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Hurling Highlights
The parish of Monsea-Killodiernan has a proud heritage in hurling. it was represented in the first North Tipperary championship
of 1886-7 ; it provided players for the famed Lahorna de Wets early in the century;down the years it has won titles in every
grade in the game. It has sent out Jimmy Kennedy, Billy Moloughney, Seamus Hogan, and the Darcys of Grange in an earlier era,
to win All-Ireland honours with Tipperary. It boasts of the exploits of the legendary Mick Kennedy - reputedly the greatest
full-forward of all. It recalls with quiet pride the achievements of stalwarts such as Jack Hoctor, Jim Kileen, Danny Moloney,
the brothers Danny and Rody Gleeson and in more recent times Paddy Kelly and Noel Seymour. It has enjoyed a Golden Age -
the decade 1933-43 when Killadangan ( once joined with Kilbarron ) won the North Tipperary senior title three times and were
runners up on no fewer that six occasions.
There are fields now silent which once resounded with the clash of the ash, the thud of leather, and the mingled shouts
of players and spectators. Minehan's "Forty Acres" at Loughourna, where the old Knigh team hurled and where cricket
was played. Further up the road, Slattery's and Starr's fields, where a later Loughourna junior team tried to emulate their
celebrated De Wet predecessors. The "Barrack Field" at Carney and the" Brick park" at Ballycraggan were
the scene of many a tough encounter. Moloney's "Nine Acres" and " Lime-Kiln Field" were both home to the
old Ballycommon hurlers of the early years of the century, while the successfull Ballycommon junior team of the the 1940's
practised in Seymour's field in Ballydrinan. But the most celebrated pitch in the parish was Hoctor's Field at Lisduff ( nicknamed
the "Blood-Pan" by the witty Mick Foley of Knigh ), the hub of Killadangan hurling for over a quarter of a century.
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