UNDER 16 BISH HURLERS

by Tom Kenny

This was the team representing St. Joseph’s College which won the Rosebowl Cup in 1968.

They are, back row, left to right; Christy Howley, Hugh Ryan, Tony Dilleen, Jimmy Small, Tom Murphy, Tom Naughton, Jimmy Cunningham, Joe McMahon.

Centre row; Jim Noone, Tom Connolly, Vincent O’Malley, Gerry Glynn, Joe Corcoran, Michael Beatty, Kevin Browne.

In front are Gerry Gilmore, Michael Thornton and John Crowe.

Several weeks ago, in this column, we showed you a photograph of the Committee of the Galway City Challenge Hurling Cup taken in 1920. The cup in that photograph was later identified as the Rosebowl which you see in today’s photograph. It was apparently originally donated by the New York Gaels to help promote the game of hurling in the city, and was to be played for by senior teams.

For some reason, the cup was left in Ned Walsh’s house (in the Old Malt) for some years before it turned up again as ‘The Rosebowl’, a hurling trophy that was to be played for by under-16 Galway City Schools teams. The teams involved were St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s, Coláiste Iognáid, Coláiste Éinde and the Technical School in Father Griffin Road. Neither the Jes nor the Bish nor Endas could get decent numbers together, so it was invariably Marys or the Tech that won the trophy.

The competition was fierce, indeed it was so fierce in a final in the early 1950’s between Marys and the Tech that the referee finished the game early in the interest of the health of the participants. As a result of this both Marys and Endas withdrew from the competition and neither played in it for some time.

This trophy has been sitting in a cabinet in the Bish for some years now. In this significant year for Galway hurling, it seems a shame that it is not competed for, and there are a few more schools now than there were then which could participate. Maybe it would produce another John Hanbury, or even better, a few John Hanburys.

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Galway County Council are  putting  a small but very interesting exhibition online drawn from their archives from November 18^th – 28^th. The title is “Piers and Harbour Public Notices and their Conservation”. It relates to the County rather than the city and can be seen on  www.galway.ie\archives\exhibitions and is well worth a look.

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Finally a note to all Jes past pupils – the annual mass for deceased pupils and staff of the school will take place on Sunday next at 11am in the church in Sea Road, and all are welcome.