Thegreatestinsult toWexfordhurling

February 1981

The Leinster hurling team to play Connacht in the Railway Cup competition is the greatest insult ever to Wexford hurling.

Our sole representative on the fifteen is Colm Doran- and that not even in his accustomed position of centre-back or left-half. The Buffers Alley man slots in at right corner-back, in a team that is dominated by Offaly men.

In fact, the Leinster champions have secured seven of the fifteen places, with three for Kilkenny, two for Laois, and one each for Wexford, Dublin, and Carlow. If that is an accurate representation of the state of hurling in Leinster, then somebody is fooling somebody.

It’s a sorry day for Wexford hurling when Carlow can equal our representation on a provincial hurling team, and Laois can double it. I wonder how players like Tony Doran, Martin Quigley, Mick Jacob, Liam Bennett and Ned Buggy – who have forgotten more about hurling than some of them will ever know – feel about the selection.

I wonder, too, how much of it is ‘jobs for the boys’, with Offaly having two selectors, and Wexford – for the first time in many years – having none. Our silence is surely felt on the selection committee, obviously.

Before we leave the situation of provincial representation, the mistreatment of our hurlers should not over-shadow the remarkable achievement of Duffry Rovers’ Seamus Fitzhenry in being selected at right half-forward for the Leinster football team to play Munster in the Railway Cup semi-final on Sunday the 15th.

It is a truly outstanding achievement for Seamus, who is only twenty years of age and who must be one of the youngest ever provincial representatives from this county in either code.