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Wexford Club Hurling 2025

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Replying To Yellaman:  "They did indeed Viking, it was another poster who suggested that they might continue as one-code clubs."
Think Ballyfad could definitely get back to Intermediate in the next few years by themselves. Maybe push on further if the players wanted to. While Paudie Hughes for me is currently the best Footballer in the county, it's easy forgot that he hurled underage for Wexford also. And they've good big strong young lads coming through also.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17491 - 13/11/2025 13:39:21    2644286

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Replying To tearintom:  "Aren't Kilanerin/Ballyfad the same club or at least werent they? Like Starlights/Rapparess essentially which are the same Club.

A couple of Kilanerin people have said to me that there's still a bit of resentment over the removal of the Ballyfad name as such."
Its like Taghmon-Camross. They were 2 seperate clubs in the one parish.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17491 - 13/11/2025 13:40:28    2644287

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Replying To Viking66:  "Whole new hurling club in Wexford? Clonard are on the go more than a wet day and just got approval for their finance to buy their grounds!
Also you are putting the cart before the horse as regards coaches. Most underage coaches start out as parents of children who start playing for a club. Very few clubs are lucky enough to have an existing top coach who just happens to live in the Parish or who otherwise wants to coach there. The more enthusiastic of these parents, like me, then go on numerous courses to try and get better at coaching. Not saying that makes me a good coach mind, but experience will hopefully make me better!!
If you don't get children to start at these clubs you don't get parents taking up coaching. And I know for a fact at bigger clubs some parents, many even, don't feel needed to take up coaching, or go on courses to improve their coaching, as there are other parents who are former players who will coach their children for them. Hence second teams generally having less and poorer quality coaching contacts than first team players. And lads who don't make second teams nearly always give up GAA altogether."
Looks like I'll have to explain some local geography to you again.

Clonard is already a separate parish from the rest of Wexford town. So Wexford town already has two "hurling areas" - a large one for Faythe Harriers, and a smaller one for Clonard.

Your suggestion was to create a new split in the town as well. So then you'd have three areas. Harriers would still be one of them, Clonard would still be another one, but now you'd have a third "hurling area" with no hurling club in it, and so you'd have to form a new one.

Seems that what you meant about Wexford town was stricter enforcement of the existing parish boundary. Or maybe even redrawing the existing boundary so that Clonard artificially gets some more of the town. But that's not what you said.

As for coaches, think you're being overly ambitious and overly simplistic all at the same time. Sticking with Clonard or Tara Rocks as examples - yes, if more children go there to play, there'll be more parents around who might be inclined to take up coaching. But these parents won't become first-class "proper" coaches from day one, and might never be.

So, the children there might have more coaches at a session all right, but the actual level of coaching is maybe still no better than what the same children would get with the second team of a bigger club.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3218 - 13/11/2025 13:52:10    2644289

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Replying To tearintom:  "Aren't Kilanerin/Ballyfad the same club or at least werent they? Like Starlights/Rapparess essentially which are the same Club.

A couple of Kilanerin people have said to me that there's still a bit of resentment over the removal of the Ballyfad name as such."
Have heard the same myself from the start about how the "hurling people" in the club don't like how the Ballyfad club name was lost.

Apparently there was a hurling team under the Ballyfad name every year going back to the 1950s, and some earlier hurling club in Ballyfad around the 1920s/1930s too. Traditionally, if you were from the parish and you played hurling, you played for Ballyfad. There was great local pride in that, and local pride is a hard thing to shift.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3218 - 13/11/2025 14:01:53    2644294

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Replying To Yellaman:  "Thanks Pikeman, I know both are ( were) dual clubs. Formertownie suggested maybe they should continue as one-code clubs, one hurling & one football. I was just pointing out that that was the original reason for the amalgamation.

Anyway, just been talking to a colleague up that way, and it seems the whole amalgamation ( adult and under-age) is ending at end of year. I don't know if this is true, or just local gossip, but he seemed fairly clued-in to the whole set-up."
Okay, I see now what you meant.

Haven't heard much myself about details of any fallings-out around there. I'd predict though that if the arrangement does come to an end, that'll be the end of Tara Rocks too, because they simply don't have numbers themselves at any grade.

However, I'd also predict that if they're falling out now, they'll start looking for a way to fall back in again when they realise the future for them really would be no future.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3218 - 13/11/2025 14:06:11    2644296

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Replying To Viking66:  "Its like Taghmon-Camross. They were 2 seperate clubs in the one parish."
No. Kilanerin/Ballyfad was just one club. They operated under the name Kilanerin in football, and Ballfyad in hurling.

There are other examples of this in the county too:
Rapparees in hurling and Starlights in football are the same club.
Liam Mellows in hurling and Castletown in football are the same club.
Askamore in hurling and Kilrush in football are the same club.
Ballygarrett in hurling and Realt na Mara in football are the same club.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3218 - 13/11/2025 14:12:57    2644299

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Looks like I'll have to explain some local geography to you again.

Clonard is already a separate parish from the rest of Wexford town. So Wexford town already has two "hurling areas" - a large one for Faythe Harriers, and a smaller one for Clonard.

Your suggestion was to create a new split in the town as well. So then you'd have three areas. Harriers would still be one of them, Clonard would still be another one, but now you'd have a third "hurling area" with no hurling club in it, and so you'd have to form a new one.

Seems that what you meant about Wexford town was stricter enforcement of the existing parish boundary. Or maybe even redrawing the existing boundary so that Clonard artificially gets some more of the town. But that's not what you said.

