Antrim Hurling

[Milltown Row2]

no MR I think ronan donnellys ballycastle won it that year in a surprise result.We,ve only won it once in 30 years before this present teams successes.

jftj,

Are you talking about minor about the time of Jimmy Wilson, John Kelly a Nugent and maybe big long Donal Kennedy although I think he's a year or so younger?

Aye they were minors 1990 (fcuk i feel like a old man)

We couldn't have been that bad then, milltown. We won it in '91.

Dunloy would probably have been on the wane at minor at that time, Ally Elliott and Co would have been one of the top teams the previous year I presume?

We won the Ulster championship at minor that year (89) and for some reason Elliott didn't play for Antrim at the time, think horse might have though.

Was there not a Cushendun/Grahams/Glenariffe amalgamation of some name or other pretty strong around the same time, leading into the strong Cushendun team thereafter?

Ballycastle IIRC had Ronan and Owen Colgan and some wee shit in the corner who could run like hell, may be their manager now 

Beat us in 88 Johnney at under 16 Newry or Athletic Grounds, I was doing nets in that game

That as well MR2, it was in Armagh as I was present myself that day, at the other end of the pitch.  A brutish Roscommon team featuring a giant Colm Kelly beat us in the final.

We won the minor a year later in Clones of all places.

We were down a few players (Joe McCaff), though yous had a decent team at the time, we should have done better looking back, Aye and I remember your result against Roscommon as I thought you were nailed on for a win, strange grade all the same under 16

[johnneycool]

Yeah, we'd a superb team at the time, Stevie McAree was a great underage hurler, but somehow that never transferred to senior hurling for him. Barry Coulter was also on that team along with Gerard McGrattan who never won an underage competition with his club in Down, but was starting to show big things then and another lad Kevin McManus from Portaferry who was really good but emigrated to the states in his early 20's.
The best hurler in the Blayneys, Kevin, would also have been on it as well, he didn't have the speed of Mickey, but knew where the net was.
There was also a few lads from Newry Shamrocks and Kilkeel on that team as well

[Milltown Row2]

Yeah, we'd a superb team at the time, Stevie McAree was a great underage hurler, but somehow that never transferred to senior hurling for him. Barry Coulter was also on that team along with Gerard McGrattan who never won an underage competition with his club in Down, but was starting to show big things then and another lad Kevin McManus from Portaferry who was really good but emigrated to the states in his early 20's.
The best hurler in the Blayneys, Kevin, would also have been on it as well, he didn't have the speed of Mickey, but knew where the net was.
There was also a few lads from Newry Shamrocks and Kilkeel on that team as well

How many of those lads played for the secondary school in Portaferry? remember playing them a few times, all decent games

[johnneycool]

Yeah, we'd a superb team at the time, Stevie McAree was a great underage hurler, but somehow that never transferred to senior hurling for him. Barry Coulter was also on that team along with Gerard McGrattan who never won an underage competition with his club in Down, but was starting to show big things then and another lad Kevin McManus from Portaferry who was really good but emigrated to the states in his early 20's.
The best hurler in the Blayneys, Kevin, would also have been on it as well, he didn't have the speed of Mickey, but knew where the net was.
There was also a few lads from Newry Shamrocks and Kilkeel on that team as well

How many of those lads played for the secondary school in Portaferry? remember playing them a few times, all decent games

Most lads back then would have went to St Columba's in Portaferry, with a few to the Red high in Downpatrick. Kevin Blayney was the exception as he initially went to some school in Belfast and then to the St Colmans in Newry in his latter years I think.

[Milltown Row2]

Yeah, we'd a superb team at the time, Stevie McAree was a great underage hurler, but somehow that never transferred to senior hurling for him. Barry Coulter was also on that team along with Gerard McGrattan who never won an underage competition with his club in Down, but was starting to show big things then and another lad Kevin McManus from Portaferry who was really good but emigrated to the states in his early 20's.
The best hurler in the Blayneys, Kevin, would also have been on it as well, he didn't have the speed of Mickey, but knew where the net was.
There was also a few lads from Newry Shamrocks and Kilkeel on that team as well

How many of those lads played for the secondary school in Portaferry? remember playing them a few times, all decent games

Most lads back then would have went to St Columba's in Portaferry, with a few to the Red high in Downpatrick. Kevin Blayney was the exception as he initially went to some school in Belfast and then to the St Colmans in Newry in his latter years I think.

Most of the Blayney's went to St Mary's. Kevin was like a rubber man, when you hit him he bounced straight back up lol

[jftj]

i think we might have obtained one of your better hurlers then MR-andy fennel

I don't think it was Andy that yous got, thinking it was his younger brother Doc Fennel, they they all left and played for Clonard when they started up again

Andy came to us at u-16 then doc started with us.

[Gaelic Life]

Though I'd throw this in here seeing as Antrim clubs did the clean sweep.

We're close to our third annual Ulster Club All-star Awards.

For the first time we'll also be picking a hurling 15 of the championship at the event in January so there'll be 45 nominees for each code.

You can email your suggestions to comment@gaeliclife.com, tweet us at @gaelic_life or get in touch via Facebook at facebook.com/gaeliclife.

