Our senior hurlers started their season with a game against Killenaule last Sunday. Due to number of injuries many young players got a chance to play senior for the first time. Against a strong Killenaule team they certainly tried hard and never threw in the towel. The experience will benefit them in the future. Hopefully our injured players will now have some time to work their way back to full fitness.

Congratulations to Alan Curran on being part of the panel for Tipperary's great football league win.
Indeed well done to everybody in the Tipperary football set up.

Best of luck also to Sean Curran in Wednesdays minor hurling championship game against Limerick in Thurles.

Juvenile GAA
Coaching times for our underage hurling and football players are as follows:

Under 6On Saturday at 10am
Under 8On Saturday 6 - 7pm and St. 10am to 11am
Under 10On Saturday 9.45 to 10.45am and Tuesday 6 - 7pm
Under 12On Tuesday 6 - 7pm and Saturday 9.45 - 10.45am
Under 14On Mondays and Thursdays 6.30 - 7.30pm
Under 16Thursdays 7 - 8pm and Saturdays 11am to 12 noon.

This year 2009, the GAA celebrates 125 years of existence. Next Sunday week, May 10th, has been designated La na gClub by the Croke Park authorities. This is to be a day when the paramount importance of the local Club will take precedence over all Championship fixtures and events. Club Officials all over the country have been requested to organise local events which will show the modern GAA in a positive light in every one of the GAA’s parishes all over the country. Since it’s inception in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, 125 years ago, the GAA through it’s Clubs has always been a bulwark of both parish pride and nationalism. It has been a cornerstone on which many parishes have been built.

In the absence of a local Club history, it is no harm to reflect on the GAA in Mullinahone in 25 year segments. The Mullinahone Club was founded in 1885 within a year of the birth of the association. The original Club was built around the “Ballycullen Footballers”, a group of locals who in the early days, spent hours playing football in the townland. They may indeed have spent time discussing tactics also around the Five Eye Bridge. Some of the players may have played with the Poulacapple Club which existed for a few years in the early days of the 20th Century. A number of these may have lined out with Grangemockler in what was their Golden age. When Cloneen won the County Senior Football Title in 1908, two of the members of the team were Paddy and Ned Egan of Poulacapple.

The second 25 years from 1909 to 1934 was the Golden Age of Mullinahone football. Originally organised by Frank O’Brien, at least four County Senior titles were won and possibly a fifth in 1916. Mullinahone players began to represent the County and the Mullinahone colour which was red (the colour of the British Empire) was replaced by “the Green above the red”, as the fight for freedom swept across the country. Mullinahone played a huge part in this struggle and also in the events of Bloody Sunday 1920.

The third era 1935 - 1959 was dominated by World War Two and emigration of the 1950’s. The strange game of hurling briefly flared up in 1940 while a Mullinahone 7 was the dominant force in seven aside tournaments during the 1940’s. No County Football title was won and emigration caused the Club to fade from Senior ranks. Mick Cahill won a cork Senior Football Medal with Lees in 1952 but who won an Ulster Senior Football Medal with Cavan in the 1940’s?

The 25 years 1959 - 1960 saw the games struggle on. In 1962, we won our first County Juvenile Football Title. It could have gone the way in the boardroom of the one won in 1956, but it didn’t. In 1966, we lost the 1965 Intermediate County Football Final to Newport, but in 1973, we won a County Junior Football Title. That team may not have been great footballers, but it gave us more club administrators than any previous bunch of players. Another hurling spark flared in 1979.