On Wednesday 20 June, history was made as Mungret St. Pauls Junior B+ team lined out against Kevin Barry's, Hartfords from Connecticut. This was an entertaining game with Kevin Barry's winning the first half and Mungret St. Pauls making a remarkable come back in the second half. The Hartfords bus may be light a few players as the ink was drying on the transfer papers.
Kevin Barry's scored 3 spectacular goals that even Nicky Quaid would not be able to deny. The first half, Mungret St. Pauls chanced a few goals but each were accurately saved so tactics were changed to go for points, nothing was going past the Kevin Barry goalie. On the break there was a scene on the pitch as a race had begun across the pitch to the subs bench between our President, Pa O'Brien and Vice President, Raymond O'Hagan both yielding their weapons of choice for the match.
The second half Mungret St. Pauls had a great advantage over the tired Kevin Barry side who had played their last game only 2 days previous, some of the Mungret St. Pauls players had a good long rest of a few years since their last match. There were some legs on show that had not been seen since the late 20's with many of our teams managers taking up a position on the pitch they could not resist and were still managing on the pitch, sending a ball to the right man but when it reached its destination finding the man was not in his position was a common problem for Mungret St. Pauls. It was easy to see that the visitors had put in a lot of hard work and intensive training before traveling the seas as some had only taken up hurling in the last five years it was great to see their hard work pay off and the game flowed easily with not many fowls being called.
A return trip was being mentioned through the Mungret St. Pauls players, with the treasurer on the pitch and the Chairman over the team, it may be pushed through but we may need to organinse a private jet to fill all the players, WAGs and personal that were offering to help in the journey to Connecticut.
After the match everyone was welcomed back to the club house where they entered into the fantastic sounds of traditional music from our Scór members. After a bit to eat Mungret St. Pauls was presented with a Kevin Barry jersey signed by all the team and an extra gift of a club shirt for Chairman, Mike O'Connell and Kevin O'Hagan who helped organise the event. Mungret St. Pauls in return presented a trophy to mark the occasion to the Kevin Barry Chairman, along with a gear bag of the jerseys worn by the Mungret St. Pauls team in the match, which will be washed before being handed over.
Go raibh Míle maith agaibh to Kevin Barry's and your supporters for a great night, we wish you well in your future hurling and spreading the love of our sport in Connecticut. A special thanks also to Donie Brown to put up with a lot in the game to referee it for us.
Photos on our facebook page by clicking HERE