12-11-2016
In celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Turloughmore GAA club first ever
senior success as well as the Golden Jubilee of the historic
achievement of six senior titles in succession, Turloughmore GAA club
unveiled two plaques to honour the achievements of these great hurlers
of the past in front of a proud crowd of 160 patrons from the GAA club
and local community on Saturday 12th November in the GAA centre in Lackagh.
Frank Kearney outlined to the audience that after St Vincent’s (which was an amalgamation of Cregmore and Coolarne), captured the Co Junior title in 1949 and ’54,
Turloughmore played in the senior championship of 1954 and drew with
Castlegar. However, in 1956 all the teams in the parish came together
and they went on to capture the clubs first ever Galway senior hurling
championship title. Turloughmore had played in the first senior final
as far back as 1893 when they were defeated by College Road, but now
the Co Cup had finally ended up in the North Galway club.
That success was to lead to greater successes in the future and in 1961
Turloughmore denied Fohenagh a three in a row as they took their
second county title. Our own Sean Walsh of Galway Bay FM gave the histories of
these historic victories as the success was to continue as the 1961
was only the beginning of a glorious era as Turloughmore defeated
Castlegar after a replay in the 1962 final and defeated Fohenagh again
in 1963 and Ballinasloe in the 1964 final. Castlegar held the record
of five in a row and after Turloughmore defeated Killimordaly in 1965
they had equalled that record and when Turloughmore defeated Mullagh
in the 1966 final, the North Galway club had set a new record that has
not been broken in the past fifty years.
The plaque of the first championship win in 1956 was unveiled by
captain of that team Pakie Burke and Frank Fahy and the plaque to mark
the historic six in a row from 1961 to 1966 was unveiled by Mickey
Cullinane and Seamus Murphy. A jubilee cake was cut by Paddy Fahy and
Jimmy Egan who had come back from Boston for the occasion. Memories
were shared and stories told on an evening to remember in
Turloughmore. Earlier four teams from different corners of the parish
played a tournament game with Cregmore emerging the winners.
