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Carney Sarsfields

Chapter 6

The following advertisement appeared in the columns of the Nenagh News of 9 November 1901 :

The wielders of the caman of the following parishes are requested to attend a meeting to be held at Knigh on 25 November for the purpose of selecting a team to play against De Wets at Kilbarron on 8 December. Signed S. Coffey and P. Bourke, Secs.

The team was duly selected and entered the senior championship under the name Carney Sarsfields. In the match, at Kilbarron, Carney had the better of the early exchanges and led by two goals at the interval. De Wets drew level within ten minutes of play resuming and all seemed set for an exciting finish. Then a dispute erupted over a side-line ball, Carney walked off in protest and Lahorna was awarded the match. has Carney continued would they have nipped lahorna's great run of success in the bud? That was Carneys only appearance in the senior championship, although most players hurled on the Knigh team which contested the title the following year.

Paddy Bourke and Stephen Coffey were the organisers of both the carney and Knigh teams. paddy Bourke worked as a farm Labourer with the late Tommy Slattery of Ballyanny. Bourke was also involved with the Knigh cricket team; as was Mick Moloughney, the prominent De Wet hurler. Stephen Coffey of Carneybrack was a well known local personality. He was the founder member of the Kilbarron hurling club in 1898 and was founder member of the Puckaun branch of the Land and Labour Association. He also served as a rural district councillor for a number of years. Stephen joined the British army on the outbreak of the Great War and was killed on the Western Front on 18 October 1914. Older Carney folk remember his sisters, annie and Maggie, living at Carneybrack up to the 1950's.

There is a story that Stephen once took a Carney team to play Coolderry in a tournament in rathcabbin. The start of the match was delayed for some reason and Stephen's boys resorted to the local pub. When the match finally got under way the Carney lads were well full of drink. They must have recieved an awful beating because their goal-keeper, the late jack Hayes of Cloughprior, used to boast of pucking out the ball one hundred and sixty five times.

Carney Team 1950
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