KILLINAN END - Killoscully and Limerick’s golden era
Limerick stand on the brink of the remarkable feat of four successive All-Ireland titles. Yet, they are not the first Shannonside team to play in four consecutive finals. That honour went to the team of the 1930s which played in all the finals from 1933-36 with even a replay thrown in for good measure. This was a team which also created history in the National League winning five years running along with three All-Irelands. The names will, like the current wearers of the Green, be spoken of forever and a day.
Of course, Limerick had a grand tradition in hurling in the early years of the GAA, with All-Irelands won in 1918 and 1921. These were uneven times in the association with disputes, rows, pitch-invasions, and objections always bubbling under the surface as if to reflect the nature of society and politics in those early decades. It was as if there was a handed-down belief that little could be achieved without agitation and fighting your corner. By 1934 when the GAA celebrated its golden jubilee disputes were still not unknown but there was much to celebrate. At Congress in Thurles a proposal from Munster Council to hold that year’s Hurling final in that same town was rejected though its day would come in time.
That jubilee final saw Limerick meet Dublin in Croke Park. The Shannonsiders had lost to Kilkenny the previous year when they “were on the offensive for most of the hour in the decider, but Kilkenny made better use of their scoring chances”, which is still a familiar narrative. Limerick’s captain in 1933 was a 24-year old midfielder from Ahane who also led them onto Croke Park a year later face a Dublin team which had dethroned Kilkenny in a replay.
Timmy Ryan came of age just as his club was poised to emerge one of the greatest club teams to ever cross the whitewash. The first County Senior title came in 1931 and by the time Timmy bowed out he had collected another 12 County medals. At their peak there was a star everywhere, and in 1940 they achieved one of the most remarkable feats in hurling history by providing seven players for Limerick’s All-Ireland winning team plus four subs. They remain rightly proud to this day. A spin around Castleconnell parish will take you past Paddy Scanlon Park as well as statues of Mick Mackey and Jackie Power.
The 1934 team which beat Dublin in a replay is remarkable. It included Ned Cregan – father of Eamon, Garrett Howard – father of Liz and the only Limerick man (so far) with five All-Ireland medals, and also Bob McConkey – the first man to receive the Liam McCarthy Cup back in 1921. Then you had the Mackey brothers from Ahane, the Clohessy’s of Fedamore, and Ahane’s Jimmy Close. Close won a North Senior championship in 1932 with Newport. Another member of that Newport team was also plying his trade with Ahane by 1934 – Mick Ryan (Cregane) who formed the midfield partnership with Timmy Ryan (Goodboy). This would have been the ultimate old-style ‘doubling on it’ midfield in days when direct possession did not give players the same advantage it does now.
But Timmy Goodboy was also famous among his team-mates for his athleticism and stamina, the ability to get around the pitch and to stay at it. From the early 1930s to the mid-40s he was an automatic choice at midfield for a powerful Limerick team which was not short of options. Perhaps his finest hour might have been that 1934 replay when he was presented with the MacCarthy Cup in what was a special year for the GAA. Further All-Irelands were added in 1936 and 1940 but this might have been a three-in-a-row if not a four-in-a-row team with a kinder roll of the dice.
The 1934 final was described by Carbery, famous hurling writer of the day, as the best he had seen in 35 years for sheer excitement – the teams were level with two minutes left only for Limerick to win by five. Six years later Limerick beat Kilkenny and it was reported that “Timmy Ryan gave another magnificent display of powerful striking, grand drives and stamina, his overhead striking making him the centre of attraction.” Clearly this was one of hurling history’s finest midfielders, a case also once argued enthusiastically by no less a man than the great Jimmy Finn.
An interesting aspect of Timmy’s career was the amount of travel he did through hurling with trips to America more than once in the 1930s as well as playing tournaments in Mitchum Stadium, London, a venue long since gone but spanking new back in the mid-1930s. Despite his great loyalty to Ahane and Limerick he successfully crossed the great divide into Tipperary in the 1940s and set up life and family in Killoscully with his hostelry becoming a focal point in ‘the Village’. He might have ended up in the heart of Tipperary, but he will ever hold a special place wherever green is worn.