As for coaches, think you're being overly ambitious and overly simplistic all at the same time. Sticking with Clonard or Tara Rocks as examples - yes, if more children go there to play, there'll be more parents around who might be inclined to take up coaching. But these parents won't become first-class "proper" coaches from day one, and might never be.

So, the children there might have more coaches at a session all right, but the actual level of coaching is maybe still no better than what the same children would get with the second team of a bigger club."
Best get the geography books out Pikeman. Clonard is not a parish, it's a townsland in the parish of St Peters, and is treated as such by Wexford GAA. Anybody from Clonard can play for any club in town as their 1st club.
As regards your second point nobody fell out of their mammy a 1st class or proper coach, they all started somewhere, same as any parent can. Just as being a great former player doesn't make you a great coach, neither does being a great parent make you a great coach of children. Agree 100% noone is a great coach from day 1, and as you say some people never will be. Like any job it doesn't suit everybody.
But if a club has more children it will have more parents, and when more of them take up coaching it will have more good coaches, and the ones who arent good will likely give it up, or not get coaching assignments from their club anyway.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17491 - 13/11/2025 15:11:32    2644307

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Replying To Viking66:  "
Replying To Pikeman96:  "Looks like I'll have to explain some local geography to you again. Clonard is already a separate parish from the rest of Wexford town. So Wexford town already has two "hurling areas" - a large one for Faythe Harriers, and a smaller one for Clonard. Your suggestion was to create a new split in the town as well. So then you'd have three areas. Harriers would still be one of them, Clonard would still be another one, but now you'd have a third "hurling area" with no hurling club in it, and so you'd have to form a new one. Seems that what you <u>meant</u> about Wexford town was stricter enforcement of the existing parish boundary. Or maybe even redrawing the existing boundary so that Clonard artificially gets some more of the town. But that's not what you said. As for coaches, think you're being overly ambitious and overly simplistic all at the same time. Sticking with Clonard or Tara Rocks as examples - yes, if more children go there to play, there'll be more parents around who might be inclined to take up coaching. But these parents won't become first-class "proper" coaches from day one, and might never be. So, the children there might have more coaches at a session all right, but the actual level of coaching is maybe still no better than what the same children would get with the second team of a bigger club."</div>Best get the geography books out Pikeman. Clonard is not a parish, it's a townsland in the parish of St Peters, and is treated as such by Wexford GAA. Anybody from Clonard can play for any club in town as their 1st club. As regards your second point nobody fell out of their mammy a 1st class or proper coach, they all started somewhere, same as any parent can. Just as being a great former player doesn't make you a great coach, neither does being a great parent make you a great coach of children. Agree 100% noone is a great coach from day 1, and as you say some people never will be. Like any job it doesn't suit everybody. But if a club has more children it will have more parents, and when more of them take up coaching it will have more good coaches, and the ones who arent good will likely give it up, or not get coaching assignments from their club anyway."
To paraphrase Fr. Jack Hackett, looks like this is becoming an ecumenical matter.

Clonard is its own independent parish and has been that way since 1976. It's listed separately from the rest of the Wexford town in the list of parishes on the Diocese of Ferns website. It has its own website www.clonardparish.ie, separate from another website for the rest of the town, www.wexfordparish.ie

It doesn't actually have a Parish Priest at the moment, due to the lack of clergy, but that doesn't make it any less of a parish - no more than if Catherine Connolly resigned tomorrow and we went two months without a President until a new one is elected, we'd be no less of a Republic in the meantime.

But, I've had a look at how somebody in Clonard could play for Harriers instead, and have got to the bottom of it.

The Wexford bye-laws say that the Catholic parish boundaries "as obtained on 1 January 1972" are the defining factor for first club. But as stated above, Clonard didn't become a parish until 1976.

So, you don't need a new boundary. You just need a new list of boundaries that already exist.

It's odd that Clonard never brought this up themselves, particularly when you consider one or two of the personalities there. But then again, that in itself might be a measure of how much opposition there'd be to imposing strict boundaries within towns, if even the people who'd stand to benefit from it are reluctant to ask for it.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3218 - 13/11/2025 15:46:40    2644314

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "No. Kilanerin/Ballyfad was just one club. They operated under the name Kilanerin in football, and Ballfyad in hurling.

There are other examples of this in the county too:
Rapparees in hurling and Starlights in football are the same club.
Liam Mellows in hurling and Castletown in football are the same club.
Askamore in hurling and Kilrush in football are the same club.
Ballygarrett in hurling and Realt na Mara in football are the same club."
Thanks Pikeman. Just FYI the original Shamrocks, not the current Shamrocks club which was formed in the 1970s, Emmets, St Aidans and Starlights amalgamated in 1972. Starlights have their own history going back to the early 20th Century. Apparently they all took on the Rapparees name for the amalgamation as the Red Rapparees were the 1st club in Enniscorthy. Starlights were the only one of the 4 clubs who owned their own grounds.
Askamore/Kilrush was formed initially as a Football club called Kilrush.
Don't know anything about Ballygarrett tbh, or whether Ballyfad were ever a seperate club to Kilanerin.
Anyway Pikeman its more interesting and useful learning a bit more Wexford club history from you than speculating who may or may not want to hurl for the county team next season ;-)

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17491 - 13/11/2025 15:51:27    2644316

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Pikeman the threads gone odd again so Ill start again. Yes I meant as in 1972. Thanks for the info as regards the current state of affairs, I'm not the most church orientated Christian you ever met ;-)

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17491 - 13/11/2025 16:53:59    2644333

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