PART THREE
BY JOHN FITZGERALD
Continuing the story of the Callan “Street League” showdowns… The meetings at which match challenges were agreed upon were held at a variety of venues. Peter Roughan gave a few examples: Hickey’s Forge, the back of the Academy, and Jackie Croke’s barn.
When a ball needed mending, Johnny Walsh, the saddler, did the job. He and his apprentice, Martin Woodgate, got to work with the wax and needles and the broken ball looked as good as new next morning.
There were no goal posts when the barefoot hurlers played: Just two bundles of coats and boots piled seven yards apart. This encouraged the teams to go for goals, as it was difficult to be certain if and when the ball had gone over the invisible “bar” that the sportsmen had to imagine protruding upwards from the two piles of coats.
The referee tended to take a lenient view of “rough play”, and there is no recorded instance of anyone ever having been put off the field for fouling.
Peter Roughan explained: “Once the ball was flung in, the ref let them at it. The honour of “Our Street” was at stake, and wallops on the shins and knuckles didn’t count. The lads were out for goals and nothing else. Any referee that sent a man off the pitch would soon lose his job.”
Among the most common pieces of useful advice and commentary shouted by “hurlers on the ditch” at the barefooted players were: “Give ’im the shoulder”…“Don’t be afraid to snoggle ’im”… “Go home and smother yourself”…“He couldn’t hit the abbey castle.”
The tension could be unbearable at some matches, and the local GP warned anyone of an excitable nature to reconsider attending such games. And of course the untimely intervention of Mahony’s sheep or Jack Walsh’s ass could wreak havoc with the sport, forcing re-plays and occasionally inciting breaches of the peace.
Emigration and the Great War conspired to end the “rules-free” hurling on the Green. Many of the lads who had a whale of a time messing about in those carefree years joined the King’s army and went to France or Belgium to fight for the British … and never came back. Paddy Kenny of West Street was one of them.
In the decades that followed, up to the early sixties, matches between the streets were played, but in a more organized and conventional way, in accordance with GAA rules and guidelines.
The days of the barefoot hurler in Callan were over.
Athletic Prowess at Ballyclovin
On August 30th, 1903, Ballyclovin had its annual sports day in Dan Grady’s field, opposite Dick Grainger’s sandpit. President of the Sports Day event was Willie Tobin of Kylenaskeagh, ably assisted in his tension-racked adjudicating assignment by his right hand man, Mick Walsh of Cappahayden.
The principal action centred around running and biking contests. Judging the bike races were Tobin, Walsh, and John Robinson, a shop assistant at Pollards in Green Street.
Pat Murphy of Redhouse, Joe Butler of Minauns (a brother of Col. William Butler) and Tom O’ Shea of Cappahayden judged the running events.
Assigned to the task of lap keeping were Jack Minogue of Ballyclovin and Tom Tobin of Glown. Tom was a clerk in Pat Grainger’s office and a grand uncle of superstar Kilkenny hurler Eddie Keher.
Martin Myles of Westcourt, Jim Holden of Glown, and Paddy Brett, a carpenter, were “call stewards” for the occasion.
Looking back, Peter Roughan wondered what the big attraction was for the lads who participated in the sporting day festival. The apple and sugar stick stands appealed to some, and the prizes to be won concentrated the minds of other contenders.
Har Murray of Desart scooped first prize in the under-16s race, a watch that would cost him a small fortune to buy. Ned Halley came in second, and was presented with an alarm clock. Both watch and clock ticked for more than forty years and served the athletes well throughout their lives…
To be continued…
(More stories of those bygone times can be read in my book Callan in Words and Pictures, which is available from Amazon)
