Faithful re-live years of glory
IT’S been nine years since Annascaul GAA Club had a ‘social’ – which meant they had a lot to talk about when the club’s past and present players, mentors, managers, families and followers gathered in the Dingle Bay Hotel on Saturday night to celebrate the achievements of the year just gone and the even greater achievements of some 30 years ago when Annascaul began a period of unprecedented football dominance.
It took well over an hour to hand out the stack of commemorative trophies to the players who carved the club’s name into history during the golden era from 1987 to 1993 when Annascaul was a force to be reckoned with. In that period Annascaul won the Intermediate County Championship, Division 1 and Division 2 County League titles, the West Kerry League, the West Kerry Championship, the County Club Championship. Many of those titles were won several times but perhaps the sweetest success of all was that “we beat Dingle for five years on the trot in every senior competition” as Annascaul born and Dingle-based John Ashe succinctly summed it up.
The night wasn’t all about past glories - Junior team manager Johnny Lenihan presented awards to his charges in the B-team who won the county Cahill Cup this year. And trophies were also presented to Colm Moriarty and Killian Falvey to recognise their achievements with the Kerry Minor team that completed an historic five-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles this year.
The social was organised by Brendan Falvey, Sean Barry and his daughter Elaine, and Martha Farrell whose husband Gene was one of the stars of the Annascaul senior team and Batt Cronin fell in to mount a collage of newspaper reports and photographs of Annascaul’s years of football glory, which were greatly enjoyed.
“We were really happy with the night; a lot of work went into it, we got great support and the place was throbbing,” said Brendan Falvey after the dust had settled.