Galway hurling mourns 1970s trailblazer Andy Fenton

Former Galway hurler Andy Fenton has died. Pic: RIP.ie

Galway GAA is mourning the death of one of the players who led the way in the 1970s for the modern day revival of hurling in the county.

Andy Fenton was a key member of the Galway U-21 side which won the county’s first ever underage All-Ireland title in 1972 and the Kiltormer clubman went on to play for the senior side throughout the decade.

That victorious U-21 side who defeated Dublin in the final produced a host of future senior players such as Iggy Clarke, Frank Burke, PJ Molloy, Marty Barrett and Joe McDonagh who went on to win the national league in 1975 and contest the All-Ireland finals of that year and ’79 before winning the 1980 crown.

Fenton played throughout many of those years for Galway but acknowledged his greatest day was when they won the U-21 title, defeating Dublin by 2-9 to 1-10 at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick to kickstart the county’s revival.

"After the final whistle it didn’t take us long to realise how special that win actually was because we were the first team to bring back an All-Ireland hurling title to Galway in nearly 50 years,” said Fenton in the ‘Game of My Life’ book in 2021.

“There was hardly any swapping of jerseys after a final those times either. I know I still have my jersey at home, even if it is gone a shade of pink now after all the years!"

Fenton made a huge contribution to his club Kiltormer, also inspiring a revival. They won the Galway intermediate title in 1975 and followed it up by winning the senior crown at the first attempt and retaining it again in 1977.

They went on to add further titles in 1982, ’91 and ’92, winning the All-Ireland club title in the process.

“Andy was a stalwart of Galway hurling and Kiltormer,” said Galway GAA chairperson Paul Bellew.

“He was a man of firsts. He was on our first team in ’72 to win an U-21 title, and then got the ball rolling in Kiltormer as well for what was 25 years of unbelievable success for them which culminated in an All-Ireland title in ’92. Andy was at the core of that group who were the trailblazers for all of that, both in Galway and Kiltormer.” 

Andy Fenton is survived by his wife Anne and children Deirdre, Cathal, Aoife and Enda.

He will repose at Kiltormer Complex (H53 P653) on Friday from 4pm to 7pm. Funeral Mass will be on Saturday (time to be confirmed soon), in St Patrick's Church, Kiltormer with burial afterwards in adjoining cemetery.