Sport

Ava, Saoirse, Thomas & Clíona

Kinvara juvenile team

South Galway Champions 1957

GAA

Hurling in the 1950's

Before the revival of hurling in the 1950s, it was hard to find players to play hurling due to emigration.

1954 was a difficult year for the G.A.A in the south with harsh weather and general lack of cooperation.

1956 was a poor year too for hurling in Kinvara. Still, teams were entered in all the Championships. The lack of a Club playing pitch did not help even though many local farmers made their fields available.

1957 Kinvara were South Galway Champions !

The highlight of the year was the winning of the south board juvenile hurling title with a fine win over Clarinbridge in the final.

"Killina had a national school that won lots of sport competitions. It closed about 45 years ago. Gaelic was played at that time in Ballybuck I think which is near the present Killina soccer pitch.

I helped set up the camogie club in kinvara just 30 years ago. There wasn’t much sport for girls even as recent as then.

My husband used his tractor to help level off the first pitch in Kinvara in 1961. It was a great community effort to build the first pitch."

Kathy Tannian

THE dR mCCARTHY CUP

The Dr. McCarthy Cup dates back to 1963. It all happened one day when an American tourist called Dr. Francis L. McCarthy was walking around Kinvara until he met a local called Richard Johnston. They talked for a bit about the history of their villages.

After a while Francis took a picture of Kinvara and walked off waving goodbye to Richard. Later that day when Francis got to his B&B, he went to take out his camera. He couldn’t find it. Then he realized that he didn’t remember bringing back his camera after meeting Richard. So he ran over to where he last met Richard.

To his surprise he saw Richard standing there with his camera. When Francis was close enough Richard said “ I have been standing here since you left me. I didn’t call you back because I didn’t notice that the camera was here until you had gone." Dr. Francis was so happy he decided to make a cup to thank Richard for not stealing the camera, because a camera would have cost a lot of money.

The Dr. McCarthy cup is now a cup for a tournament for under 16 boys. In September 2018 Dr. Francis grandchildren came to visit Kinvara and present the Dr. McCarthy cup. And after they went for dinner in the Pier Head

Kinvara Gaa now

In 2013 Kinvara G.A.A purchased just over 5 acres of land, and in 2014, they started to build the new pitch, beside the first pitch made in 1961. Also, in 2016 the Kinvara G.A.A started to build a commemoration wall for everyone that is part of Kinvara G.A.A.

Community Games

Information from Catherine Kilkelly (treasurer, manager for Galway)

The Kinvara Community Games began in the early 70s.

Catherine Kilkelly took up position as secretary in 1977 for the community games. Nowadays she is treasurer and manager for the county.

In the early days of the community games you could only compete in a team event or long jump and one sprint only. Now you can compete in hurdles, long jump and 1 - 3 sprints.

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