Sport

As highlighted in previous articles Glenmore won the 1920 Kilkenny Senior Football Final in February 1922 against their old rivals Cloneen. (Please see our blog post of 20 February 2022 for further details regarding the 1920 final played in February 1922). On the 5th of November 1922, nine of the Glenmore 1920 championship team members played for Kilkenny in the Leinster Final. See our blog post of 4 December 2022 for details regarding the 1922 Leinster Final. This Kilkenny team also contained three players from Cloneen. Seven days after the Leinster Final, Glenmore played Cloneen for the Kilkenny 1922 Senior Football Final. The County Final was played in St. James’s Park, Kilkenny City. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the 1922 Kilkenny Senior Football Final was that it was played actually in 1922. It also was described as a “… clean game entirely devoid of shady tactics, and the referee had an easy task” (Kilkenny People, Sat. 18 Nov. 1922, p. 4). Most of the following description of the County championship final was gleaned from the Kilkenny People (Sat. 18 Nov. 1922, p. 4).

Kilkenny Senior Football Championship Final 1922

A moderate crowd gathered at St. James’s Park on Sunday the 12th of November 1922 to watch the contest between the old rivals—Glenmore and Cloneen—in the county championship for 1922. “The evening was admirable for the game, the weather being beautifully soft and calm and the pitch in splendid form. Glenmore fielded their championship team, but were without the services of their clever inter-county wing forward—Jimmy Hanrahan.” The Glenmore team included eight of the team which battled for Leinster honours earlier in November. The Glenmore team members “were in splendid form and gave a powerful display of strong and effective football.” Cloneen on the other hand was labelled, disorganised and without training. The newspaper reported that Cloneen had great difficulty and delay in fielding a full team. Notwithstanding these difficulties the Cloneen team members that showed up played in a “spirited manner in which they contested the issue to the final whistle.” The newspaper reported that this “reflects the highest credit on the good spirit of the once famous North Kilkenny team.”

The First Half

“The game, late in starting, was fought at a fairly fast pace both ends being visited in quick succession at the outset, but once settled down Glenmore took the upper hand and fielding in faultless fashion and delivering powerfully and judiciously they stormed their opponents citadel. The Cloneen backs defended in fine style, but despite their best efforts the clever combination of Connolly, Fitzgerald and Cody, ably supported by Doherty, had accounted for a big score at the interval when Glenmore led by 2 goals, 3 points to nil. [9 to 0] A goal had been disallowed Glenmore in this half for an infringement of the “parallelogram” rule, and a second goal was lost as the whistle had just gone for a foul. The efforts of Tommy Brennan, Hughes, Shield and Andy Brennan [Cloneen] were certainly worth a couple of scores in this half but being without their old forwards the chances went abegging.“

The Second Half

“Cloneen made some spirited dashes in the second half and play was of a fairly up and down character, but the rock-like defence of Irish, Cody, the Heffernans and Hartleys was unbeatable, though Cloneen notched a very fine goal and were certainly unlucky to lose a couple of chances. Cloneen are to be congratulated on their fine defece under almost constant pressure, but they had to yield to the inevitable and the Glenmore forwards, who were deadly accurate in their shooting further increased their lead and the final whistle left the score—Glenmore—3 goals, 5 points; Cloneen—1 goal.” [For our international readers a goal is worth 3 points, thus the final score was 14 to 3].

Commentary About the Game

The sports writer for the Kilkenny People (Sat. 18 Nov. 1922, p. 4) opined that Glenmore “gave a splendid exhibition their fielding being superb. Their fine and accurate deliveries played havoc” with Cloneen. Although it was a “very much one sided game” it was stated that it was nevertheless an interesting game with some fine passages of play. The Cloneen players, the Brennans and Hughes, all made a “great effort to save a lost cause, but their work was not sufficiently supported.” “All the Glenmore players lived up to their reputations—the Coadys, Irish, Connolly, Doherty, the Fitzgeralds, Heffernans and Hartleys contributing to the success of the team.” The coverage in the Muster Express (Sat. 18 Nov. 1922,  p. 3) consisted of two sentences. “Glenmore defeated Cloneen in the final round of the Kilkenny Football Championships at Kilkenny on Sunday last. CLoneen made a very bad stand, and Glenmore ran out easy winners with a very large score to their credit.”

The sports writer for the Kilkenny People (Sat. 18 Nov. 1922, p. 4) concluded that Glenmore, “as an individual team it can be truly said that they have no equal in the province, not even among the best Dublin teams. Connolly again showed his aptitude for his position as a centre forward, some of his goals being marvellous.” The article then noted that “Many spectators were most anxious to know why Doherty was not given a place on the team which played in the Leinster Final. The selection committee only too well knew his worth and pressed him to take a place on the team, but he was adamant and more’s the pity.” Notwithstanding that the Civil War was still raging it was reported that “the members of the County Committee present were delighted that such a large number of National troops and officers patronised the fixture. It was encouraging to see our own army support our national pastime in such good numbers.”

The players of the 1922 Kilkenny Senior Football Final were:

Glenmore—J. Murphy; Martin Cody (Capt.); Paddy Cody; Andy Heffernan, of Aylwardstown; Stephen Heffernan, of Aylwardstown; J. Doherty; John Fitzgerald; P. Fitzgerald; J. Whelan; W. (Bill) Hartley, of Busherstown; J. Fitzgerald; Pat Hartley, of Busherstown; W. (Bill) Irish of Aylwardstown; Mick Connolly, of Rochestown, and Jimmy Roche, of Rathinure. [First names and townlands have been added to the newspaper list, so please send on corrections.]

Cloneen—M. Healy; T. Brennan (Capt.); P. Hughes; A. Brennan; A. McEvoy; P. Hughs; T. Brennan; J. Brennan; F. O’Grady; M. Langton; J. Shiel; J. Connors; R. Holohan; J. Phillips; P. Kavanagh.

Please send any further information or corrections to glenmore.history@gmail.com.

The featured photo above was taken in 1925 of the Glenmore Senior Football Team and is part of the Poole Collection (POOL_WP_2720a, POOL_K_4144 & POOL_WP_3651) and the photo is Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh