First twenty-five years, 1887 to 1912

Window depicting St. Kieran, Seir Kieran Church, Bell Hill

The advent of the GAA club at Clareen in 1887 coincided with the drive to build a new Parish Church, as the old one (erected in 1795 in the townland of Breaghmore) had become structurally unsound. The first secretary of the club, from 1887 until he emigrated in 1895, was Frank Pilkington of Bell Hill. Pilkington went on to become secretary to the Offaly GAA Club in New York for many years. Seir Kieran participated in competitions year on year. In 1907, the Offaly hurling championship was divided into Senior and Junior grades, and in 1909, the Offaly County Board introduced the “Parish Rule”.These developments led to a first big breakthrough for club, when they beat Roscore (3-0 to 1-1) in the Offaly Junior Final for 1912. This final was not actually played until November 1913. Although a Central Council ruling, earlier in 1913, had reduced team size form 17 players to 15, this did not affect the still-unfinished 1912 championship. As such, Seir Kieran and Roscore may have been the last-ever teams to play a 17-a-side hurling final.

It was during this period that Seir Kieran adopted their present club colours, of black and amber (similar to the Kilkenny county colours). In November 1911, John Drennan of Conway Hall, Kells, County Kilkenny donated a set of black and amber jerseys to the Kilkenny County Board, GAA. It is reported that prior to this gesture, he had won a large amount of money on a horse whose jockey wore those colours. John Drennan was a brother of Fr. Jeremiah Drennan, parish priest of Seir Kieran from 1904 to 1921. It is likely that Fr. Drennan emulated his brother’s gesture by presenting the club with a set of jerseys identical to the Kilkenny ones.

Great War to the 1930s

From 1915 to 1918, Jimmy Corrigan of Clareen served as secretary to the Offaly County Board, GAA. Corrigan was captain of the team which won Offaly’s first Leinster Junior Hurling Championship and advanced to the 1915 All Ireland Final. On account of the Easter Rising, this Final could not be played out until 20 August 1916, when Offaly traveled on a D.E. Williams motor lorry to Athlone and narrowly lost to Tipperary (1-6 to 2-2). By that stage, Corrigan was doing his club hurling with the Birr Club, as he taught at the Workhouse Schools in the Town. He was also secretary to the Birr Sinn Féin Club, and (clandestinely) a lieutenant of Volunteers. He died aged 27 in October 1918, either from tuberculosis, or from the Spanish ‘Flu which reached pandemic proportions that year. Corrigan was deeply mourned by his comrades in the Offaly GAA, who erected a Celtic Cross-shaped commemorative headstone over his grave in the Seir Kieran New Cemetery.

Headstone of James Corrigan (1891-1918) – teacher; Offaly GAA secretary; captain of Offaly Junior hurlers in 1915 All Ireland Final; Lieutenant of Volunteers, Irish Republican Army

Seir Kieran reached the 1920 Junior Hurling Final. On account of the War of Independence and the Civil War (when the Clareen Company, 4th Battalion, IRA comprised several Seir Kieran hurlers), this Final could not be played off until 13 May 1923, when Clara defeated them (Clara 5-2, Seir Kieran 2-1). In the Junior Final for 1923 proper, played at Kilcormac on 18 November, Seir Kieran won their second Title with a 4-0 to 1-0 victory over Tullamore. Paddy Corrigan was captain. One of that team, Tom Dooley, represented the club on the Offaly panel that won the 1923 Junior All Ireland. Again owing to the Civil War, the All Ireland Final against Cork could not be fixed until July 1924. Cork initially would not participate in protest at the continuing imprisonment of their County Board chairman Sean McCarthy (who had sided with the Irregular or Republican side), whereupon a walkover was awarded to Offaly. The Offaly County Board unanimously refused to accept the Title on that basis, and the Final eventually went ahead at Croke Park on 12 October 1924. Offaly won a thrilling, uncompromising battle by 3-4 to Cork’s 3-2. The captain was Jack Holligan of Kinnitty, while Drumcullen’s Bill Fox gave a man-of-the-match display.

