PITCH CLOSED

The past week has seen some high profile GAA teams caught organising group training sessions. This has caused some embarrassment for those involved and the GAA has a whole. In the past week, we, in White’s Cross have seen increased action on our playing field. Those involved in playing/training are not White’s Cross GAA members. White’s Cross and St Colmcille’s GAA teams are not training presently. Though people may feel that there is no harm to it, the GAA and government rules are quite clear. There are to be no organised training sessions.

We in White’s Cross are adhering to those rules. We wish reaffirm that our pitches are closed and they should not be used by anybody. We hope at the end of this month to be able to return to underage training. Until that point, we hope that everybody stays safe and follows the guidelines. We would like to thank the community for their co-operation with this.

SCHOOLS SUCCESS

Last week we looked at how pupils of the Upper Glanmire school contributed to the schools shield successes of 1950 for the Glanmire parish combined schools team and how a number of those individuals went on to be key members of the White’s Cross GAA club when it was formed later that decade.

The school had some success of its own also in the 1950s as it entered the Cork City and County National School Sports each year. In 1955, the school won the O’Connell Cup which was the prize for the best mixed school. They would repeat this feat again in 1957 1958 and 1959. Among the athletes that were prominent at the time were Thomas Coughlan of Coole East who also had individual success seemingly each year from when he was U7 in 1954 right up to 1961. Tom McEvoy who would be a key player for White’s Cross and county minor hurler in 1963 had success in 1958. This year was the first year that White’s Cross GAA had competitive action and they would have been trained at time by Tom’s father, Capt Patrick McEvoy. Pauline O’Keeffe from Dublin Pike was another person who was enjoying success on the running field in consecutive years in the mid 1950s. Her brothers would be prominent members of White’s Cross GAA in its early years. Indeed one of them, Bob, was a medal winner in 1959.

In these last few weeks we have seen that there was lots of sporting activity and indeed success in the school in the lead up to the founding of the club, effectively showing that there were plenty of good athletes in the parish that were capable of sustaining a new club. In the next week we will look at the first school shields success for the school and some of the key players that help the school to win that.