RIP: Famed Village hurler remembered following sad passing
From this week's Village Notes
Widely known local shopkeeper, Phil ‘Philly Boy’ Larkin passed away at his home in 29 Upper Patrick Street with his loving family by his bedside last week.
Larkin’s grocery and bicycle shop on Patrick Street, opposite the Village pump, was a famous meeting place over the decades for James Stephens club members and GAA followers where Phil Larkin, his late father Mick ‘Phleep’ Larkin, a former club chairman, would regale younger James Stephens players and visitors with stories about past matches and the history of the Village and Kilkenny hurling.
After winning the Kilkenny minor championship with James Stephens in 1957, Phil and several of the side went on to win the Kilkenny senior hurling title in 1969, bridging a 32-year gap to the club’s previous victory in 1937.
Phil formed an uncompromising, all-Larkin full-back line in the number two jersey alongside his cousins Phil ‘Fan’ Larkin and Paddy Larkin. The Larkin name is synonymous with The Village and family members continue to give tremendous service to the James Stephens club.
He is survived by his wife Phil, daughters Margaret, Mairin, Eimear and Philly, sons John, Mikey and Tommy, brother Michael and the extended Larkin family.
As a mark of respect many of his old team-mates from 1969 marched in the guard of honour as the funeral procession made its way, with a brief stop at his home in Patrick Street, to Foulkstown Cemetery following Requiem Mass in St Patrick’s Church.