Holycross Ballycahill

GAA

Holycross Ballycahill GAA

One of the oldest GAA clubs in the country, Holycross Ballycahill is steeped in history John Doyle Centreand continues a proud tradition of wearing the famed green and white jersey associated with the parish.Many of it’s hurlers and footballers have donned the blue and gold jersey of Tipperary with distinction als0,  with it’s proudest son, perhaps, being the great John Doyle, winner of eight All-Ireland senior hurling medals with The Premier County.

Founded in 1885, the club has annexed four county senior titles  – won in 1948, 1951 and 1954 – under the captaincy of Francis Maher, and in 1990, led by Declan Carr who went on to lift the Liam McCarthy Cup as Tipperary captain 1991 . The clubs most famous personality is the great John Doyle, who won 8 All-Ireland medals during the wonderful career and who was more recently selected on the “Team of the Millennium” to go with his countless other awards and honours. He was also selected as Tipperary hurler of the millennium.

In recent years, winning the County Under-21 A hurling title in 1996 gave the club a great boost and provided many of the players for the senior team which took Mid honours in 1997 and 1999.

The club has won 11 Mid senior hurling titles in 1947, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1997, 1999.

 

John Doyle Centre

Holycross Ballycahill has always been to the forefront when it came to developing facilities for player and spectator alike with the establishment of the fully covered stand being one of the first of it’s kind for a club. A scoreboard was added, spectator seating,  dressingrooms for players and referees etc.  And, it was no major surprise when the officers and committee looked around  in more recent times and saw that  infrastructural facilities needed to be upgraded and enhanced once more.

The club recognised the need to develop it’s facilities in the parish and emnbarked upon an ambitious redevelopment programme which has seen the emergence of the state-of-the-art John Doyle Centre. This wonderful facility is being used extensively by young and old alike in the parish and has helped provide  a recreational focal point of which the club and it’s members can be proud. The project, which began as a dream some years ago, is now very much a reality in St Michael’s Park, thanks to the hard work and dedication of the working group established to oversee the development – their dedication to the cause and determination to do things right has seen the club leap forward by decades and  the facilities being catapulted headlong into the 21st century. The addition of an extra full size playing pitch adjacent to the current one having purchased the necessary land, enhances the clubs position further still and with the Ballycahill end of the parish also receiving attention in the form of an up-grade to the dressingrooms and facilities, the club is facing into the next 125 years of the GAA in a very positive and progressive frame of mind.

A substantial portion of the development work undertaken has been achieved on a voluntary basis with teams of volunteers from the parish converging on the facilities at appointed times to tackle various aspects. This has helped to  further cement the GAA’s volunteer ethos within the club and has fostered  and renerwed a pride of place in members.