Senior football the only nameless cup after two more Munster trophies receive dedications

It’s a case of five down and one to go following the recent dedication of two Munster championship trophies.

At the most recent provincial council meeting, the cups for the U20 football and minor hurling championships were named in honour of Noel Walsh (Clare) and John Doyle (Tipperary) respectively.

Previously, the U21 football and hurling trophies were both named Corn na Cásca, but when the age changed from 21 to 20 five years ago, the JJ Kenneally Perpetual Trophy was presented in honour of the Limerick jeweller and businessman, who produced many GAA trophies and medals over the years.

The minor hurling cup was previously named in honour of TWA Airlines. That company ceased operations in 2001, meaning that that competition and the second-tier hurling in Munster (known at various stages as intermediate or junior) were named after defunct brands.

In the case of the latter, Sweet Afton cigarettes were given prominence. In its July 21, 1951 issue, the Nenagh Guardian reported: “At a meeting of the Munster Council GAA held at Thurles, Mr Jerh. Shelly, representative of Messrs PJ Carroll & Co., Dundalk, presented a large silver cup, donated by his firm, as a perpetual trophy to be awarded to Munster junior hurling champions.”

Mr Shelly was happy to donate the cup: “My company feels especially pleased to have this cup accepted by your council as a further incentive to the attainment among the younger generation of that very high standard of games and sportsmanship for which your council is famous.”

Prior to the recent decisions to honour Walsh and Doyle, the last cup naming was that of the one awarded to the province’s senior hurling champions. The great Mick Mackey of Limerick was the man honoured and its first presentation was to a fellow Shannonsider, Declan Hannon, after the win over Clare in 2022.

Last summer, Hannon was again the winning captain after another victory against the Banner County, fittingly in the Mick Mackey Stand at TUS Gaelic Grounds.

The senior equivalent remains without a name, despite discussions around the candidacy of various names. The minor championship is known as the Tadhg Crowley Cup – not to be confused with the trophy awarded in Cork, it is named after a former Munster Council treasurer, who hailed from Kerry.

With the two names now determined, Limerick have two of the five, with Kerry, Clare and Tipperary one each.

Here in Cork, most of the various league and championship trophies given out at club level are named after people rather than the businesses who donated them - all men, it should be noted. Some, such as those for the junior B and C football and junior B hurling championships, have yet to be dedicated, even though both junior B trophies were first presented in 1984.

We mentioned the ‘other’ Tadhg Crowley Cup above – the Cork version was repurposed in 2022. Named after the Clonakilty great, it was previously awarded for the pre-championship senior football equivalent of the intermediate Tom Creedon Cup.

However, with that competition squeezed out by the new fixture schedule, the trophy is now given to the team winning the divisions/colleges section of the Premier SFC.

For the hurling winners, a new trophy was presented by the family of the late Valley Rovers stalwart, Denis O’Riordan.

Prior to that, the newest additions to the roster came last year with the restructuring of the championships and the creation of senior A grades in hurling and football. Interestingly, when the intermediate grades were split in the mid-2000s, the previous second-tier cups – Billy Long for football and Séamus Long for hurling – became the premier intermediate trophies, with John ‘Leac’ O’Sullivan and Paddy Walsh commemorated for the new intermediate A grades.

This time around, though, the new senior A championships were given brand-new cups, with the premier intermediate trophies remaining as they are, even with the drop from second tier to third.

Both O’Sullivan and Walsh had died shortly prior to the change and it is a similar in 2020 as two great Gaels were honoured, Jim Forbes of Carrigaline – chairperson of the county board from 2003-05 as well as holding a multitude of other roles – for the hurling and former St Finbarr’s goalkeeper Kevin McTernan for the football. Each of them died before their time but their names will live on.