In 1929, PJ Grogan of Clareen captained Offaly to a second Junior All Ireland hurling title. Cork again provided the opposition in the Final, played out on 15 December 1929 at Thurles, and were beaten by 2-3 to Offaly’s 6-1. On the club scene, Seir Kieran were unlucky to lose the 1927 Offaly Senior Hurling (South County) Final, going down to Drumcullen by 3-3 to 2-4. Discontent with the Land Commission’s subdivision of the Kilmaine estate militated against unity of purpose in the club, and Kilmaine House itself was burned down in the early hours of Monday 23 July 1926. Seir Kieran did however contest the Junior Championship of 1929, overcoming Birr and Coolderry before losing to Shannonharbour (5-3 to 2-2) in the Semi-final, on 8 September 1929. In May 1931, young John Coughlan played in goals for the Offaly Minors (against Westmeath at Clara).

Intermediate success

The first Intermediate Title came in Ballyduff, Tullamore on 20 September 1931, when Seir Kieran (captained by PJ Grogan) beat Clara by 5-7 to 2-5. At Senior grade for the following two seasons, the Clareen side gave stirring displays against the likes of Coolderry and a rising Tullamore team. The 1932 panel was augmented by Dick and Willie Conway from Roscomroe, a district of Kinnitty Parish with historic ties to Seir Kieran. Other noted players included Mick Leahy, Kieran Grogan and Dan Murphy, although none could compare with red-maned Jim Killeen “the thatcher”, one of the finest-ever Clareen hurlers. Originally from Lusmagh, Jim and his brother Mick had come to Clareen as young boys, where they lived with a childless couple, Din Browne and his wife.

Seir Kieran were a diminished force after Killeen went to Killdangan in North Tipperary in the mid-1930s (a time when many others were emigrating to England), but they recovered to claim the Offaly Intermediate Hurling Final of 1938 against North Portarlington. Played at Tullamore on 27 August 1938, this match also served as the Junior Final of 1937, with the result that Seir Kieran annexed both Titles in the one hour of hurling. The Clareen side, featuring players such as Pakie Troy (who served as club secretary for many years) and the great Jack Purcell, scored 6-8 to North Portarlington’s 2-1.

The Seir Kieran panel who claimed both the 1937 Offaly Junior Hurling Title and the 1938 Offaly Intermediate Hurling Title by beating North Portarlington, August 1938 in Tullamore.

In 1939 the team reached a new high-water mark, by advancing to the Offaly Senior Hurling Final on 22 October against Coolderry. Coolderry relentlessly built up their winning margin of 6-4 to 2-2, to claim their 14th Title. Nonetheless, Seir Kieran matched their opponents well in a fast-paced, hard-hitting contest. Throughout the 1939 championship, their rain-maker was the brilliant Sean O’Neill at midfield. The eldest son of the Clareen schoolmaster, O’Neill was a student at St Kieran’s College in Kilkenny, where he captained the team that won out the Leinster Colleges Hurling Championship of 1939.

In the 1940s, despite an ongoing crisis of numbers, Seir Kieran won the Intermediate Hurling contests of 1943 and 1947. The 1943 championship was curtailed by wartime restrictions, especially rationing of petrol and food supplies. On 12 September 1943, Seir Kieran won the Final against Clara by 7-5 to 5-1. Rationing had hardly eased by the Springtime of 1947, when a brutal Arctic freeze was exacerbated by blizzards that set in on St Patrick’s Day. Nonetheless, an entertaining Intermediate Championship ensued. In the Semi-Final against Shinrone at Killyon, a last-gasp Jack Purcell point saw Seir Kieran salvage a draw. Due to a “man of the match” performance by Tom Featherstone, they won the replay by 3-6 to 3-2.Featherstone was carried shoulder-high from the field, and Fr. William Brennan the club chairman declared: “This is our Jim Langton”.

