Talented Jack is a real ace in the pack

“After the first day, most of the people in Carnew started supporting us again, there was a lot of buzz around but obviously the second day was different.

Having a father like Jim Bob Doyle means that you are very likely to hurl at some stage and when that same father is your manager from when you’re six years of age then the small ball game is probably going to be number one.

“My father took us over at six and he’s still there to this day. I had Ger Donohue and Martin ‘Taypot’ Doyle and I suppose we definitely had one of the Collins there.

“But, I suppose what really got me started hurling was Tom Darcy’s mother, Kitty Darcy. She minded us, she was our childminder, and in junior infants and senior infants (and before) I’d come home from school and throw the schoolbag in the corner and I’d get a hurl and the door would be one goal and the washing machine would be the other goal and that was it then, we’d be hurling for the evening.

“I used to take the shins off her, all ground hurling, and we’d play until Mammy came home. So she gave me the skills and she still comes to all the matches. She was very handy and she didn’t go easy on me either,” he said.

The history and the tradition of hurling in Carnew is very important to Jack Doyle and watching Don Hyland during the pinnacle of his career was something that inspired him along the way and a photo of Jack as team mascot with Don and the likes of Graham Keogh, Thomas ‘Pheasant’ Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and others is something he cherishes still, especially seeing as he is now playing with most of those mentioned.

Plans for the future for Jack Doyle include going that extra step with the Carnew seniors and cementing his place on the Wicklow under-21 hurling team this year. Given the superb start to his senior career in 2016 and given his start in the game and the culture within which he has grown up in, there’s little doubt that he will star on the hurling fields of Wicklow for many years to come.