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Death Of Former Thurles Hotelier John McCarthy

With Sincere Sympathy

With Sincere Sympathy

We report, with great personal sadness, that the death occurred yesterday of retired former leading Irish hotelier and business man, Mr John McCarty, aged 88, and late of No 9, The Heath, Circular Road, Galway and Pembroke Road, in Dublin.

Mr McCarthy was predeceased by his wife Eileen, (Latter nee Norton & daughter of the late William Norton, T.D.,  former Tanaiste and planner of the first Inter-Party Government in 1948, under Mr. John A. Costello.) 

Formerly proprietor of the Glenview Hotel, Delgany, Co Wicklow and later proprietor of Hayes Hotel, Liberty Square, Thurles, Co Tipperary, until his retirement in the late 1980’s.

Our sympathies go to his son John, his daughter-in-law Kay (nee Bowe), two grand daughters Michelle and Sinead, relatives and his many close friends and acquaintances.

Mr McCarthy’s body reposed at No. 9, The Heath yesterday Tuesday, February 4th 2014, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

In accordance with his wishes, his body has been donated for medical research.

Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam dílis.

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Another Tipperary Hotel Goes Into Receivership

Clonmel Park Hotel

Clonmel Park Hotel

A receiver has been appointed to the South Tipperary Clonmel Park Hotel, latter owned by the Brennan Group situated at the Poppyfield Retail Park in Clonmel town. The Hotel is one of four hotels in the group, with the Arklow Bay in Wicklow, and the Springhill Court Hotel situated in Kilkenny also in receivership.

The fourth hotel in the group, the Green Isle in Dublin, is not affected and continues to trade as normal.

Hotel Asset Management Services (HAMS), a company formally set up to manage hotels which get into trading difficulties, has confirmed that it had been appointed to manage the three affected hotels.

This news follows the appointment earlier this week of a provisional liquidator to the Ballykisteen Hotel near Limerick Junction, Tipperary town & last month both the Hayes Hotel and Anner Hotel in Thurles, Co Tipperary.

All the hotels above named continue to trade, for the moment, with all staff remaining employed, however this news further highlights the neglect of Tipperary by this present government, with regard to the promotion of tourism in the county.

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Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) – 1884 – Meeting In The Haye’s Hotel Thurles

hayes-hotelThis year, 2009, will see the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) celebrate its 125th anniversary. The man most credited with the original impetus behind this formation was a west of Ireland man, Michael Cusack, a native of County Clare. Cusack’s original dream was to resurrect the ancient Tailteann Games and establish an independent organisation to promote young athletes, however hurling and Gaelic football would over the following years eventually predominate.
Michael Cusack, a native Gaelic speaker, was born in Carron, County Clare in 1847. Regarded by many as having a rather complex personality, he had developed a passion for Gaelic games which was matched only by his love of his native local environment the wild and beautiful limestone landscape of the Burren, where he had been born and raised. Cusack pursued an academic career, eventually becoming a teacher at Blackrock College, in Dublin. In 1877 he set up his own school, known as the Civil Service Academy. The aim of the latter was to prepare students for examinations, necessary to gain them admission into the British Civil Service. This school which was better known as “Cusack’s Academy,” was extremely successful. The many pupils then attending this establishment, were encouraged to get involved in all and any forms of physical exercise. Cusack greatly disappointed by the apparent decline in Irish native games established a hurling clubs at his Academy and thus began his dream to re-establish hurling as the national pastime.

Meanwhile, a farmer from Carrick-on-Suir, Maurice Davin, an outstanding athlete who won international fame in the 1870’s had been actively campaigning for a body to control Irish athletics, so at 3.00pm on Saturday,1st November 1884 at the Haye’s Hotel, Thurles, Co.Tipperary, a meeting of like-minded individuals took place.

This day was chosen for its mythological significance, for according to Irish legends, November 1st was the day when the power of the Fianna died and Cusack’s choice of day was meant to symbolise the rebirth of these mythological Irish heroes, whose aims were; Glaine ár gcroí (Pureness of heart); Neart ár ngéag (Strength of limb); and Beart de réir ár mbriathar (Deeds to match words).

Following this meeting, a committee called The Gaelic Athletic Association for the Cultivation and Preservation of National Pastimes was established. Those elected to form this committee were John Wyse Power, John McKay, J. K. Bracken, Joseph O’Ryan, Maurice Davin, Michael Cusack and Thomas St. George McCarthy. This name was eventually shortened to “The Gaelic Athletic Association“. Others believed to be in attendance at this inaugural meeting included Frank Moloney, Nenagh, William Foley,Carraig-on-Suir, William Delehunty, Thurles, John Butler, Thurles, and William Cantwell, Thurles. Maurice Davin who had presided at this meeting was elected the GAA’s first president and historically the only president ever to serve two terms in office.

