MARTIN (CHRISTY) McQUINN.
Even though he had been battling illness for some time, nonetheless, it was with sadness that all in the Club and the wider community learned of the death of Christy McQuinn last Thursday.
Christy played with the Kerry Minor Footballers in 1956 and played both codes with the Club. But it was as a Club Hurler that he excelled. Reference is made in our Centenary Book (pages 128, 129, 134 and 202) to Christy’s exploits on the Hurling field, first with that all-conquering Minor Hurling team of 1955 who won that year’s Co. Championship, and later when he was part and parcel of that great Senior team who contested the two Co. Championship Finals of 1968 and 1969.
He was a commanding full back in both finals and he was flanked on both sides by the brothers Mike and Seamus McCarthy.
The following is John Barry’s description of the controversial 1968 Final in our Centenary Book, with particular reference to Christy’s ‘equalising point’ (that was never given).
‘’Remember that ’68 final? Remember the famous ‘70’ taken by Christy McQuinn? Remember the horror of all Rock people when it was waved wide? I was on the edge of the Crotta Square and without doubt the ball went two feet inside the left upright. Imagine my consternation and that of all the players when that point was never flagged by the umpire’’.
Christy’s work in the higher ranks of the Gárda Siochana took him away from the county. Some of the major events that he co-ordinated included the Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet and President Clinton’s visit. But he continued to be a hugely proud Stacks man, always enquiring about current Club activities and always interested in what was happening around the Club.
Down the years and to this day his extended family have been involved in Club activities. His brother Pat Joe was Vice Chairman of the Club for eleven consecutive seasons (2000-2010).
And to-day his nephew, Paudie and his niece Mary are involved in Club activities – Paudie as a physio and a MF/U21 Mentor and Mary in many fundraising activities.
We extend sincere sympathy to Christy’s wife, Maura, his son, Kieran, his daughter Kate, his grandchildren, his brothers Michael and Pat Joe, his sisters Mary and Eileen and to all his extended family and friends.
SYMPATHY: Sincere sympathy is also offered to the family of Dr. Tom McCarthy, Staughton’s Row, who also died last week.
KERRY TEAMS: Well done to the Kerry Seniors as they outscored Tyrone in Croke Park on Sunday to qualify for their 61st All Ireland Final and face the five-in-a-row chasing Dubs who will be playing in their 42nd encounter. Tough luck on the Kerry Minors (including our own Luke Chester and Adam Curran) who were just pipped at the post by Galway in their semi-final clash.
SENIOR AND B FOOTBALL: With Kerry in the All Ireland Final on 1st September the final round of the Co. League will now be played on the week after (w/e 7th). Our Seniors are away to St. Marys and our B team have a home game against Cromane. Then on the following weekend (w/e 14th Sept) the SF Co. Championship gets underway. We have an away game against Dingle in the opening round.
But before all this we are due to play Kerins O’Rahillys in Connolly Park on this Saturday evening (17th Aug) at 7pm in the semi final of the Town Championship.
THE C TEAM: Austin Stacks 2-15; Annascaul 1-9.
With the C Team away on gardening leave for the past five seasons (2014-2018 incl.) there was some buzz around the Club early in the year when news broke that it was about to make a come-back under the stewardship of the one and only Aidan O’Connor, who along with his late colleague Charlie Healy had achieved so much success with that team in the late nineties and the early noughties.
And in a wet and windy Castlegregory on last Friday evening (9th Aug) a 14 year gap was bridged when we won a first Co. League title since 2005.
(The C team did win a Co. Championship title in 2011 when Kevin O’Carroll and Richie Conway were at the helm).
Having lost to Annascaul by six points (2-7 to 2-13) in the opening round of the League in mid May we knew we had to up our game to have any chance of turning the tables on that result. And that’s just what our boys did on an inclement evening, converting that six point deficit into a nine points winning margin on this occasion.
We made full use of the elements in the first half and led by a whopping 1-8 to no score before Annascaul registered their first point of the game in the 24th minute. At half time there was an eleven points gap between the sides (1-11 to 0-3).
