‘Stoney’ crossed border and faced his native county
OUR JOURNEY through the non-natives to don the Wexford jersey in hurling focused last week on Pat Mulcahy and his two appearances off the bench in 1975. He had joined Faythe Harriers earlier that year, but prior to that he got a close glimpse of the emergence of arguably the greatest club team of all time.
That was in 1973 when, as left half-forward on the Dicksboro side in his native Kilkenny, Mulcahy’s best efforts weren’t enough to prevent Shamrocks from winning the county Junior title on a 2-12 to 2-7 scoreline.
A very interesting arrival off the bench for the beaten finalists in that game was the late Willie Duggan, who went on to win 41 international rugby caps between 1975 and 1984, captain his country, and represent the Lions in 1977.
Despite that final defeat, Dicksboro decided to upgrade to Intermediate for 1974, only to suffer another defeat at the hands of Shamrocks, this time in the quarter-final.
Pat had scored ten points in an earlier win over Emeralds of Urlingford and, after an initial brief stint on the Wexford club scene with the Harriers, he was back with the ’Boro in 1977.
They had lost the 1976 Intermediate final to Graiguenamanagh minus his services, and the heartbreak was doubled twelve months later when Conahy Shamrocks pipped them in the decider by one point (3-9 to 1-14).
Three of Pat’s four points came from frees, with the ‘Kilkenny People’ report noting that when he ‘got going in the second half he showed all the style’.
There was a second coming for Mulcahy with the Harriers in the mid-eighties, and he replaced John ‘Stella’ Walker in the course of their county final replay loss to Buffers Alley in 1984.
One year earlier he had displayed his prowess with the big ball as part of the Intermediate title-winning Volunteers team, on a great day for the club in New Ross when they also claimed Juvenile honours in the curtain-raiser.
From 1983, and Fr. Martin Casey’s last appearance with Wexford, a nine-year gap followed before - in similar fashion to Pat Mulcahy - a Kilkenny native crossed the border to briefly line out for the ‘auld enemy’.
The goalkeeping duties with the county for the 1991-’92 National League campaign were shared between John Cooper (Adamstown) and Oylegate-Glenbrien’s Mikey Nolan, son of the legendary long-serving Pat, and equally adept in the forward line.
However, when the Leinster championship started with a 4-8 to 1-11 win over Laois in Carlow on the last day of May, David ‘Stoney’ Burke was between the posts.
The former Emeralds clubman, assisting Rathgarogue-Cushinstown at the time, went on to play in a 3-16 to 3-8 semi-final victory against Dublin, and the subsequent 3-16 to 2-9 loss to his home county in the provincial decider.
That was the last of his three appearances for a man who had been a thorn in our side earlier in his career. Indeed, he had manned the posts for Kilkenny in their All-Ireland Minor and Under-21 title wins of 1981 and 1984 respectively, beating Wexford in both instances along the way.
He was deputy goalkeeper to Kevin Fennelly when the Cats beat us in the National League Home final of 1990, while he won an Oireachtas medal on the field of play in 1984 and also claimed two All-Ireland Junior hurling medals - as understudy to John Brennan in centenary year, and as the number one four campaigns later.
Near the end of 1992, a newcomer from over the border in Wicklow matched the feat of ‘Stoney’ by playing three times with the Wexford Seniors. Carnew native Declan Myers - whose brother, John Joe, joined Kilrush at one point and played Junior football with us in 1996 - operated for a spell with St. Martin’s and captained them to the Intermediate football crown in 1994.
He scored two points on his Wexford hurling debut in a league tie against Clare in Ennis on October 25, 1992, and also started at corner-forward against Waterford a fortnight later before coming off the bench in the Walsh Cup final loss to Kilkenny on November 29.