'We might have been in Siberia': Was Kilkenny Christmas Eve northern final of 1961 the coldest hurling game ever?

The early 1960s produced some of the coldest weather of the entirety century, and still the minor hurlers of both Conahy Shamrocks and St Canice’s of Kilkenny City were sent out to play the northern final in Harrison’s field in Freshford on Christmas Eve in 1961.

The players will still tell you that it was the coldest day that they can ever remember; and it certainly was. I attended this game myself, as my cousin Billy Burke was playing with the city side, and my late father and myself just wanted to see how they would get on.

Minus 4
The records show that the temperature on that particular day was about -4 degrees centigrade with a very severe east wind and the ground was completely frozen over.

It was certainly not a day for hurling, and the hard ground made for very dangerous conditions. And then the players were forced to tog out underneath a hedge or from the boot of a car. Harrison’s field in Freshford — like many other GAA fields — did not have the luxury of dressing rooms at that particular time.

The 1960s was a time when underage games were not as organised as well as now, with many games just being fixed and played just to get them out of the way. Or so it seemed anyway.

The Conahy boys were probably more anxious to have this northern final played before the end of 1961, because St Canice’s had two teams playing in the championship that year.

There was a large number of players in the club, and following an argument between two strong-willed mentors it was decided to enter two teams.

One team had ceased to exist towards the end of the year, so if the said northern final had not been played until the New Year, St Canice’s would be stronger as they would have been able to call on all the players from both teams.

The two teams
Paddy Hennessy, the father of Kilkenny star Joe, and Eamonn of the Kilkenny Supporters Club, led a team with players mainly from the Butts, Dunningstown, and the Troyswood areas of the St Canice’s parish.
The famous Mick Loughman, who had been involved with various underage hurling teams in Kilkenny for more than 30 years at the time, had players from Fatima Place, Kennyswell Road and the Drakesland area of the parish.
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Strong tea
I spoke to Ned Mulhall of Conahy and he reckoned that only for the strong tea that Joe ‘Suggins’ Phelan and Dick Kelly gave them at half time, “we would never have survived.”

Ned was of the opinion that the tea contained a little more ‘than just sugar and milk’, and he was probably right. He thought that there was no need to play the game on that Christmas Eve ‘as we did not play the county final against Mooncoin until months later’. For the record, the Conahy boys happened to win that northern final on a score line of 2-3 to nil for St Canice’s.

Both Ned Mulhall and Billy Burke still remember the terrible cold on that particular Christmas Eve in 1961. They reckoned that the game should not have been played at all, as a number of the players on both sides were just not able to withstand the extremely cold temperature of the day.

Only fourteen
“It was so bad that we might have been in Siberia, I will never forget the cold,” says Ned.

Toddy Lacey was only 14 when he played in 1961.
“It was a great achievement for us as we had only a small pick being a small country parish, and we had to depend on a few players who were far younger than 18,” he recalls.

“However, we had great determination and we had a great fighting spirit for the whole hour.”
Toddy played in the forwards that day while his brother Patsy was the Conahy goalkeeper. Patsy’s grandson — who is now one of the best young hurlers with Dicksboro — had a fine game when he was introduced as a substitutate in the recent county senior county semi final against the Shamrocks of Ballyhale.

Toddy did a little research and he has named the following 15 who did duty for Conahy on that fateful day. All the Conahy players were born in the parish except Willie Ryan who was hailed from Tipperary, and was working in the North Kilkenny parish at that particular time.

The following team played for Conahy: Dixie Buggy, Tommy Downey, Gerry Purcell, Paddy Nolan, Jim Byrne, John Muldowney, Tom Wallace, Paddy Meany, Willie Ryan, Ned Mulhall, Shem Muldowney, Patsy Lacey, Toddy Lacey, Jim Lennon, Pat Morrissey.
Although Toddy Lacey said that Willie Ryan did not play a big part in the northern final, he was still good enough to play with Tipperary in the minor All-Ireland finals of 1960 and 1961.

It is also worth recalling that nine months later, Shem Muldowney of Conahy Shamrocks and Billy Burke with Tommy Phelan of St Canices played a big part in the Kilkenny minor hurlers victory over Tipperary in the minor All-Ireland final for the third year in a row.

The well-known Babs Keating, who had a fine career with the Tipperary seniors afterwards, was a member of those three Premier County minor teams.

Different
Most things were quite different when that 1961 minor northern final was played all those years ago, and thankfully the day has long since passed when GAA players are forced to tog out underneath hedges instead of a warm dressing room.
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