Kilkenny get Hogan’s ministerial backing

Phil Hogan was 21 and playing for Tullaroan when he put up his hand one day to catch a ball.

Unfortunately for him, the other guy “decided I needed a sixth knuckle”, pulled early and did a job on Hogan’s left hand. That was the end of that for him on the hurling field. From there it was all downhill: politics, the Dáil and now Minister for the Environment. These days he leaves it to Tommy Walsh to fly the flag for Tullaroan.

Tommy Walsh. A neighbour of Phil Hogan’s, naturally, and “doing the parish proud” with Kilkenny this past decade; Hogan hurled with Walsh’s father Michael in national school.