[Milltown Row2]

i think we might have obtained one of your better hurlers then MR-andy fennel

I don't think it was Andy that yous got, thinking it was his younger brother Doc Fennel, they they all left and played for Clonard when they started up again

Andy came to us at u-16 then doc started with us.

I'll have to ask my cuz on that one, Andy was decent, a left hander but I don't think ever played too much after a few seasons with Clonard. Whatever happened to Dee Braniff (think that was his name, marked him football and hurling, wild streak about him during a game, those Ballymurphy players you had all had that

[jftj]

no MR I think ronan donnellys ballycastle won it that year in a surprise result.We,ve only won it once in 30 years before this present teams successes.

jftj,

Are you talking about minor about the time of Jimmy Wilson, John Kelly a Nugent and maybe big long Donal Kennedy although I think he's a year or so younger?

Aye they were minors 1990 (fcuk i feel like a old man)

We couldn't have been that bad then, milltown. We won it in '91.

Dunloy would probably have been on the wane at minor at that time, Ally Elliott and Co would have been one of the top teams the previous year I presume?

We won the Ulster championship at minor that year (89) and for some reason Elliott didn't play for Antrim at the time, think horse might have though.

Was there not a Cushendun/Grahams/Glenariffe amalgamation of some name or other pretty strong around the same time, leading into the strong Cushendun team thereafter?

Ballycastle IIRC had Ronan and Owen Colgan and some wee shit in the corner who could run like hell, may be their manager now 

Beat us in 88 Johnney at under 16 Newry or Athletic Grounds, I was doing nets in that game

That as well MR2, it was in Armagh as I was present myself that day, at the other end of the pitch.  A brutish Roscommon team featuring a giant Colm Kelly beat us in the final.

We won the minor a year later in Clones of all places.

i played that day in midfield that day with the aforementioned JoeMcCaf.It looked like we were gonna beat yous that day until yous switched SteveyMcAree from fb to chb.A great game,played on a sweltering hot day in front of a huge crowd.

[jftj]

i think we might have obtained one of your better hurlers then MR-andy fennel

I don't think it was Andy that yous got, thinking it was his younger brother Doc Fennel, they they all left and played for Clonard when they started up again

Andy came to us at u-16 then doc started with us.

Andy defo did.he scored 2 points v dunloy in u-16 final in 87.dee went to lamh dearg and played a bit of senior footy for them but mostly focussed on soccer

I'll have to ask my cuz on that one, Andy was decent, a left hander but I don't think ever played too much after a few seasons with Clonard. Whatever happened to Dee Braniff (think that was his name, marked him football and hurling, wild streak about him during a game, those Ballymurphy players you had all had that

[johnneycool]

no MR I think ronan donnellys ballycastle won it that year in a surprise result.We,ve only won it once in 30 years before this present teams successes.

jftj,

Are you talking about minor about the time of Jimmy Wilson, John Kelly a Nugent and maybe big long Donal Kennedy although I think he's a year or so younger?

Aye they were minors 1990 (fcuk i feel like a old man)

We couldn't have been that bad then, milltown. We won it in '91.

Dunloy would probably have been on the wane at minor at that time, Ally Elliott and Co would have been one of the top teams the previous year I presume?

We won the Ulster championship at minor that year (89) and for some reason Elliott didn't play for Antrim at the time, think horse might have though.

Was there not a Cushendun/Grahams/Glenariffe amalgamation of some name or other pretty strong around the same time, leading into the strong Cushendun team thereafter?

Ballycastle IIRC had Ronan and Owen Colgan and some wee shit in the corner who could run like hell, may be their manager now 

Beat us in 88 Johnney at under 16 Newry or Athletic Grounds, I was doing nets in that game

That as well MR2, it was in Armagh as I was present myself that day, at the other end of the pitch.  A brutish Roscommon team featuring a giant Colm Kelly beat us in the final.

We won the minor a year later in Clones of all places.

i played that day in midfield that day with the aforementioned JoeMcCaf.It looked like we were gonna beat yous that day until yous switched SteveyMcAree from fb to chb.A great game,played on a sweltering hot day in front of a huge crowd.

Stevie got a telling off after that as he'd used the f word in his acceptance speech after the game in Clones. He'd to write a letter of apology to the Ulster council. Then the bus on the way home got stopped in Dundonald as some lads had beared their arse out the back window going through it and the cops were sitting two cars behind the bus.
Yet more warnings dished out, this time in the local cop shop.

[Milltown Row2]

no MR I think ronan donnellys ballycastle won it that year in a surprise result.We,ve only won it once in 30 years before this present teams successes.

jftj,

Are you talking about minor about the time of Jimmy Wilson, John Kelly a Nugent and maybe big long Donal Kennedy although I think he's a year or so younger?

Aye they were minors 1990 (fcuk i feel like a old man)

We couldn't have been that bad then, milltown. We won it in '91.

Dunloy would probably have been on the wane at minor at that time, Ally Elliott and Co would have been one of the top teams the previous year I presume?

We won the Ulster championship at minor that year (89) and for some reason Elliott didn't play for Antrim at the time, think horse might have though.

