The late Séamus Looney's medal haul worthy of the player he was

The late Dr Séamus Looney will be remembered as a great player in both codes and a gentleman, according to former club and county colleague Gerald McCarthy.

Looney, a general practitioner, won a senior All-Ireland hurling medal in 1970 as well as three straight U21 hurling medals from 1969-71. He also won All-Ireland U21 football medals in 1970 and 1971, having claimed All-Ireland minor football honours in 1967 and 1968.

With St Finbarr’s, he won county SHC medals in 1968 and 1974, the club going on to claim Munster and All-Ireland glory after the latter success, while he was a senior football medallist in 1976. His Barrs career was interrupted by a stint with UCC, owing to his medical studies there and a rule that forced players to line out with the College in the county championships.

He won Sigerson Cup medals in 1969, 1970 and 1972, the latter part of a double along with a Fitzgibbon Cup success, having also won the Fitz in 1971. He won the Cork SFC with UCC in 1969 and 1973, while the side represented Cork in the 1971-72 Munster and All-Ireland club competition as county champions Carbery were ineligible. They won the provincial championship and lost the All-Ireland final to Bellaghy of Derry. Looney also won a Cork SHC medal with UCC in 1970.

He retired from senior inter-county action at the young age of 22 in 1972, apart from a brief football return in 1977. McCarthy recalls a multi-talented player.

“Certainly, I admired him greatly from a very young age,” he said.

“He was a great player underage and all the way up the line in both codes. He was a gentleman, too.

“The extraordinary thing was that we won an All-Ireland together in 1970, we were the midfield partnership, and then a couple of weeks later we met in a county final as he had to play with the College and we were marking each other.

“That was one of the weirdest things I’d ever experienced! It was very difficult for him to play against the guys he’d grown up with and for so long, as he was in college for five years.

“He was a lovely hurler and a great character, too. In football, I’ll never forget the day he marked Mick O’Dwyer out of it down in the Athletic Grounds. He didn’t give Micko a kick of the ball and Micko was fed up of him!

“He turned his back on the ball for kickouts and everything, just in his face, he didn’t give him an inch. He wasn’t a dirty player by any means but he could be very tenacious.”

He is survived by his children Caroline, Michael and Sarah and siblings Noelle, Eileen, Kathleen, Mary, Carol, having been pre-deceased by sisters Kathleen and Susan and brother Patrick.

His funeral Mass takes place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, The Lough at 11am on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Cork County Board secretary/CEO Kevin O’Donovan has cautioned against what he termed “big, grand statements” about the earlier finish to the inter-county season than was previously the case.

At Tuesday’s monthly county board meeting at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, O’Donovan made the point that, while television pundits have made sweeping comments saying the schedule should move later in the year, there isn’t room to fit the club action.

“In regard to the split season, we know there has been a bit of commentary on that,” he said, “and it’s premature to say whether it’s going to be a success or not.

“All I would say to anybody before they make big, grand statements on television about the split season and putting the club back another month, have a little look at the Cork championship programme from Friday July 22 out to September 4, where we will play six weeks of championship games, and tell me you can find a month there to extend the inter-county season. And if you do, fair play to you, you can have my job any day of the week.

“For those people making big, simple comments about All-Ireland finals in September and the children going back to school, our job is to give people games. I remain to be convinced that the split season won't be a success. Let's see how it plays out.”