KILLINAN END - When the men of ’ 37 upset Limerick
Tipperary head into the Munster Final as underdogs based largely on the last few years.
There can be no complaints or no sense of self-righteousness about that from Tipp either. It simply reflects the cold reality of Limerick’s performances and specifically those against Tipp. Of course, such trends are there to be broken and Tipp can take some solace from history in that regard.
Back when the world was young and the GAA itself scarcely half a century old Tipp went to Cork for the 1937 Munster Final. It was a mission which was in that benign category of ‘more hope than expectation’. Whatever the merits or otherwise of the approach from a sports psychology perspective the Limerick team of that time was described in the dressing-room beforehand by Tom Semple as “the best team that ever wore jerseys”. It gives some indication of the esteem within which Limerick were held at the time.
Mackey’s, Timmy Ryan, Jackie Power, Paddy Scanlon – all names which have stood the test of time and then some. Butler Coffey of Newport was on that Tipperary team and must have stared in wonder at the Limerick team. He would have been reared on the hurling melting pot provided by the Thomond Feis tournament, the Newport church tournaments (new church was constructed in the 1930s), and in an era when the border was especially porous. Limerick’s Jim Close hurled with Newport and by all accounts Mick Mackey donned the colours of Mulcaire Rovers, a proud and storied club on the other end of Newport parish.
This is just a taster of the traffic that went both ways. Butler himself hurler with Ahane in later years and recalled a titanic clash with Thurles Sarsfields in another tournament in Newport. (An aside – surely when normality is restored another Newport Tournament is in order? If only for old time’s sake?) Butler (in an interview with Brendan Fulham in ‘Hurling Giants’) singled out Limerick’s centre-back Paddy Clohessy of Fedamore for special mention. He said that the ‘rocklike centre-back made an awful impression on me’. So that Limerick don’t have it all their own way it is worth mentioning Butler’s own childhood heroes, Martin Kennedy of Kiladangan and Phil Cahill of Moycarkey – the former cleverness and craft personified, the latter described by Carbery as ‘the fastest man in Ireland’.
His admiration for Limerick got a few refreshers closer to that 1937 Munster Final which might ring a modern bell as well. Limerick, at the peak of their power in 1936 demolished Tipp in the Munster Final in Thurles. A young Tommy Doyle watched from the terrace in his native Thurles. Of Mick Mackey he said: “never had I seen so much versatility, endurance and skill combined within one human frame”. No wonder Castleconnell has a statue to the man.
A year later of course Doyle was on the Tipp team, playing in his second ever championship game for Tipp against mighty Limerick by the banks of the Lee. There is a brilliant picture in Henry Martin’s book on Mick Mackey of the parade before the 1937 final. In a packed house the atmosphere is absolutely rocking. There’s also a great image (in Brendan Fulham’s book already mentioned) of Butler Coffey bearing down on Paddy Scanlon with Jackie Power about to attempt a hook. It is a ground stroke and the hurleys are a world away from the sticks of today. Not much margin for error with the ‘sweet spot’ in those days.
Butler Coffey remarked that in the three Munster Finals of 1935, ’36, and ’37 – all Limerick-Tipp – that there were more goals than points scored. He said: “you see some lovely points nowadays but it’s goals that rouse the crowd”. This interview was published first in 1994 and might have been taken anything up to 20 years before it. What might he think now?!
Speaking to Raymond Smith many years later some Limerick players cited possible complacency on the day based on the youth of Tipp and the gap that had been there between the teams the two previous years. The first half was tight and tense – Tipp’s only goal of the half coming from Sweeper Ryan – ‘Paddy’ of an iconic Moycarkey hurling family. Tommy Doyle recalled playing for Sarsfields against Moycarkey whose forward line included five Ryan brothers. The club won five county titles in nine years 1932-40 which gives an angle on the quality in question.
The 1937 Munster Final developed from a tense cagey affair into a glut of goals in the second-half but Tipp got the better of it. However, Tipp’s six-point winning margin “makes a mockery of just how close it was”. All things considered it is on the shortlist of any of Tipperary hurling’s greatest days given the unexpected nature of the result and the extraordinary quality of the opposition. The current Limerick team, you’d suspect, are too methodical to do complacency but we can expect it to be close too whatever way it goes. As mentioned here previously the key aspect of this game is to be in it in the first place.
The draw Clare got in the qualifiers will test them to the hilt and leaves them with the ‘reward’ of maybe an even tougher game the following week should they come through. We did well to take the less busy road. The challenge ahead is mountainous, but it is a good place to be.