The aims now set by this committee were as follows:
• To foster and promote native Irish pastimes
• To open athletics to all social classes
• To establish hurling and football clubs which would organise matches between counties

Within a few weeks of the organisation’s foundation, the then Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Croke gave this organisation his approval and became its first patron. Its other patrons included both Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell.

Archbishop Croke would later introduce a new rule to the organisation which forbade members of the GAA from playing foreign games, such as tennis, cricket, polo and croquet. Given later controversies which concerned the playing of ‘foreign games’ and the banning of members of the British armed forces and police from joining, it is notable that one founder member, Thomas St. George McCarthy a native of Bansha, Co.Tipperary was a capped international rugby player, having played for Ireland against Wales in 1883 and was also a District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Also, founder J.K. Bracken, latter the father of Brendan Bracken,who was to become Winston Churchill’s closest friend and Minister for Information in Churchill’s wartime government and then later became a member of the British Cabinet during World War II.

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Up The Quarry And Down The Pike

Thurles Author & Poet Tom Ryan Remembers.

“Up the quarry and down the Pike,
That’s the way to ride a bike “

[Who has ever heard Thurles people sing that old refrain above.]

One of the most delightful of Thurles personalities was the late Nan Roche of Lisheen Terrace, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

I spoke to her on her 80th birthday and some seventy years of her 80 years had been spent in the Quarry, which once produced a World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Paddy Ryan.

Nan Roche recalled to me that she came into the world on the sunny side of Liberty Square, in Thurles; born in Cooks Lane back in 1915. Cooks lane was situated between Hayes Hotel and Roches Hardware

“I have memories of generals and officers, but they were probably Black and Tans”, Nan recalled, and she remembered days of apples galore and one Margaret Cantwell and being told to mind herself crossing the road, in an era when there were no cars; only the animal powered variety.

Nan, a great friend of mine for many years, loved to tell me of great yarns of sporting days in Thurles. For instance, when some folks were not beyond linking doorknobs on opposite sides of the street with string. “I’d hate to try that in Mitchel Street today”, she stated, She continued “In those days people travelled to Templemore for a pair of new shoes. Sure that would be accomplished with all the ceremony and hoo-ha that accompanies a holiday”.

Half upgraded Liberty Square area photographed in 2023.
Pic: G. Willoughby

I myself well recall going to the CBS from Fianna Road wading in wellies up the Mall (if you were lucky enough to have them), with a mandatory quick glance at the latest toys or fishing tackle in Kilroys’ window of wonder. Then across the square to school on Market Day held on the first Tuesday of each month.
The shop windows were all boarded up for safety and security to avoid the vast and heaving mass of cattle on the streets and sidewalks of Liberty Square. Indeed I well recall playing hurling in the Square.

In the 1950’s, I was always a goalkeeper for matches in Fianna Road, just off Liberty Square. Though my backside faced down towards the river at the junction of Fianna Road and Slievenamon Road, I never had to look around me for traffic, because there was none. Only a car belonging to Detective Garda Pat Wall who was my next-door neighbour and father of All-Ireland hurler, Tony Wall.

I don’t think there ever was an excuse for being late for school. There used to be a Minah Bird in a wee shop in the Square, near PJ Broderick’s auctioneers now, which was forever urging us to “Hurry up, you’ll be late for school”.

I suppose that if a country person knows every corner of every field where he was brought up, the ould townies in Thurles will recall a million stories on the street or road or terrace where they lived.

There is not a square inch of the Watery Mall in Thurles, where I have not played hurling or planned an ambush on the enemy of the United States Marine Corps.

Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. ©

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Death Of Martin Maher, Thurles Co. Tipperary.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death, yesterday Monday 4th December 2023 of Mr Martin (DJ Marty) Maher, Thurles, Co. Tipperary and formerly of Athnid, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Pre-deceased by his parents Richie and Nancy (née Byrne) Mr Maher passed away following a short illness most bravely borne.
His passing is most deeply regretted by his loving family; Siobhan, Shane, Emma, Louise, Danielle and Orla, grandchildren Billy, Harper, Henry and Frankie, cousins, extended relatives, colleagues in Hayes Hotel, neighbours and many friends.

Requiescat in Pace.

Funeral Arrangements.

The earthly remains of Mr Maher will repose at Hugh Ryan’s Funeral Home, Slievenamon Road, Thurles on tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, December 6th, from 5:00pm until 7:00pm.
His remains will be received into the Cathedral of the Assumption, Cathedral Street, Thurles on Thursday morning, December 7th, at 10:30am, to further repose for Requiem Mass at 11:00am, followed by interment, immediately afterwards, in St. Patrick’s cemetery, Moyne Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

For those persons who are unable to attend the funeral service for Mr Maher, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.

The extended Maher family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.


In ár gcroíthe go deo.

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