When Thurles football stopped JFK in his tracks

Thurles Sarsfields are back in senior football. Can the town cope with dual ambitions? It did in 1960.

Tipperary Star clipping from November 12th, 1960

A momentous November week in 1960. America is going to the polls on Tuesday to elect JFK. It’s beet season and the first computer in Ireland is finally working at the Irish Sugar factory in Thurles to calculate payments to farmers. But all of that must take a back seat in a town gripped by uncommon football fever and heading en masse for Cashel.

“The US Presidential campaign and the Beet campaign have been swept to one side by this football decider,” concludes the Tipperary Star. “The community has been united as never before behind a football team leaving the hurling town. All available transport has been booked for the trip to the City of the Kings on Sunday.”