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 Denis Maher of Thurles Sarsfields in action While events to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the GAA may have come to an end, there is at lease one further associated event yet to come in the Co.Tipperary GAA calendar, which should not missed.
This event is a truly exiting exhibition of photographs, which will go on show in the Tipperary Institute on Thursday next the 19th November at 8.00 pm. The exhibition is part of the overall 30th Anniversary celebrations which mark the founding of GAA club Dúrlas Óg .
This exhibition will feature a large collection of photographs taken over the years, many of which have never been seen by the public and which will also depict many of the winning teams since 1979.
One of the highlights to be featured in this exhibition will be prints by the Thurles accomplished club photographer Mr. John O’ Loughlin LIPF, from his own private collection.
In 1979 Dúrlas Óg came into being, born of the frustration of committed followers of Gaelic games, who, rather than simply criticise the lack of interest in hurling and football among the youth of Thurles, set about lighting their own candle to beat the impending darkness.
Since its foundation in 1979 this club has gone from strength to strength and one of it’s latest developments was the opening of the Pat Staklum Memorial training facility which incorporates Astro Turf and Hurling wall.
This interesting new exhibition will be opened officially on Thursday night by former All Star Hurler, Eddie Enright and is an event not to be missed by true lovers of both Gaelic games and photography.
A quiet plot at Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin gives no clue as to whose final resting place it might be, let alone the role this Tipperary man previously played in changing the course of this country’s sporting history.
 Thomas St George McCarthy Cup. The occupant of this lonely spot, for the past 66 years, is none other than Tipperary man Thomas St George McCarthy, who with possibly thirteen other men gathered in Thurles’s, Haye’s Hotel, Co Tipperary on that day, 1st of November in 1884, for that inaugural meeting of the GAA. Thomas who died at the age of 80 in 1943, because of reduced means, would have no headstone afforded him, to mark the grave he bought for himself, while still living.
While fellow founders names like J. K. Bracken, Maurice Davin, Michael Cusack of Cusack Stand fame and patron Archbishop Thomas Croke are referred to by the GAA as household names, McCarthy lay with nothing to prove his personal legacy to the Irish Nation.
Why you ask? The answer is simple, Thomas St. George McCarthy, born at Bansha, Tipperary was an Irish Rugby Union International player. Born son of a Kerry man who was a former Revenue Police Lieutenant, RIC County Inspector and a Resident Magistrate, who worked in Tipperary and resided in Bansha, Thomas McCarthy himself was a District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary based at Templemore, County Tipperary. His involvement in the GAA is particularly notable because in a later period there would be a ban for many years in the GAA on people who played rugby, cricket and soccer (Rule 21) from joining the Association and this ban would also apply to members of the British police and armed forces.
McCarthy moved to Dublin from Bansha in 1877 and became a close friend of Michael Cusack, sharing Cusacks dream. He was coached by Cusack for his RIC cadetship examination in 1882, in which he took first place. He joined the Trinity College University Football Club in 1881 and was capped against Wales in 1882. In the same year he won the Leinster Senior Cup with Trinity. His involvement with the GAA was brought about by the belief that this new initiative would encourage young men onto the sports field and away from the consumption of hard liquor.
He had a great love of hurling, and was a regular attender at matches including Croke Park to which he travelled from his home in Ranelagh,Co. Dublin.
However, plans are now in train to redress this injustice and the GAA propose to erect a commemorative gravestone at Deansgrange, which is to be unveiled in November 2009.
The two police forces in Ireland, the Garda Síochána (South) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (North) have already honoured McCarthy by introducing the Thomas St. George McCarthy Cup for competition by members of the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Perhaps it’s now the correct time for Tipperary, Templemore and Bansha to honour him also, before the year runs out.
A capacity crowd of parents, students and teachers were held spellbound by a very realistic enactment of the founding meeting of  the G.A.A. by a group of Thurles actors in Tipperary Institute on Wednesday last.
Organised by Tipperary Education Support Centre in Thurles, the enactment was brought to life with a script devised by author and historian Tom Noone from contemporary records of the event, and played by members of Thurles Drama Group.
The actors, in genuine period costume supplied by St. Mary’s Famine Museum, decided on a most original concept, by having all the cast enter the auditorium through the audience and then taking their places among the audience, just as they would have done at an actual meeting.
The narrator gave the reasons for the meeting and invited Michael Cusack to open proceedings. What followed kept everyone’s interest at a high level as various points in favour of the proposed association were made, clarification sought on a number of issues, elections held and acknowledgements made of the sterling work done by Cusack and the new President of the fledgling organisation, Tipperary man Maurice Davin. The meeting concluded with the reading of Archbishop Thomas William Croke’s charter for the association.
The cast pictured above comprised Donal Taylor, Tom Noone, Flan Quigney, Martin Fitzgerald, David McElgunn, Liam Ryan and Jimmy Duggan.
Among the capacity audience were Most Rev. Dr. Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Nicky Brennan, immediate past president of the G.A.A., Barry O’Brien, Tipperary Co. Board chairman, Tim Floyd, Tipperary county secretary, and a large number of the Tipperary hurling panel.
 Michael Cusack 1847- 1906 founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association Among the many functions being held country-wide to mark the 125th anniversary of the Gaelic Athletic Association, is a novel idea arranged by a number of teachers in the Co. Tipperary Education Centre here in Thurles.
All of the primary schools in town were invited to submit projects to mark this special occasion, and the response from the students has been magnificent.
The results of their endeavours are on show in Tipperary Institute, and include videos conceived and produced by the students themselves, along with drawings, displays, pictures and essays.
All the work will be recognised on Wednesday 4th November in the Institute at a function to be attended by a number of dignitaries, including members of the Tipperary Senior hurling panel.
Now this is where the novel idea comes into being.
A number of local actors will stage a re-enactment of the very first meeting of the Gaelic Athletic Association, held in Miss Hayes’ Hotel, Main Street, Thurles, on November 1st 1884, with a specially commissioned script based on contemporary accounts of the meeting.
It is hoped to have a link with the Michael Cusack Centre in Clare during the presentation.
This event promises to be an historical and educational evening.
 Ken Hogan Tipperary Former Tipperary senior hurling manager Ken Hogan, who won five Munster titles and two All-Ireland crowns during his playing career as goalkeeper with the Premier County, has been handed a two-year term in charge of the county’s U-21 hurlers.
Ken won two under-14 ‘B’ championship medals in 1976 and 1977 and an under-21 ‘B’ medal in 1983. He was a member of the Tipperary senior inter-county team from 1987 until 1993, winning two North Tipperary senior hurling championship medals and captaining his side to the title in 1989.
Ken will be assisted in his new post by Tommy Dunne, TJ Connolly and William Maher.
Ken Hogan, from the Lorrha-Dorrha club, stepped into management when his playing days ended, serving as a selector alongside former Tipp senior boss Fr. Tom Fogarty in the 1990s.
Hogan was elevated to the top position for two seasons in his own right when he succeeded Michael Doyle as team boss in 2003.
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