And the man who really stole the show in that opening period was Alan Duggan whose midfield performance, aided and abetted by William Kirby, and his brilliant scoring spree into a very tricky wind were outstanding (Alan scored five pointed frees in this half from very difficult angles).
But it was by no means a one-man show as we also defended superbly against an always dangerous Annascaul forward line and, as well as Alan, six other players got on the score sheet in that first half – William Kirby in the 5th minute, Gearóid Sheehan with two points in the 7th and 25th, Mikey Collins in the 14th, Danny Roche in the 21st, Michael Godley in the 28th and our goal of that half put away brilliantly in the 18th minute by David Leonard after a brilliant build-up involving Michael Linnane and David Courtney.
We were, understandably, anxious of Annascaul’s response in the second half, now that the elements were in their favour.
And they did have a very good opening, adding three points, without reply, in the first four minutes. But we regrouped quickly and in the next six minutes had cancelled out those three points with another pointed free from Alan Duggan, a brilliantly taken forty-five into that strong wing by Gearóid Sheehan and David Leonard putting over from play in the 41st minute.
However Annascaul responded again with three more points as the game entered the last ten minutes of play.
But the score that really put the game out of their reach came in the 53rd minute with the involvement of the two forwards who have really shone throughout this campaign. Danny Roche was heading goalwards when he was brought down in the square and David Courtney coolly placed the resultant penalty to the right of the keeper.
Annascaul did get a consolation goal two minutes later but another man who had outstanding displays all season, Michael Godley scored the last point of the game to add to his first-half score.
So a great start to the season for Aidan and his co-colleagues – Tommy O’Connor, John Joe Sugrue, Ger Mannix, John Tobin, Ricky Moloney and Ciarán McCabe which was greatly acknowledged by team captain, David Courtney as he accepted the winning trophy from the Co. Board’s Christy Killeen.
And David did not forget to mention the one and only Charlie Healy whose extended family will always follow the C team as they did in Castlegregory on this Friday evening, along with a very sizeable contingent of Rockie supporters. Roll on the Barrett Cup.
Team: Philip Healy, Tommy Costello, Barry Walsh, Conor Lowe, Michael Godley (0-2), Michael Linnane, Brian Phelan, William Kirby (0-1), Alan Duggan (0-6 frees), Danny Roche (0-1), Michael Collins (0-1), Gearóid Sheehan (0-3), David Courtney (Capt) (1-0), David Leonard (1-0), Ricky Moloney.
Subs used: Martin Courtney (ht), James Quigley (53m), Pádraig Breen (56m), Joe Looby (57m), Ger Teahon (57m).
MINOR FOOTBALL: Renard/St. Marys 5-19; Austin Stacks 2-13.
The third and final round of the Central League played in Listry on last Thursday evening (1st Aug) saw the home side coming out winners after they led at half time by double scores (2-10 to 1-5).
Team; Ben Quilter, Craig Teahan, Niall Fitzmaurice, Ciarán Kelliher, Mark Holden, David Burke, Daniel O’Rourke, Eoghan Carroll, Seán Quilter (Capt) (0-6 – two frees, one forty five), Mervyn Shalama, Cian Purcell (1-1), Conor Myers (0-3 – two frees), Conor Horan (1-1), Jordan Kissane (0-2), Jimmy Charles.
Sub used: Gavin Duffy.
The Co. Championship resumes on this Tuesday evening (13th Aug) with the four quarter finals scheduled to take place. We have a home game against West Kerry, the first time the sides will meet in the competition since 2005. Throw-in in Connolly Park is at 6.30pm with extra time if required.
U21 FOOTBALL: Austin Stacks 4-18 (30); Gneeveguilla 2-6 (12).
We were always in control of this first round Co. Championship game played in ideal conditions in Connolly Park on last Tuesday evening (8th Aug). Leading by five points to two at the end of the first quarter we totally dominated the rest of the half, adding a further 2-5 to just one more point for the opposition. This left us with a 13 points lead at half time (2-10 to 0-3).
