Magpies lucky at last
“Way too long, it has been a long time coming” - Liam O'Shea
“There's huge relief in people” - Seamus Hennessy
“We are going to celebrate this because it has been so long since we won the North so we have to celebrate it” - Jack Peters
Some of the emotions from the Kilruane MacDonagh's camp after they ended a 28 year wait for their 19th North Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship title.
While there has been much debate in recent years about whether the link between the divisional and county championship remains, the scenes in MacDonagh Park on Sunday and the celebrations around Ardcroney, Cloughjordan and Kilruane over the last three days, highlights just how important the competition still is to traditionally strong hurling clubs such as Kilruane.
Seamus Hennessy's comment that the win was as much about “relief” as anything else is appropriate and no one club has had more attention on it than Kilruane, particularly from their underage success in the mid-2000's at minor and under 21 level. Back then, they were going toe to toe with Thurles Sarsfields and their teams that contained Padraic Maher, Michael Cahill and Pa Bourke, and yet it is the Mid men that have gone onto dominate the county scene while Kilruane failed to win any championship silverware of note, until last Sunday.
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