Was there not a Cushendun/Grahams/Glenariffe amalgamation of some name or other pretty strong around the same time, leading into the strong Cushendun team thereafter?

Ballycastle IIRC had Ronan and Owen Colgan and some wee shit in the corner who could run like hell, may be their manager now 

Beat us in 88 Johnney at under 16 Newry or Athletic Grounds, I was doing nets in that game

That as well MR2, it was in Armagh as I was present myself that day, at the other end of the pitch.  A brutish Roscommon team featuring a giant Colm Kelly beat us in the final.

We won the minor a year later in Clones of all places.

i played that day in midfield that day with the aforementioned JoeMcCaf.It looked like we were gonna beat yous that day until yous switched SteveyMcAree from fb to chb.A great game,played on a sweltering hot day in front of a huge crowd.

Ally played under 16 when we won the all Ireland B final, scored a goal against Down (in the league) from the corner flag, was best goal I've seen from him and I've seen a right few over the years

[jftj]

i think we might have obtained one of your better hurlers then MR-andy fennel

I don't think it was Andy that yous got, thinking it was his younger brother Doc Fennel, they they all left and played for Clonard when they started up again

Andy came to us at u-16 then doc started with us.

Andy defo did.he scored 2 points v dunloy in u-16 final in 87.dee went to lamh dearg and played a bit of senior footy for them but mostly focussed on soccer

I'll have to ask my cuz on that one, Andy was decent, a left hander but I don't think ever played too much after a few seasons with Clonard. Whatever happened to Dee Braniff (think that was his name, marked him football and hurling, wild streak about him during a game, those Ballymurphy players you had all had that

I saw a few bad strokes by Dee alright.We used to have great battles with galls then u-12 to u-16 hurling but by minor yous just faded,what caused that MR2.

[jftj]

no MR I think ronan donnellys ballycastle won it that year in a surprise result.We,ve only won it once in 30 years before this present teams successes.

jftj,

Are you talking about minor about the time of Jimmy Wilson, John Kelly a Nugent and maybe big long Donal Kennedy although I think he's a year or so younger?

Aye they were minors 1990 (fcuk i feel like a old man)

We couldn't have been that bad then, milltown. We won it in '91.

Dunloy would probably have been on the wane at minor at that time, Ally Elliott and Co would have been one of the top teams the previous year I presume?

We won the Ulster championship at minor that year (89) and for some reason Elliott didn't play for Antrim at the time, think horse might have though.

Was there not a Cushendun/Grahams/Glenariffe amalgamation of some name or other pretty strong around the same time, leading into the strong Cushendun team thereafter?

Ballycastle IIRC had Ronan and Owen Colgan and some wee shit in the corner who could run like hell, may be their manager now 

Beat us in 88 Johnney at under 16 Newry or Athletic Grounds, I was doing nets in that game

That as well MR2, it was in Armagh as I was present myself that day, at the other end of the pitch.  A brutish Roscommon team featuring a giant Colm Kelly beat us in the final.

We won the minor a year later in Clones of all places.

i played that day in midfield that day with the aforementioned JoeMcCaf.It looked like we were gonna beat yous that day until yous switched SteveyMcAree from fb to chb.A great game,played on a sweltering hot day in front of a huge crowd.

Stevie got a telling off after that as he'd used the f word in his acceptance speech after the game in Clones. He'd to write a letter of apology to the Ulster council. Then the bus on the way home got stopped in Dundonald as some lads had beared their arse out the back window going through it and the cops were sitting two cars behind the bus.
Yet more warnings dished out, this time in the local cop shop.

those were the days johnny.

[Milltown Row2]

i think we might have obtained one of your better hurlers then MR-andy fennel

I don't think it was Andy that yous got, thinking it was his younger brother Doc Fennel, they they all left and played for Clonard when they started up again

Andy came to us at u-16 then doc started with us.

Andy defo did.he scored 2 points v dunloy in u-16 final in 87.dee went to lamh dearg and played a bit of senior footy for them but mostly focussed on soccer

I'll have to ask my cuz on that one, Andy was decent, a left hander but I don't think ever played too much after a few seasons with Clonard. Whatever happened to Dee Braniff (think that was his name, marked him football and hurling, wild streak about him during a game, those Ballymurphy players you had all had that

I saw a few bad strokes by Dee alright.We used to have great battles with galls then u-12 to u-16 hurling but by minor yous just faded,what caused that MR2.

Don't know we were a small enough panel in fairness, a few footballers that were dragged out to play hurling, their heart was never in it but in those days they still played, now you more or less don't have any sole footballers trying hurling at all, it's starting to become a separate sport which in the long run may actually develop hurling.

We'd some big players in Tom Healy HM and Conlieth Donaghy also was our leader!!, we'd other lads to just not enough to build a team. Strange thing (well for me anyway) was that we all went on to the senior team that just got promoted that year (88) and playing Rossa Cushendall, Castle Loughgiel were all great experiences but christ it was hard, are only win was against yous at our pitch one Wed night, played corner back and was great to get that win I tell ya!! West Belfast MLA playing that night too.

As you say some great memories, some stories have changed no doubt over the years