Happy 90th to Rathnure club
Reflections from 2001 remain relevant, 20 years later
2021 IS an important year in the annals of Rathnure St. Anne’s GAA club.
Given that they were formed in 1931, those of a black and amber persuasion will be hoping that they will get a chance to properly celebrate the 90th anniversary in these virus-riddled times.
In the meantime, and to whet the appetite, we have decided to re-produce the oration given by SEAN OG O DUBHGHAILL when the good folk of Rathnure gathered in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy on Sunday, October 28, 2001, to mark the 70th anniversary.
A lot of the sentiments expressed have stood the test of time, and can still be applied to the devotion displayed by club members to this very day.
Some of the faces have changed, naturally enough, over that 20-year timeframe, but the central message remains the same.
Best wishes to Rathnure St. Anne’s on their 90th anniversary, and here’s hoping we will be able to return to some normality soon to enable them mark this notable milestone in a fitting manner.
Now, it’s over to Seán Og:
‘What an eventful and extraordinary seventy years. Seventy years of glorious success and agonising defeat.
‘What joy, delight, elation and excitement were generated by the exponents of the ancient game from the parish of Rathnure?
‘What an adventure was set in motion by the founding fathers of the Rathnure St. Anne’s GAA club all those years ago, which created a storehouse of titles, trophies, unique records and bulging archives containing glowing reports of many memorable games and victories.
‘No doubt Rathnure supporters have been spoiled by success and yet there is still an insatiable desire for more.
‘Rathnure GAA club was founded in 1931 and its first county championship was won in 1940. Ever since that first year the commitment to the sport has been non-stop on the Gaelic fields of Ireland by generations of Rathnure hurlers, footballers, and camogie players.
‘Its fame as one of the premier clubs in Ireland has spread far and wide, and members of the club achieved national fame and became legends in their own lifetime.
‘The club supplied players to Wexford county teams, to Leinster Railway Cup teams, to the Ireland team, and to the team representing the Universities. Their names will live on in song and story. Yes, and the parish have supplied the songwriters and singers too.
‘Rathnure contributed enormously to the resurgence of Wexford hurling from the late 1940s right through the 1950s and up to the present day.
‘It is difficult for the young people here tonight to realise what it was like when Wexford won the All-Ireland hurling final in 1955 - Wexford’s first All-Ireland since 1910, a gap of 45 years.
‘The Wexford team of the fifties captured the imagination of all sports writers. Their descriptions of the amazing feats of the hurlers from the Model county came across as pure poetry, and the most creative of the sports literature was reserved for Rathnure men who became national figures during that dazzling decade.
‘Nicky Furlong’s Book, “The Greatest Hurling Decade”, captures the spirit of the period very well and it is an excellent read for people who didn’t live through it.
‘Another excellent book, written by one of Rathnure’s own, is “No Hurling at the Dairy Door”, and it gives a vivid account of the period. The atmosphere and the delirium of that wonderful year of 1996 convey some of the excitement of the fifties.
‘In his book “Landscape and Memory”, the historian Simon Schama wrote that “identity would lose much of its ferocious enchantment without the mystique of a particular landscape tradition, its topography mapped, elaborated and enriched as homeland”.
‘The parish homeland of the Rathnure GAA club stretches along the foothills of the Blackstairs and the White Mountain, and it embodies an identity held on to as ferociously as any identity in the country.
‘Its mountain backdrop, its gentle hills, its verdant valleys, its free-flowing streams and its pleasant fertile landscapes are certainly mapped in all our memories, and its lore and history have enriched all our lives.
‘The deeds and fame of our Gaelic players over the years have added a new chapter to the story of Kilanne, Rathnure, Templeudigan and Ballywilliam, and as time goes by it will become an exciting part of our tradition as any that has gone before. It is our cultural landscape and, as our homeland, fulfils all our need for an identity.
‘Almost one hundred and fifty titles have been won by the club since 1940, in hurling, football and camogie, and many players and officials have been involved including many present at this function.
‘Some are gone to their eternal reward and they are in our memory tonight, a night celebrating 70 years of the existence of a famous club which all of them gave their allegiance to in good times and bad.
‘All the players who did not reach county or national prominence but turned out week after week, year after year, should also be in our thoughts tonight.
‘Officials and administrators are very important for the smooth running of a GAA club, particularly one that turns out so many teams like Rathnure.
‘It must be admitted that the club was lucky to have so many dedicated people, who as lovers of Gaelic games inspired many a youngster to take those first faltering steps to becoming a Rathnure player.
‘They are the backbone of the GAA. They give many hours of voluntary work over many years to the games they love.
‘It is the last great amateur sport in the world. It can take you from the local hurling field to the greensward of Croke Park and beyond. It is about Ireland and the Irish and indeed about Rathnure too, our own place.
‘It is an intrinsic part of our everyday culture. It is the record of our sportsmen and women and their achievements. It is the chronicle of people, places and primaeval passions.
‘Stories of Herculean deeds on Gaelic fields are stored deep in our consciousness. It is the prismatic glass through which the people of a parish like Rathnure can view themselves and their neighbours, and from which they evoke pride and hope.
‘When one lives outside the parish for a period, one can assess the outsider’s view of one’s own place. It must be said that people from all hurling areas have a genuine respect for the achievements of Rathnure and its contribution to the Games of the Gael, and for providing them with some of the greatest individual displays of hurling ever seen.
‘The GAA can be many things - a sports organisation, a provider of health and fitness, a catalyst for social cohesion in a parish, a type of youth club, an expression of our nationalism, and above all it can be the fulfilment of one’s youthful dreams.
‘In the sporting world it is said that tradition and continuity will create an atmosphere where a particular style or attitude can flourish. Accepting the veracity of such a statement then, truly it can be applied to Rathnure.
‘There is a man here tonight who epitomises that continuity which is so essential for any institution to endure for 70 years. I speak of Mikey Redmond, the quintessential Rathnure man.
‘He was there as a young boy at the beginning in 1931 and he is here tonight enjoying himself in 2001. A native of the pleasant plain of Ballybawn, he personifies all that is good and noble about Rathnure and Gaelic games.
‘He knew all the greats of the sport from Rathnure that transcended the years to the present day. He himself, one of the best, exemplified the distinctive Rathnure approach to the games – dedication, discipline, loyalty and above all determination and enthusiasm.
‘No matter where you go outside Rathnure and meet people who know hurling, they all say that Mikey Redmond was the greatest of them all. Mikey’s feats on the field of play were first reported all those years ago on the pages of the local press, and now you can see his name ‘up in lights’ on the world wide web.
‘On behalf of all here present, indeed on behalf of all Gaels, we say thank you Mikey Redmond, hurler, athlete, administrator and still a faithful follower of Rathnure teams. We salute you!
‘The mantle of greatness has now passed on to the present generation. There is no doubt you are worthy inheritors of the 70 years of achievement and you will replenish the repository where all the titles of the past are stored.
‘Tomorrow when the Minor hurlers play and next Sunday when the Senior team take to the field, the mystical emanations of your mountainy homeland and the inspirational deeds of your forebears will give you all that extra indefinable something to bolster your own prowess.
‘All you need is confidence and the will to win for the honour and glory of the little parish, and you too will write your own chapter and add it to the ongoing story of the Rathnure St. Anne’s GAA club.’
FOOTNOTE: The legendary Mikey Redmond has since passed to his eternal reward.
He was one of two 14-year-olds, along with Ned Caulfield, to attend the first meeting that led to the formation of Rathnure St. Anne’s GAA Club in 1931.
People from all hurling areas have a genuine respect for the achievements of Rathnure and its contribution