St. Mary’s Hurling and Camogie Club is located in Clonmel and has a proud tradition of promoting hurling in the town for almost one hundred years. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share the history of our club as well as looking forward to the years ahead and building on much great recent work.
The club’s finest hour to date came in 1981 with its maiden south senior title, and as we reach the milestone 40th anniversary of this we now reflect on this era of the club in particular, with the old adage going that it was an overnight success that was years in the making, as well as highlighting other aspects and developments in the club.
Brief History of Club
The club was founded in 1929, but found initial success hard to come by, with the club floating around junior ranks for most of it first fifty years of existence. Although the year 1981 stands out due to senior honours, a team sheet for a south minor final win (the first in seven years for the club) in 1974 contains some key names that would go on to eventually form main parts of the win.
The upward curve for the club would continue in 1975, with the minors retaining their south title and our intermediate team beating Moyle Rovers on a scoreline of 1-16 to 3-6 in the south intermediate decider. They then went on to beat Newcastle (South Tipperary Junior Champions) in a play-off for a right to enter the County Junior Championship. This meant the club qualified for the county semi final which was contested against Kilruane McDonaghs in Semple Stadium, with two second half goals by Tony Smith deciding the issue in favour of St.Mary’s on a scoreline of 4-8 to 2-7, a result which meant that a Mary’s team would qualify for a county final for the first time since 1954 when our minor team would go on to suffer a heavy defeat in the decider in Semple Stadium, the same venue slated for the 75 final.
To read further information, please visit https://tipperary.gaa.ie/tipperary-club-focus-st-marys/