Larry’s role in the rise of Ballygarrett won’t be forgotten

IFIND it impossible to look forward to Saturday’s AIB Leinster Club Junior hurling championship final without thinking of the late Larry Doyle and the massive impact he made on the Ballygarrett club. I got to know him quite well in the mid- to late-nineties when he was a mentor with various Wexford Minor teams, a familiar figure on the sidelines with a clipboard and pen always at the ready.

He served as a selector initially, first with Jimmy Holohan of Rathnure as boss, and then as part of the backroom team put together by ex-Kilkenny defender Mick Cleere (Geraldine O’Hanrahans) in 1997.

With that apprenticeship completed, Larry took charge for the ’98 and ’99 campaigns, and I rate him as undoubtedly the most unlucky man to have served in that role during the barren years from 1985 right up to this summer.

On both occasions Wexford got to the Leinster final and drew with Kilkenny in Croke Park, only to have their dreams dashed in two disappointing replays in Carlow.

Larry turned his attention to Minor football at a later stage, guiding what most observers regarded as an average-enough Wexford team to a Leinster semi-final in 2008 before Offaly ended their interest.

It was a grade that was always close to his heart, and with good reason too because he was one of the finest young dual players to emerge from a hotbed of sporting talent in the town of Enniscorthy in the late sixties.

He first played Minor football with the county as a 16-year-old in 1967, and two years later the Emmets clubman was a star wingback on the last Wexford team to win a Leinster title at that level.

In between, he was a panel member and All-Ireland winner with the Minor hurlers on arguably the county’s greatest-ever day in Croke Park in 1968.

He went on to win a Leinster Under-21 hurling medal and, after work as a teacher brought him to Meath, he collected two Senior hurling and two Senior football medals, as well as a Leinster Club football championship with Summerhill in 1977.

After returning to his native county to work in Gorey, his long and fruitful association with the Ballygarrett club began.

Although a veteran by that stage, he lined out at full-forward when they reached a first-ever Junior hurling final in 1990, losing a heated affair to Davidstown-Courtnacuddy in Bellefield by four points.

There was the consolation in that year of helping Réalt na Mara to the Junior football crown, but Ballygarrett had to wait until 2003 before contesting another hurling decider.

With Larry as manager, they lost to Bannow-Ballymitty by five points, but bounced back twelve months later to secure a 0-14 to 0-9 win over Our Lady’s Island and a first county hurling title.

Larry would have been in his element in recent months, not just as a result of Ballygarrett’s wonderful campaign, but also because those Wexford Minor football players of 1969 were re-united on county final day.

He is one of three panel members to have passed to their eternal reward, along with Michael Deane of HWH-Bunclody and Aidan Kerrigan from St. Patrick’s (Ballyoughter).

His daughter, Lorna, collected an appreciation award on his behalf, and he retains strong links to next Saturday’s Ballygarrett team as his son, Mark, is the substitute goalkeeper, while his son-in-law, Patrick Naughter, is one of the driving forces on the ’40.

The passing of Larry was undoubtedly the biggest in a series of blows endured by the club in recent years, and it is to their immense credit that they have re-grouped and now find themselves counting down to what promises to be the greatest day in their history.

Another feather in his cap was that he was an inter-county hurling referee for many years, and one of his loyal umpires was another great Ballygarrett clubman, Seán Breen. Seán will be honoured at the inaugural Gorey District awards this Saturday night, and hopefully he will have witnessed a club he helped to keep going through some very lean years winning a Leinster title mere hours beforehand.

I’m sure I won’t be the only person in Bellefield to spare a thought for Larry Doyle and the tremendous role he played in getting Ballygarrett to where they are today. He’ll be looking down on the action with incredible pride.