Moycarkey-Borris hoping to hit the right notes on return to Tipperary showpiece

The famous club are back in a senior final for the first time in 42 years.

Moycarkey Borris players Jack Hayes, Kieran Morris and Rory Darmody celebrate their semi-final victory. Pic: Padraig Hogan.

In sunshine and in sleet, Moycarkey-Borris men were certs to play in Semple Stadium on Tipperary senior hurling final day. Their Seán Treacy Pipe Band were as synonymous with the occasion as the faltering October light.

There would be quips among other clubs about Moycarkey-Borris being known more for their music than hurling but make no mistake they are bluebloods in the latter. Between 1932 and ’40, the club won five senior championships. 

They remain third in the all-time honours list, only pushed from second when Toomevara began their period of dominance in the early 1990s.

In a senior final for the first time in 42 years, Moycarkey-Borris are once more squeezing and hanging ’em out to dry, to paraphrase their old war cry.

Ed Donnelly, Munster GAA communications manager, was 14 when the band led the team back into the villages of Littleton, Moycarkey and Two-Mile-Borris after their 1984 success over Lorrha, the latest of their 12 titles.

“Ken Hogan was Tipperary U21 goalkeeper that year and he made a save and the ball trickled out and John Flanagan, who was a veteran at that time, ran in and struck the ball first time to the net. That sealed it for us.

“Jack Bergin collected the Dan Breen and Eamonn Darmody, one of my idols, a classy wing-back, was man of the match. The team came into the Horse and Jockey after the game.

“The team were probably at the end of their days at that stage. They had also won in 1982 and there were no stars on the team. Like, Jack Bergin made the county – he was captain in 1983 when Tipperary won our first match in 10 years – but it was a really balanced team.” 

It’s 23 years since Moycarkey-Borris were relegated from the senior ranks for only the second time in their history. They came back up in 2008 and have remained, but it wasn’t until a juvenile team began winning all around them that the tide began to rise.

“Towards the end of the 2000s, a lot more focus was put on the under-age,” says Donnelly. “By around 2015, the Rhys Shellys of this world had won an U12 and U14 county titles. You’d have seen many a team over the years that wouldn’t follow through on that but they did.” 

A first ever U21 title came to the club in January 2022, the latest in a long line of success for a team captained by Shelly and featuring the likes of Max Hackett and Kyle Shelly. A county minor final appearance soon followed and Joe Egan was part of that side. He and four others will be involved against Thurles Sarsfields on Sunday.

Under former Kilkenny star Eddie Brennan, a Mid-Tipperary championship was targeted in recent years and they were denied in the 2024 and ’25 finals by Loughmore-Castleiney and JK Brackens respectively. Two years ago, Toomevara’s goals were the difference in the county semi-final and last year Drom and Inch stuck four goals past them in extra-time in their quarter-final.

The club has made advances off the field as well. In 2015, a meeting was called for the community hall in Littleton. Over 100 people attended and as a five-year strategic plan was put in place.

In 2019, Liam Sheedy opened the club’s new facilities having earlier launched the strategic plan that got the ball rolling. When Sheedy oversaw Tipperary GAA’s new strategic plan earlier this year, he involved several Moycarkey-Borris people – the county board’s demographic officer Laurenz Egan, club chairman Tom Flanagan and his brother and sponsor PJ and Declan Hogan.

“It literally takes a village,” laughs Donnelly. “There’s no guarantee of success but when you have some really good people pulling together, going the one direction, you can hope and you can dream.” 

Forty-two years ago, Lorrha attempted to have the final put back due to a spate of injuries. They even proposed awarding Moycarkey-Borris a walkover. A similar situation faced Moycarkey-Borris last week when they requested their intermediate football relegation play-off against Clonmel Óg be postponed but their application was rejected and they conceded the game.

“It's unfortunate,” says Donnelly. “I presume relegation will come with that. But last weekend was important for the hurling preparations especially with the daylight hours going now in the evening time. It was a good chance to have probably our last decent training session.

“You're trying as best as you can to put together a team, but at the same time, you don't want to just put 15 players out there and a lot of the hurlers are good footballers. Ideally, we'd have had a postponement. It wasn't like we didn't tried our best at that time. It didn't work out.” 

Along with his wife Michelle and daughter Caitlín, Donnelly is part of the backroom team delivering the real-time statistics for manager Denis Kelly and his selectors.

The build-up, he says, has been electric. Either side of the M8 from exits four to six, walls, rails and shopfronts are festooned in the red and gold. Local band Rebel Hearts released “Squeeze ‘Em Up Moycarkey” on Wednesday.

And The Sean Treacy Pipe Band once more have skin in the game. “A few of the lads who marched out in ’84 are still with them,” Donnelly points out. As omens go, it’s decent.