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Michael McCarthy with GAA medals he’s looking to reunite with their owner. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
A KILMOYLEY man, now living in Tralee, is looking to reunite Kerry hurling county championship medals which were thrown out and rescued from the dump.
After a chance scroll though Facebook, Micheal McCarthy of Connolly Park came across GAA medals for sale that were unwittingly advertised as running medals.
The medals (see photo below) are a 1983 Kerry Senior Hurling Championship medal and two winners medals from the 1976 Kerry Minor Hurling Championship final. Both finals were won by Lixnaw.
The 1983 medal takes on some extra significance as Lixnaw had not won a county title for 36 years. The two 1976 minor medals are believed to have been won by brothers.
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The county championship medals are silver with gold on the front and are believed to be handmade. It is unknown what the other medals are but they are also silver and suspected to be North Kerry Football Championship medals.
How they came into Michael’s hands is a bit extraordinary.
“The person selling them was working at a North Kerry landfill and came across the medals while sifting through the bags of rubbish,” said Michael.
“The guy who found them is Polish, so the Irish writing on the back of the medals completely threw him. He thought they were Kerry running medals!” said Michael.
Presumably the medals found their way to the landfill after mistakenly being thrown into rubbish bag and sent to the tip.
After meeting with the seller, Michael bought the medals for €50. “For the person who won them, they are worth a lot more than that,” said Michael. He then set off trying to find who they belonged to.
“I didn’t want to see them melted or squandered. Someone obviously put a lot of hard work into winning them so it would be nice to see them get them back,” said Michael.
In his efforts to reunite the owner, Michael has put the word out on social media and has received around 150 messages in reply.
“If I don’t find the owners I’ll give them to Lixnaw Hurling Club and they can do what they want with them and at least they’ll stay in the parish,” said Michael.
In 1983, Lixnaw beat Kilmoyley in the final. Michael can for now at least lay claim to being the only Kilmoyley man with one of those medals.
Top from left: 1983 Kerry Senior Hurling Championship, two 1976 Kerry Minor Hurling Championship Medals. Bottom: What are believed to be two North Kerry Championship medals. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
