time. The Blackrocks of this world, Clare teams were strong as were Limerick teams but anyway, we have to be grateful for what we won. If you look at all the great teams over the years they won matches they didn’t deserve to win and you realise yourself you won matches simply because you had the confidence to stay going until the end and not give up at all. There were matches we were probably dead and buried in, but we hung in there and won by a point or two. It’s a lesson we should all learn – that you’re never beaten until the final whistle.
“You stick at it and stay going.”
After the glory years faded, Kilruane gradually went through a lull, becoming an Intermediate club for a time, before spring-boarding back to Senior status when they won the Intermediate county final. The club gradually built and got back to a county semi-final in 2015 and, once more, began to accustom themselves to the big time. Buoyed up with a new generation of players such as Niall O’Meara, Jerome Cahill and Séamus Hennessy, the club pushed forward. North finals were on the horizon again. In 2018, for the first time in 28 years, Kilruane MacDonaghs became the hurling champions of North Tipperary.
Senior team manager, Liam O’Shea says winning the Frank McGrath Cup meant so much to the people of the parish: “It was as big a night in Cloughjordan as it would have been in ’85 and ’86 and those years. There’s lots of discussion at times about getting rid of the divisional championships but winning the North championship to us was like winning an All-Ireland again. We hadn’t competed at the top level for some time. It’s the same for loads of teams that haven’t won anything. It really tests teams to see where they are at hurling, to compete in their divisional championship. We got there. We did our best.
“Last year, we were beaten by the county champions, and very nearly All-Ireland champions, Borris Ileigh. This year we will see where this journey takes us.
“Hurling pulls us all together,” says Liam, summarising. “Even in this time of Covid-19, all the work clubs do is great. In our own club, the Senior team did a huge amount to raise funds for St. Conlon’s Nursing Home outside Nenagh. Great credit is due to these boys and great credit is due to all the clubs around the county and country. They brought meals to people and gave them a bit of enjoyment. Isn’t that what the GAA is? It’s about the community really.”
“I think it’s wonderful to see young people do that in these times we are in.”
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