Search Results for 'Joe Salmon'

It was the first of many that eventually would follow. Castlegar senior hurlers set the standard, winning Galway's first All Ireland senior club hurling crown in 1980, a competition previously dominated by Cork clubs since 1970. It took 11 years before another Galway club, Kiltormer, would succeed, while Sarsfields, Athenry, Portumna Clarinbridge, and St Thomas have all having delighted hurling fans throughout the county, demonstrating the strength of the game in the west of Ireland.

Galway featured in the first All-Ireland hurling final in 1887 when they were beaten by Tipperary. Their first victory in a final came in 1924 when they won the 1923 decider. They played that day in blue and gold colours. They were known on other occasions to tog out in black and amber jerseys. In the 1930s the GAA decided that each county should adopt its own colours, and as UCG had won the Sigerson that year, and their captain was on the County senior team, it was decided that Galway would play from then on in maroon and white, the colours of UCG.

“We are blessed with the most wonderful field game in the world. No sport is more skillful, more graceful, more revealing of those who play it, and nobody who has seen hurling played by its greatest exponents can be in any doubt what beauty is, or graciousness or courtesy either.

June 16, 1957, was a blistering hot day, a day of celebration for the Galway GAA fraternity. It was the day the president of the GAA , Seamus McFerran, officially opened the Pearse Stadium in Rockbarton.

An elderly lady once told me that “Apart from the Irish language, we have nothing more Irish in this country than the game of hurling.” I agree. It is the greatest game of them all. It is probably the number one game in the county, attendances at senior county finals being a very good criterion — the hurling final has always been the bigger attraction than the football counterpart, “even in the balmy days of our football three-in-a-row,” according to the late Jack Mahon.