Our first goal came in the 17th minute from a Ferdia O’Brien penalty. Eight minutes later good work by Donagh McKivergan and Seán Quilter saw our second goal tucked away beautifully into the corner of the net by Joseph O’Connor. Both Joseph and David Fitzmaurice were outstanding all through at centre-field.
Our ten first half points were shared equally by Ferdia and Seán , with three of Ferdia’s five coming from frees and Seán putting over three from play and one each from a free and a forty five.
Gneeveguilla opened the second half with a point inside the first minute but they didn’t score again until the 52nd minute while, at that stage, we had added a further goal and eight points to our first half total.
Again Seán Quilter with four points (two frees; two superb forty fives) and Ferdia O’Brien with a free got on the score sheet but four more players were also on target in this half. Michael O’Gara added a goal and a point, with the two other points coming from David Fitzmaurice and Conor Lowe.
With ten minutes to go we were ahead by a whopping 23 points, so it was understandable that we eased off somewhat. In those closing minutes the opposition scored 2-2 to one goal for us – our goal a beautiful effort created by Ferdia O’Brien and tapped into the net by Michael Linnane.
It would be unfair to suggest that the visitors were poor upfront as every time they attacked they looked dangerous. But our seven defenders were just superb. We ran out of ink trying to record every time they turned over dangerous attacks and that’s not taking into account at least three superb goal-scoring saves by Robbie Murphy. .
Wayne Quillinan and his co-mentors (Mikey Collins, Jonathan Conway, Paudie McQuinn, Eamonn O’Reilly and John O’Sullivan) would be happier, we are sure, with a sterner test in preparation for more tougher games to come, but they will be satisfied with a near perfect performance by the 21 players who lined out on this evening.
Team: Robbie Murphy, Shane Kelliher, Dylan Casey, Dara Barry Walsh, Shane Walsh, Ciarán O’Reilly (Capt), Rory Forbes, Joseph O’Connor (1-0), David Fitzmaurice (0-1), Michael O’Gara (1-1), Ferdia O’Brien (1-6 – penalty goal; four frees), David Couchman, Seán Quilter (0-9 – three frees, three forty fives), Donagh McKivergan, Conor Myers.
Subs used: Gearóid Sheehan, Michael Linnane (1-0), David Burke, Conor Lowe (0-1), Podge Looney, Eoghan Carroll.
Of the six games played on this opening round only one other team scored as much as we did – and that was by West Kerry in their double-score victory over Dr. Crokes (2-24 to 1-12). But no other winning team had as much a winning margin as we had.
Our winning margin was 18 points with the next winning biggest margins being 15 points – achieved by that big win by West Kerry over Dr. Crokes and by East Kerry’s win over Mid Kerry (3-17 to 1-8).
The quarter finals are fixed for this Thursday evening (15th Aug). We have a home game against Laune Rangers starting at 6.30pm. In their opening round last week they had a narrow victory against Shannon Rangers (3-10 to 3-9).
CONGRATULATIONS: to former Club Footballer Claire Slattery (daughter of Tim and Anne) and Christopher McDonald (Loughrea) who were married in Spanish Point last Saturday week.
CLUBHOUSE: As always the Clubhouse is available for all types of Parties and Functions. Enquiries about Club Bookings should be made by contacting Harry Hynes at 087 2467286.
CARDS: The 45 Card Sessions continue in the Clubhouse on every Monday and Thursday nights, commencing at 9.30pm each night.
LOTTO: Last week’s (5th August) Jackpot, worth €11,750, was not won. The numbers drawn were 6, 13, 22, 28.
The €20 winners were: Joe Carey and Pádraig Podge O’Connor, both c/o The Club; and Mary O’Sullivan, Ian O’Shea and Mikey Brosnan, all c/o Rock Street Post Office.
Lotto Tickets are on regular sale at the Rock Street Post Office and at the Stacks Clubhouse, as well as from our other regular outlets.
