Jeremiah’s sterling service to his Cork GAA club enshrined for posterity
Jeremiah Keohane (back, fifth from left) in the Courcey Rovers team that played in the West Cork Final in the early 1950s
DESPITE a brilliant GAA career that earned him 21 medals between 1945 and 1965, Jeremiah Keohane is one of many great club players largely lost to the mists of time.
However, his family this year took steps to cement his reputation for posterity at the club where he excelled - Courcey Rovers.
Jeremiah’s cousin, Kate Crowley explained: “He had these superb medals, individually carved from a sterling silver sheet, with winners only getting medals at that time. So we decided to get them buffed, cleaned and given new life and meaning by presenting them back to his beloved club in Ballinspittle.”
Most of the medals were won in the fiercely competitive South West Cork Junior Hurling tournaments.
Kate and another cousin of Jeremiah’s, Alan Coleman, handed The Jeremiah Keohane Medal Collection to Stephen Harrington, chairperson of Courcey Rovers GAA club, and it will form a centrepiece of the club’s heritage for the generations to come.
Jeremiah Keohane was born in Lispatrick in the Old Head of Kinsale on August 19, 1925. He loved hurling with a passion and played with Ballinspittle up to 1946.
In 1947, the club amalgamated with Ballinadee to form Courcey Rovers. Cumann Fánaithe na Cúirseacha was born, so it was always the red and white of Courceys for Jeremiah thereafter.
When they won the 1948 South West Cork Junior Hurling tournament, The Southern Star reported: “The winners had the outstanding player on the field in their young forward Seán Hales, while Keohane was prominent in defence.”
Denis Paul Griffin wrote in the souvenir programme of the official opening of Páirc Uí Riogáin in Garrettstown on May 22, 1988: “Jeremiah Keohane - the man of iron - played most of his matches at full back. His rugged strength was a source of inspiration to most of his colleagues and his courage was unquestionable.”
He had the honour of captaining his beloved Courceys hurlers in 1953 when they won both the Cork South West league and championship.
He won 10 West Cork hurling medals in the Carbery Division and had retired by the time Courceys joined the South East Carrigdhoun Division in 1975.
Jeremiah was chairman of the club from 1963 to 1971 and heavily involved in his community. In 1971, Ballinspittle Community Centre officially opened, and he was involved as all nine clubs in the parish at the time united to build it.
Farming was the other side of Jeremiah’s life, he loved the land in the Old Head and enjoyed ploughing matches. He gave the GAA club the use of a field for many years for early season training.
Jeremiah died on September 27, 1998, aged 73. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. In 2016, the inaugural tournament for the Jeremiah Keohane Perpetual Memorial Cup took place at Páirc Uí Ríogáin - he would have been delighted to see his name go down in history in connection with the promotion of hurling among local youth.
