Charleville have what it takes to win historic hurling crown
CHARLEVILLE’S Intermediate hurlers will bridge a 60-year gap when they run on to the green sward of Pair Uí Chaoimh on this Sunday to take on Courcey Rovers in the Cork County Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship final.
The last Charleville team to contest the then county intermediate final, against the mighty Glen Rovers, was in 1958 at Mallow Town Park.
Six members of that team are still with us and only in the past six weeks did we bid farewell to the then goalkeeper Billy O’Toole and defender, Matt O’Callaghan. That team was remarkable for the inclusion of three sets of brothers in the O’Tooles who had Mick, Donie, Tom and Billy, the O’Callaghans, Matthew and Michael, and the Owens’s, Kevin and Terry.
Part of that team also were hurling legends and All-Ireland Junior medal winners with Cork - Mick O’Toole and John Dan O’Mahony. They, along with Mick Mortell, the Kiely’s Tom and Jim, who were unrelated, Billy Galligan, Davey O’Brien, Noel Copley, Jimmy Barrett, Jackie Hanley and Mick Lynch. Trained by Owen McGrath and Dan Murphy, they carried the hopes of the Charleville GAA community of the late fifties into the championship.
The year 1958 started out as a dismal one for the club as they failed to elect a committee at the annual general meeting, and but for a few interested people who came together to form a committee there would not have been a team in that year’s championship series. But the team did come together and proved to be the surprise package of the championship with victories over fancied teams such as Midleton, old rivals Newtownshandrum and city side Saint Finbarr’s.
They met Glen Rovers in the final but, unfortunately, they did not prevail. However, although they tasted defeat they restored the pride in the jersey and Charleville hurling to the top echelons, and it took the best in the county to defeat them, emphasising that Charleville had hurlers that could hold their own with any in rebel Cork.
And so, the players of today will carry on that proud tradition of hurling when they take on their opponents in the final this weekend, and hopefully they will go one better than their counterparts in 1958, and realise the hopes and dreams of all Charleville people both at home and abroad.
We wish them success in their efforts to bring hurling honours to the town at this level, and bridge that sixty- year gap with a well-deserved and long-awaited victory.