On a bitterly cold St Patrick’s Day, Thurles CBS produced an amazing comeback in the final 20 mins to overcome Presentation College Athenry in the All Ireland Colleges Senior Hurling final to win the Croke Cup and warm the hearts of their followers.
Trailing by 8 points, after Athenry scored a crucial 2nd goal in the 40th minute of the match, the Thurles boys regrouped and diligently set about chipping away at their Galway opponents lead. Remarkably Thurles CBS out scored their opponents by 12 points to 3 in the last twenty minutes.
Thurles CBS started the match very strongly and were dominating all over the field and led by 6 points to 1 point after 14 minutes. This prompted some changes and an early substitution by Athenry who managed to draw level by half time, after an opportunistic free by Aaron Niland, was deflected to the net against the run of play.
Thurles started the 2nd half very positively with an excellent Kieran Rossiter score – the Durlas Og player would end up with 4 points from play and a deserved player of the match accolade. However with Athenry gaining superiority in the middle sector and their forward line led by the rampaging Jason Rabbitte, Athenry went into a deserved 2-14 to 0-12 lead, with twenty minutes to go.
However, in a testament to the character of the Thurles CBS panel, led by manager Niall Cahill of Urlingford Emeralds, there was no panic and Thurles CBS fought for every ball, and set about eating into the Athenry lead. Hard running, dominant defending and excellent stickwork were the keys to the fightback with finishes from Rossiter, Cillian Minogue, the imperious Euan Murray and substitute James Butler, adding to the free taking of Cormac Fitzpatrick and the all round workrate of every single player in the Blue and Gold of Thurles CBS.
The winning score came from a free by Cormac Fitzpatrick after Kieran Rossiter was tripped bearing down on goal. The final whistle brought scenes of jubilation from the travelling Thurles support. Holycross-Ballycahill’s Robbie Ryan had the honour of lifting the Croke Cup after his hardworking display on the field, and he delivered a passionate and rousing speech, thanking all those who helped this special group of young men in their journey to Dr. Harty Cup and Croke Cup successes.
Lyrics: American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer and director Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II and American composer Richard Charles Rodgers, (Rodgers and Hammerstein). Vocals: English beat group Gerry and the Pacemakers(Group formed in 1956)
You’ll Never Walk Alone.
When you walk through a storm, Hold your head up high, And don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of a storm, There’s a golden sky, And the sweet silver song of a lark. Walk on through the wind, Walk on through the rain, For your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on, With hope in your heart, And you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone. Walk on, walk on, With hope in your heart, And you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.
Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland established effective from 5 March 2025.
Seven members to be appointed to independent authority, including chairperson Mr Paul Quinn.
An order for parts of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, enabling the Authority to become operational to establish Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, on a statutory basis, will now commence.
Seven members of this new, independent Authority, will be appointed and commence their roles with effect from tomorrow, March 5th, 2025. They will be the members of the Authority which will be responsible for regulating and licencing all gambling providers in the State and which will have wide ranging powers to regulate both in-person and online gambling, gaming and most lotteries.
Mr. Paul Quinn has been appointed as chair of the Authority and the other newly appointed members are named as follows:- Ms. Celine Craig. Ms. Marion Kelly. Ms. Rita Purcell. Mr. David Hickson. Mr. Michael McGrath. Dr. Colin O’Driscoll, (Ordinary Member).
Makings Of A Tipperary Hurling Star [Short Story From Poet & Author Tom Ryan].
In the ‘Watery Mall’, when Tipperary prepare to take to the field, in an inter-county encounter, the fever and the sweat and commotion that builds up in the area a week before the game, is akin to the lads of the Curragh Command preparing for an invasion from Mars at a minute’s notice. All earthly matters are inconsequential then, the game is the thing.
For at least a week in advance the boys of the old brigade in Thurles and district (in another country they would have won Purple Hearts for devotion above and beyond the call of duty), discuss the game in a manner to suggest that anything less than victory will result in such immediate and terrible war and want in the county, that no man has ever seen or heard; whence this feverish love of the caman of Cuchulainn?
“The Hurler” by Painter & Journalistic Illustrator Jack B. Yeats, (1871-1957).
In County Tipperary victory is victory to be taken with a pinch of salt, but defeat has the same effect as ten bad doses of the hard stuff, on the bodeily system. Defeat signals the end of the world, for hurling is our world, and we measure the worth of a man, at all times, by his prowess in pucking a ball into the net or preventing another man from doing the same, depending on his position on the field. Although many a player is said to have got confused on that issue.
Contrary to popular notion babies in Tipperary are NOT born with a mini-caman in their mouths. I would dispel that highfalutin’ notion immediately. But it is generally conceded that the pacing and panting father-to-be in the maternity hospital is known to bolster his courage and confidence, on the big day by squeezing a tan ball in his fist (the left one, as in hurling, unless a ciotog).
The baby’s christening shawl is said to be of a blue and gold hue in certain parishes of great fidelity to the game. Blue and Gold are the primary colours in Tipperary, and many a Premier County Man gave half his breath for them in junior games, suit-length tournaments, county and inter county championships and in friendlies that are not as sociable as made out.
In Tipperary educational circles, while the parents are the first educators and teachers and many a parent takes up the training of the hurler-to-be from the age of one year and four months, nevertheless, it is consensus opinion that the Christian Brothers school field and the parish hurling grounds will serve the young fellow’s educational requirements best. Hence, after a brief period of poking a ball around the convent school yard in Junior and Senior Infants, the ‘Star–To-Be‘ graduates to the National School inter-class leagues and thence to the inter-schools tournaments, where he is subjected to his first major test as a man.
As a member of the under 10 team he will be expected to earn his first medal for the school, like his father before him. Failure to win this medal could ensure that the wee fella’s supplies of videos, crisps or Mars Bars and lemonade are frozen for a week to restore his sense of priorities. For it is always the television or the computer games that are apportioned blame for defeat; and very far from the telly the wee lad’s father was reared, his innocent assured.
From an early age the ‘Star-To-Be’ is taught the Tipperary anthem – “Sliabh-na-mBan,” and encouraged to read the GAA columns in the “Tipperary Star”, which paper’s reporters will have a decided say in the matter of whether he will, in later years, be a county prospect or just another mere mortal; like you and me.
Many a youngster will at some future time earn glory, not in the Stock Exchange or in ambassadorial circles, but in the blue and gold colours on the green battle ground in Croke Park, Dublin on some Sunday in September. For ‘tis to that goal that the hurler’s life has been directed since he uttered his first word “ta” (abbreviation for tan ball). If the little fella fails to make the county colours he is certainly not exempt from duty to the blue and gold and he will be expected to stoutly and solemnly stand by the colours on all hurling occasions and to “folly the boys” that have been honoured by the selectors.
When he weds, his wife will be expected, especially if she comes from a non-hurling county, to dutifully wrap up his ham and eggs and lettuce sandwiches on the night before a big game and to get ‘Hubbie’ up for first Mass on the morning of a big match, which same ‘Hubbie’ has been playing and replaying in his local hostelry the night before.
Hurling is in the blood and bones of us Tipperary “Stonethrowers” and it would be better by far if a Tipp man married a hurling county lassie. Otherwise, divorce is a possibility in a marriage where one partner is not conversant with the caman (latter Irish for hurl). My missus, who hailed from a football parish in Dublin laughed when I told her that our marriage and hurling were to be joint and equal partners. Early on she had been sounding out Tipp topics; for friends observed her on numerous occasions, in the vicinity of Semple Stadium; and guess the colours of her new hat!
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