What of Mooncoin?
Clubs from Cork and Kilkenny will cross camáns on Saturday in an effort to bring home the All-Ireland AIB Junior Club Hurling Championship.
Ballygiblin’s opposition have a proud heritage and Mooncoin GAA Club is one of the oldest clubs in County Kilkenny, having formed in 1886. It is the home of the renowned Kilkenny anthem ‘The Rose of Mooncoin’ and the club colours are green and white.
A sneak look at their website, shows that ‘by far the most popular sport being played in Mooncoin are the Gaelic Games of hurling and football’, with their main hurling team playing Junior grade and the football team playing in the Senior Kilkenny league and championship. The club also fields a Junior B hurling team as well as teams at U21, Minor and underage, down to U11.
The pedigree of players the club has produced since its foundation can be simply gauged by the fact that 56 All-Ireland senior hurling medals have been won by players from the club, including a record 19 by the Doyle brothers - Eddie, Dick and Mick.
PROUD CLUB
Mooncoin's contribution to Kilkenny's victory in the 1909 championship shows that 10 Mooncoin men played in the All-Ireland final when Kilkenny beat Tipperary in the Cork Athletic Grounds – namely Bill Henebery, Jim Dunphy, Jim Ryan, Eddie Doyle, Joe Delahunty, Drug Walsh, Mick Doyle, Dick Doherty, Jimmy Kelly (the scoring machine) and Dick Doyle. The Kilkenny team lined out in the Mooncoin jerseys that day.
However on their way to that victory, 16 Mooncoin men (17-a-side) played for Kilkenny against Derry in the semi-final.
DOYLES OF DOURNANE
As mentioned already, the achievement of the Doyle family from Mooncoin has been remarkable in representing Kilkenny and attaining a haul of All-Ireland medals. Dick, Mick and Eddie Doyle of Dournane in Mooncoin, won 19 All-Ireland senior medals between them, 18 of them on the field of play. They won these during Kilkenny's first golden era, when between 1904 and 1913 they won seven All-Ireland titles.
A Mooncoin man was also President of the GAA, with Bob O'Keeffe head of the Association from 1935-1938.
According to the club’s official social media channel, they plan on running 2 buses to Saturday’s All-Ireland, so if you pass either broken down on the side of the road en route to HQ, be sure to give them a good beep of the horn!