Christy Ring played his last game for the Glen 60 years ago this weekend

Sixty years ago, on Easter Sunday 1966, the maestro Christy Ring lined out for Glen Rovers in a championship final for the last time. 

This was the inaugural Munster Club senior hurling championship replayed final which took place at the Gaelic grounds in Limerick. 

A huge crowd descended on the venue where once again Christy Ring was the main attraction. 

The Glen's opponents in this historic final were the Waterford kingpins Mount Sion, a team laden with many Waterford inter-county stars. 

Ring was then 46 years of age, and he made it clear to every one in the Blackpool club, that he wanted to win a medal in the first ever Munster club championship.

Twenty five years earlier, Ring made his debut with the Glen when in 1941 he was part of the history making team who won a record eight Cork senior county championships in a row between 1934 and 1941. 

His first county final victory with the Glen who defeated Ballincollig in the final was very special to Ring, and it became a memory he cherished all his life. 

Now coming to the end of his long career, the Cloyne man believed he could now be once again a member of another Glen Rovers team who would make history by becoming the first winners of this new provincial championship. 

Up to 1964 their was no further competition for clubs in Munster who had won their respective county senior championships. 

The Glen, captained by Ring, defeated the Barrs in the 1964 county final and went forward to represent Cork. 

These games were played in 1965 and the Glen qualified for the final following a facial victory over a very weak Kerry opposition while in the other semi-final, Mount Sion got the better of a top class Thurles Sarsfields team. 

After a long delay through a back log of other fixtures the final was fixed to take place in Cashel on the second Sunday of December. 

The Glen organised a number of buses to ferry their supporters to the final. 

In the excitement which prevailed before the game it was discovered that the club officials had forgot to bring the gear bag with the jerseys. Confronted now with an unwanted dilemma,  Ring made representations to the local Cashel club, and to the amazement of their supporters the Glen took the field wearing the Cashel jerseys. 

The game got underway in dreadful conditions, a bitterly cold gale force wind swept down the length of the pitch, which was now cut up badly especially around the goal mouths, and just before half time an icy downpour made it a nightmare to even hold the hurleys. 

However, both teams served up some very impressive displays with Ring giving a masterful exhibition despite the inclement conditions. 

Playing against the strong breeze in the second half the Glen were holding on to a three point lead with ten minutes remaining, the score was 3-6 to to 2-6 with the Glen goals coming from Patsy Harte and two raspers from Ring, who all through the game was the main danger for Mount Sion. Around then crowd trouble seemed to be brewing behind the Glen goal, and pleasanteries were being exchanged amongst the rival supporters.

Following this incident, a shamozzle ensued amongst the players on the pitch, and over twenty spectators rushed on to the pitch to take sides as the rain lashed down on the field pittilessly. 

Having failed to restore order the referee Tommy Foran from Carrig-On-Suir abandoned the game because of a danger to the players and his umpires. 

The premature termination of this game caught the imagination of hurling supporters all over the country. 

A rumour without any foundation was also doing the rounds that hatchets were found on the spectators embankment after the game. 

This of course all contributed to beefing up the replay. 

The much awaited final of the first Munster Club championship was fixed for Easter Sunday 10th April 1966 and the venue was the Gaelic Grounds Limerick. 

1966 was a very important year in the history of Glen Rovers. 

The club were celebrating their Golden Jubilee, having been established in 1916. 

This put further pressure on the players to win the Munster club title. 

During the week of the final Blackpool people were buzzing in anticipation of another famous victory for the famed club. 

Two afternoon's during that week Ring was behind closed doors in the Glen Boxing Club doing upper body strength exercises. 

Unknown to many, Ring was a man ahead of his time and had been doing his own training in the boxing club for over twenty years. 

On Easter Sunday morning the club organised once again a fleet of buses for supporters going to the game. 

A special excursion train was also put on by CIE. 

Following the trains arrival in Limerick a group of Glen supprters in convoy walked over to the Augustinian Friary in the city and lit candle's for Ring and a Glen victory. 

They knew Ring had an affinity with the Augustinians as, for many years when he lived in an apartment on the Grand Parade he attended Daily Mass in St Augustine's church. 

They also knew that Ring had donated his then record breaking eighth All-Ireland medal to that church to have the gold content melted down to form part of a new chalice for the church. 

Around 3pm, Ring blazed out of the dressing room and led the Glen on to the pitch. 

Over Fifteen thousand supporters packed into the home of Shannonside hurling.

From the first minute to the last, Ring gave a masterful display in the art of hurling, this ensured the victory for the Glen on a score of 3-7 to 1-7. Ring goaled again for the Glen and emerged the top scorer in the final, which was his last final in a Glen jersey.

"Let the story of this triumph be the story once again of Christy Ring," wrote Paddy Downey in the Irish Times. 

Thirteen years later Ring died in 1979, and at his graveside Jack Lynch said the following.

"As long as young people swing their caman for the sheer thrill of the tingle in their fingers, of the impact of ash on leather, the story of Christy Ring will be told and that will be forever."