When Declan Hannon climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand in August 2018 and lifted the McCarthy Cup, the significance of what Limerick had achieved was immediately understood.
Forty-five years of hurt had finally come to an end. A generation of supporters who had grown up knowing only disappointment could finally call themselves All-Ireland champions. What nobody could have known was that it was not the conclusion of Limerick’s story but the beginning of something far greater.
The Treaty County has since established itself as one of the greatest dynasties in the history of Gaelic games. John Kiely’s side have accumulated national and provincial honours at a rate that would have seemed unimaginable before 2018, with many of the players who ended the famine still operating at the highest level.
For those who endured the barren years and the heartbreak that came with them, one All-Ireland would have been more than enough. But perhaps the most fascinating legacy of Limerick’s golden age is only now beginning to emerge.
This past summer, the Limerick minors secured their first All-Ireland title since 1984, completing a remarkable minor-senior double for only the second time in the county’s history and the first since 1940.
Significance
Yet on an even more granular level, something potentially of greater significance is beginning to shift in the shadow of Limerick’s dominance.
Limerick has always possessed a proud hurling tradition, but it has never been evenly distributed across the county. South and east Limerick have traditionally formed its hurling heartland, while in the city, the small ball has had to compete fiercely with soccer and rugby for attention. Further west, the challenge has traditionally been greater again.
The towns and villages towards the Kerry border have historically been associated more closely with Gaelic football and soccer than hurling. The Gaelic Grounds and Pery Square can feel a long way away in Abbeyfeale and Newcastle West, where football has long held a powerful grip and soccer remains deeply embedded in community life.
This summer, Ethan Hurley became the first Magpies player to line out for the Limerick senior hurlers since Jim O’Grady in 1950”
But that old sporting geography is beginning to change. Newcastle West has in recent years established itself as a force in senior hurling while retaining its position near the summit of Limerick’s Gaelic football pyramid. This summer, Ethan Hurley became the first Magpies player to line out for the Limerick senior hurlers since Jim O’Grady in 1950, when he made his debut against in Cusack Park against Clare in the Munster Championship.
In one of West Limerick’s largest secondary schools, a new generation is beginning to embrace the small ball with an enthusiasm that would have been difficult to imagine before 2018.
Scoil Mhuire agus Íde in Newcastle West has emerged as an important nursery for young hurlers in the region. For teacher and under-19 hurling manager Kevin O’Brien, the transformation has been striking.
“I did my teaching placement back in 2018, but I was away then until 2023, and the increase in interest in hurling is just unbelievable. Back in 2018, football and soccer were probably the main sports, but then after that initial all-Ireland win and the years that followed, the impact has been massive.”
Dynamic
“It has just completely changed the whole dynamic. I remember coming back in 2023 and walking into a fourth-year class. Every one of the lads in front of me was hurling mad, wearing school and club jumpers, and most of them were on county panels.”
“You could see the initial reaction after that 2018 win, but fast-forward five years and it’s a completely different environment. Suddenly the students in front of me now only want to play hurling, whereas before there might have been a passing interest, but soccer, football or rugby would have taken centre stage. Hurling was never number one for anyone in the school really, but that all changed in 2018.”
When I think back to being a young lad, all I can remember is the Heineken Cup finals and red jerseys everywhere”
The rise of the school as a hurling force is another barometer of the game’s growing strength in the west and evidence that a region long dominated by Gaelic football is beginning to be tapped for the small ball. It’s a similar situation across the county, where Munster rugby once held a similarly powerful grip on the imagination.
The impact is already being felt at club level, with a number of smaller clubs benefiting from a significant ground swell thanks to the changing sporting culture across Limerick.
“Munster rugby had an open training session in Newcastle West the other week, and, without sounding insulting, it just wasn’t a big deal at all, which is mad. When I think back to being a young lad, all I can remember is the Heineken Cup finals and red jerseys everywhere.”
“That just doesn’t seem to be the case at all anymore. Now the only thing young lads want to do is play hurling for Limerick. It’s definitely the main show in town now, and it makes sense. These lads are watching the matches, they’re at the homecomings, and the game is being played in the way they want to play it. They just want to play hurling for Limerick now rather than rugby for Munster or soccer or football.”
“Even the clubs around us, they are all tight on numbers and resources, but they are getting the very best out of themselves. We want to work hand in hand with them and send their players back to them that bit stronger at the end of the school year. If we can get more lads playing for Limerick now, it would just be enormous.”
O’Brien is hopeful that Scoil Mhuire agus Íde can continue to build on those foundations. A breakthrough All-Ireland C title in 2025 was followed by a run to the Munster B Colleges semi-final last year, evidence of just how quickly the school has climbed the provincial ladder.
Amibition
The next ambition is considerably more daunting: breaking into Munster’s top tier and joining Ardscoil Rís, John the Baptist in Hospital and Castletroy Community College as Limerick’s representatives in the Harty Cup, the province’s premier schools hurling competition and one of the great nurseries of Munster hurling.
For a school seeking to establish itself as the hurling centre of West Limerick, reaching that level would have been almost unimaginable only a few years ago.
“One of our goals is that we want to be viewed as a hurling school for this part of the county. It would be huge for us to get up there. I was lucky enough to play Harty Cup when I was in school, and it’s such a huge competition. It would be transformative for us, but we’re probably still not getting all of the players from around us that you might need.”
“We’re up to Tier 2 at all levels now, which is huge. If you had said that a few years ago, you wouldn’t have thought it was possible. Munster B is a very high standard of hurling, and it’s going to be tough for us again.”
