Two Fine Wins for Tipperary

National Football League Division 3:

Tipperary 4-16; Louth 3-11

National Hurling League Division 1:

Tipperary 2-22; Kilkenny 1-13

Tipperary senior hurlers and footballers secured two very important league victories yesterday. The footballers had a good win over Louth after their long trip to Drogheda. They had two longer trips previously, to Armagh and Irvinestown, and were unlucky to come away empty-handed.

While promotion is very unlikely at this stage, if they win their two remaining games it will consolidate their position as an improving football force, which is something they can be proud of considering the difficulties for football advancement in the county.

The hurling game, played at Semple Stadium Thurles, was one that Tipperary had to win for the sake of their pride and self-confidence. They played with championship-like intensity, which closed down Kilkenny and denied them the acres of space which they thrive on. The game was much closer than the victory margin would indicate, which demonstrates how hard it is to put Kilkenny away — even with depleted forces — in the hurling style being applied for the past 25 years or so.

While Tipperary played with skill and passion, some aspects of their play need to be looked at. They use the hand-pass to good affect most of the time but they overdo it at times and lose possession. They should use the ball fast when in possession rather than hesitating and being hooked, as happens to some of them. The placing of an excellent back or midfielder like Brendan Maher at centre-half forward is wrong and he should be restored to his more normal position. No effort has been made to get a recognized full-back; a very good young newcomer, Michael Breen, played at full-back on the under 21 team last year and should have been tried out in that position during the course of the league.

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday is the name given in England to the 4th Sunday of lent, when apprentices in former days were given the opportunity to visit their mothers, taking a small present. English children in the 1960's were generally encouraged by schools and churches to observe the same custom.

Mother's Day in the USA is on the second Sunday of May. This was established by a Congress resolution in 1913. On that day Americans are encouraged, not least by shopkeepers, to give presents to their mothers.

My Old Home

A poor old cottage tottering to it's fall,
Some faded rose-trees scattered o'er the wall;
Four wooden pillars all slant one way,
A plot in front, bright green amid decay,
Where my wee pets, when e'er they came to tea,
Laughed, danced and played, and shouted in high glee;
A rusty paling and a broken gate
Shut out the world and bounded my estate.

Dusty and damp within, and rather bare,
Chokeful of books, here, there and everywhere.
Old-fashioned windows, and old doors that creaked,
Old ceilings cracked and grey, old walls that leaked.
Old chairs and tables, and an ancient lady
Worked out in tapestry, all rather shady.
Bright pictures in gilt frames, the only colour,
Making the grimy papering look duller.

What was the charm, the glamour that o'erspread
That dingy house and made it dear? — the dead,
The dead, the gentle, loving, kind and sweet,
The truest, tenderest heart that ever beat;
While she was with me 'twas indeed a home
Where every friend was welcome, when they'd come;
Her soft eyes shone with gladness, and her grace
Refined and beautified the poor old place.

But she is gone who made home for me there,
Whose child-like laugh, whose light step on the stair
Filled me with joy and gladness, hope and cheer,
To heaven she soared, and left me lonely here —
The old house now has got a brand new face.
The roses are uprooted, there's no trace
Of broken laugh, or blossom — no decay —
The past is dead, the world wags on alway.

— Ellen O'Leary

The Lows and Highs of Sport

Last Monday, the 2nd of March, was a day of contrasts for me regarding two sporting figures whom I greatly admired.

During the day I learned of the death of Tony Reddin, after a short illness, in his 96th year. 1949 was the first year in which I was capable of appreciating the sporting events taking place at the time. That was also the first year of a golden era for Tipperary hurling which lasted for the senior team until 1966. In 1949, Tipperary won both the senior and minor All-Ireland hurling titles. The star, among many, on the senior winning team was goalkeeper Tony Reddin. Tony had made his debut on the team at the close of 1948 when he was approaching his 30th birthday. He continued to produce spectacular displays of goalkeeping for Tipperary and Munster, as well as for his club Lorrha until 1956, when an eye injury sustained in a challenge game against Clare ended his county career. He continued to play for his club until the early sixties.

Tony was born in Mullagh, Co. Galway, on the 15th of November 1919. He played both in goal and outfield for Galway senior and junior hurlers. He moved residence to Lorrha, Co. Tipperary in 1947 where he owned and drove a hackney car. He went to live in Banagher, Co. Offaly in 1963. He trained the local St. Rynagh's senior hurling team which won ten Offaly senior titles between 1965 and 1976.

Tony Reddin is laid to rest in Rathcabin graveyard in the parish of Lorrha, Co. Tipperary. May the Lord have mercy on his gentle soul.

