LONG READ: Liam Ó Donnchu’s excellent production highlights the magic of the Harty Cup

The publication last week of the history of the Dr Harty Cup competition was overdue. For a colleges competition that began 107 years ago it has built up an extraordinary reputation as a breeding ground for emerging talent. It deserved to be chronicled and has finally got its due through the meticulous research of Liam Ó Donnchu.

The result is a book of over 600 pages, which charts the course of the competition from modest beginnings to the blockbuster that it is today. Despite being merely a Munster affair, few, if any, colleges’ championships have assumed the same pre-eminence. Harty medals are hurling gold.

In truth the Harty Cup has assumed an importance way beyond its nominal role as a post-primary Munster hurling championship. The case of Nenagh CBS in 2012 probably best illustrates the point. I like to refer to it as the Jason Forde year when the North Tipperary school got to the final but lost out to Colaiste na nDeise Thiar. The Waterford combination had in its ranks such luminaries as Tadhg de Burca, Colin Dunford, Patrick Curran and Mikey Kiely.

Jason Forde was Nenagh’s star turn but he had support from other names, which have become familiar to us, such as Tadhg Gallagher, Steven O’Brien, Jack Peters and James Mackey, among others.

Nenagh CBS subsequently went on to defeat Kilkenny CBS in the All-Ireland Croke Cup final after the Noresiders put out the Harty winners in the quarter-final. Incidentally, Nenagh did a double over Kilkenny by also defeating St Kieran’s in the semi-final.

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It was an outstanding All-Ireland success by Nenagh but I’m sure that Harty final defeat still grates. In fact, is it overmuch to suggest that they’d willingly swap the All-Ireland for the Harty? Harty winners become legends; Croke Cup winners, not so much.

As for Jason Forde, he missed out on a Harty medal and has since missed out on an All-Star award despite being a three-time nominee. He deserved one in 2025. As for Nenagh, their Harty moment finally came in 2024 and with it came Darragh McCarthy.

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Liam Ó Donnchu has done another excellent job in plotting the Harty story. A perennial problem with such histories is how much factual detail to include by way of dates, games, scores/scorers and lineouts. The book has to serve as a reference point but too much dry material can be unreadable.

There’s a balance needed and Liam hits that equilibrium with a neat mix of content. The essential facts are there, pared back at times and more extensive in later years as coverage of the games increased. But all those historical minutiae are interlaced with colour pieces from individual Harty winners and bitesize snippets about others.

Rockwell College were the inaugural winners of the Harty Cup in 1918 but what I didn’t know was that the team was captained by Jack Quinn from the well-known Rahaelty family. Jack’s nephew, Billy, won a Harty medal with Thurles CBS in 1950 before progressing to win two minor All-Irelands with Tipperary (the second as captain) and a National Hurling League medal in 1954. Billy’s son, Niall, played minor hurling for Dublin and went on to earn 92 international soccer caps with the Republic of Ireland.

Rockwell College were central to the Harty Cup story in its early years. An interesting piece by Seamus King in the book details how the school abandoned so-called foreign games (rugby and cricket) in 1917/18 in favour of Gaelic games. A nationalist president of the college at the time, Fr John Byrne, is credited with the shift, which was in tune with the political fervour of the time.

Rockwell went on to win five Harty titles in total, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1930 and 1931 as well as losing seven Harty finals, which gives some indication of the school’s prominence in the competition. Thereafter rugby was reinstated and became the school’s primary sporting ambition.

The book is embellished by contributions from several former Harty Cup winners who offer their reflections on the competition. These range from Donie Nealon to Oisin O’Donoghue. In all the narratives there’s a familiar theme around the magic of the competition and the treasured place it holds in the memories of the participants.

The role the competition has played in sparking inter-county success is regularly referenced, something which was highlighted by Liam Ó Donnchu in his speech at the book launch in the Horse and Jockey Hotel. It’s a point not lost on Tipperary followers, who’ve seen recent Harty successes by Cashel Community School, St Joseph’s CBS Nenagh and Thurles CBS fuelling inter-county wins at underage and senior.

Nowadays, the Harty Cup is far more egalitarian than in the past, a point raised by Fr Christy O’Dwyer (Abbey CBS winner in 1959) during the discussion at the launch. The demise of the boarding schools is a major factor in this. Former powerhouses like Flannan’s and North Monastery are no longer so powerful. The last three winners were all first-timers.

Liam Ó Donnchu has done us a major service with this production. The layout and presentation of the book make for easy access. Amazingly there are photographs of every Harty winning team, as well as an invaluable statistics section at the end. It’s a book that will be thumbmarked in the years ahead. Ultimately its enduring merit will be as a reference point into the future.

Meanwhile, the seasons spin round and the focus now switches to the year ahead with the return of inter-county players to the playing fields. Last Saturday’s under-the-lights venture at Fethard Town Park in aid of the Dillon Quirke Foundation brought out keen followers anxious for some live action.

A successful programme saw the footballers lose narrowly – and very respectably – to All-Ireland champions Kerry. Meanwhile, the hurlers held out for a narrow verdict against Limerick.

The hurling was lively, a decent workout on the all-weather surface, with both managements playing experimental sides. Tipperary did have the better of it overall and deserved to shade the outcome, even if end results aren’t an imperative in these games.

A prodigal Limerick were led by six at half-time. The major lodgement to the Tipperary account was Seanie Kenneally’s goal, emphatically finished after build-up by Paddy Creedon and Jack Leamy. The lead went out to eight points early in the second half before Limerick clawed back. In the end we did enough to arrest the slide, winning the frees that Leamy’s steady hand converted.

It’s always unwise to read overmuch into these games but the management, I’m sure, will be happy with the competitive application of the newcomers.

Brian Hogan will be pleased with a clean sheet on his return; there’s no shortage of pressure for the number one slot. The defence overall did well against Shane O’Brien, Aidan O’Connor and company. Darragh Tynan is a real lookalike of his brother Alan. The same gimp, as the man might say! Darragh Stakelum did well around midfield and there was plenty of smart play from the forwards, who looked ultra keen.

Jack Leamy top scored with 0-10, 0-8 from frees; Paddy Creedon showed flashes of the play we often admire from him; Seanie Kenneally’s 1-1 was significant; Kevin McCarthy and Joe Fogarty too showed flashes of why they’ve been called into the panel. Brian Og O’Dwyer did best of the replacements, getting heavily involved in the play.

This Saturday there’s another chance for these newcomers when Tipperary face Kilkenny at Templetuohy in a fundraiser for Mary’s Meals, a global charity that has fed three million children already this year. Weather permitting, it should again draw a decent following of interested onlookers.

On Sunday then there will be more Tipp/Kilkenny rivalry when Upperchurch and Danesfort face off in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final at Portlaoise. The Kilkenny champions will be fancied but being outsiders is familiar territory for Upperchurch, who appear to relish the underdog role. A great year would be even greater if they could pull off this one.