On the evening of last Monday I was delighted to hear on the radio that Padraig Harrington had achieved a notable golfing victory after a long absence from the podium. The popular Irish golfer had won the Honda Classic at the PGA National Resort and Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Flordia. This was his first win on American soil since the 2008 PGA Championship. He had a great run of wins in the mid noughties and then the wins dried up. I always admired his gentlemanly, and honourable, approach to the game which came through in his interviews. I hope that this is the restart of many more big wins for him.

Love of Country

Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land;
Whose heart hath ne'er within burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

— Sir Walter Scott

Pathetic Tipperary Display

National Hurling League Division 1A:

Dublin 2-20; Tipperary 0-14

In yesterday's game, played at Parnell Park, Dublin,Tipperary's inept display was reminiscent of the worst period — in the late '70's and early '80's — of their hurling recession between 1971 and 1987. The truth of the matter is that the recession in Tipperary hurling never ended; it simply improved from a dire situation as exemplified by the euphoria with which we all greeted the first round championship victory over Clare in 1983.

Being happy with winning one All-Ireland senior championship every decade is very depressing. In the 1950's and 1960's — the glory years of Tipperary hurling — titles were won by first time ground hurling, great spirit and physicality. It was a time when the leading Tipperary club teams could take on the top clubs in any other county and beat them. The changes to the club championship system allowed teams of inferior quality to continue playing senior year after year in a competition which guaranteed them 4 or 5 games even if they lost each one. The idea of relegation was anathema to those involved at club and board level. Not surprisingly, the competitive element and standard deteriorated. Tipperary teams, for a long number of years, have been unable to hit the ball on the ground and they are lacking the defensive qualities to properly defend the goal — and I am not talking here about foul tactics.

Unfortunately, hurling has become a handling game — especially over the past ten or more years. At times it is like rugby played with hurleys. Tipperary are finding it hard to compete with teams that always favoured the handling game because they lack the craft and physicality.

The Irish Peasant Girl

The song, Slievenamon, from the pen of Charles Kickham, has become the anthem of Tipperary. His other song, The Irish Peasant Girl, is dear to the hearts of those of us who live near the Anner at the foot of Slievenamon. I will quote the words hereon:

The Irish Peasant Girl

She lived beside the Anner,
At the foot of Slievenamon,
A gentle peasant girl,
With mild eyes like the dawn,
Her lips were dewy rosebuds,
Her teeth of pearls rare,
and a snowdrift 'neath a beechen bough,
Her neck and nut brown-hair. 

How pleasant 'twas to meet her
On Sunday,when the bell
Was filling with its mellow tones
Lone wood and grassy dell,
And when at eve young maidens
Strayed the river-bank along,
The widow's brown-haired daughter
Was loveliest of the throng. 

O brave, brave, Irish girls —
We well may call you brave;
For the least of all your perils
Is the stormy ocean wave,
When you leave your quiet valleys,
And cross the Atlantic's foam
To hoard your hard-won earnings
For the helpless ones at home. 

"Write word to my dear mother —
Say we'll meet with God above;
And tell my little brothers
I send them all my love;
May the angels ever guard them,
Is their sister's prayer" —
And folded in the letter
Was a braid of nut-brown hair. 

Ah, cold and well-nigh callous
This weary heart has grown,
For thy hapless fate, dear Ireland,
And for sorrows of my own;
Yet a tear my eye will moisten,
When by Anner's bank I stray,
For the Lily of the Mountain foot
That withered far away. 

— Charles J. Kickham

The following is taken from Tipperary County:People and Places which is described as an anthology of people, places and sites in the history of Tipperary. It was published in 1993 and it's editor was Michael Hallinan. Michael was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He occupied a number of important positions in the Civil and Public Service. He was born at Aughavolimane, Ballinamult, the southernmost townland in County Tipperary.

The Irish Peasant Girl was first contributed to the Celt in 1859. It was intended as a protest against the national evil of emigration, with special reference to the moral dangers to which young people were exposed on board ship in those harsh times. Kickham had been inspired by the fate of an exquisite gentle girl who pined away in exile, and who had sent some of her brown tresses, with a tender message, to her little brothers and sisters on Anner's bank at Killusty, Fethard, Co.Tipperary. The poet always called to see his cousin Catherin Carew, whenever trout-fishing in Killusty, and her departure for America. 

Michael Cavanagh of Cappoquin (later of Washington D.C.) who met Kickham in New York in 1864, on referring to Maid of Anner, was shown her photograph by him."The face seemed to be of a girl of eighteen, of oval shape, every feature as perfect as a painter ever imagined. But its great charm consisted in an expression of angelic innocence" 

— James Maher, Mullinahone