Seir Kieran won the Intermediate Final against Carrig & Riverstown by 5-3 to 2-4. The medals were awarded in the Parish Hall on St Stephen’s Night 1947. The schoolmaster, Mr. Sean O’Neill, the team trainer, Fr. William Brennan PP, and John Coughlan the team captain gave the speeches, in which they looked forward to Senior success in 1948. Good wishes were also extended to Fr. Michael Troy, a member of the panel about to set sail for Africa. Although the team made little headway the following year, the club took great heart from Seamus Mulrooney’s brilliant displays with Offaly in the 1948 Leinster Minor Hurling Championship. The Leinster Final was held at Tullamore on 11 July, where Offaly let slip a 0-6 to nil half time lead, and lost to Kilkenny by 5-2 to 3-6.

Junior success 1950 to 1969

During the 1950s emigration reached a staggering rate. A tragedy on the playing field in June 1952, when young John Dooley of Clashroe, Roscomroe was fatally injured by an accidental blow to the head when playing for Seir Kieran, further shook the club’s confidence in the future. The mentors managed to rally the team, who beat both Tullamore and Birr to reach the Senior Hurling Final for the first time since 1939. At St Brendan’s Park on 31 August 1952, they were beaten by Drumcullen by 9-11 to 4-3.

Despite this outcome, Seir Kieran sustained their Senior challenge both in 1953 (when Coolderry had to be at their best to overcome them) and in 1954 when they reached the Semi-final (before again going down to Coolderry). By 1955, though, the club could not muster 15 Senior players, and so had to concede a walkover to Shannon Rovers in the Championship. The following year at Intermediate grade, the club joined forces with neighboring parish Kinnitty whose demographic situation was just as dire. The amalgamated team, known as St Flannan’s, won through to the 1956 Intermediate Hurling Final against Ferbane on 16 September 1956. St Flannan’s (wearing green and white) emerged victorious by 4-7 to 4-1. Promoted to Senior grade in 1957, St Flannan’s were heavily defeated in their opening match to Shannon Rovers – a result which put an end to the Kinnitty-Clareen combination. Consequently, it was again under the Seir Kieran banner that the Clareen men fielded in 1958, and won passage to the 1958 Junior Hurling Final. Delayed until 8 March 1959, this Final saw Seir Kieran defeating St Columba’s (Durrow) by 4-6 to 1-1. 1958 was the Parish’s fourth Title at Junior grade, and was crucial in boosting morale after the big setbacks during the decade gone by. A reporter for the Midland Tribune described the challenge that this posed to the club’s viability, especially once they stepped up to Senior grade in 1960 and 1961:“Coolderry had a few newcomers but Seir Kieran were less lucky. Limited to the smallest parish in Ireland, they had to rely on several veterans who still keep the colours flying, and here lay their weakness – the lack of vigorous youth. That they still maintain a Senior team is a tribute to the players and club officials; that they take to the field year after year with high hopes is a tribute to all concerned.”

Another morale boost came in October 1961, with the acquisition of six statute acres adjacent to Clareen crossroads, as a permanent home for the club. This purchase was signed off on by four trustees: John Coughlan and Seamus Mulrooney, on behalf of Seir Kieran; and Rody O’Brien and John Dowling, on behalf of the Offaly County Board. Development of these facilities was coupled with more organized training of the talented younger players who began to emerge. Seir Kieran had an inspirational one-point win over the new St. Rynagh’s GAA Club (Banagher and Cloghan combined) in the Junior Hurling Semi-final of 1962, but in the Final on 21 October they slumped to a big defeat (3-10 to 1-1) against Edenderry in Tullamore. It was much the same story in St Brendan’s Park on 7 April 1968, when Killeigh beat Seir Kieran by 5-5 to 0-7 in the delayed 1967 Junior Hurling decider.

The Seir Kieran panel that won the Offaly Junior Hurling Title of 1969

Notwithstanding such bitter disappointments, the Clareen side were consistently featuring in top-notch, close, exciting Junior matches. In the 1965 Offaly JHC, Kinnitty needed three attempts before edging out Seir Kieran by 2-10 to 3-6. In 1968, a last-minute Joe McKenna goal separated Shinrone and Seir Kieran after a thrilling replay. Success finally crowned these endeavours in 1969, when Seir Kieran became Offaly Junior Hurling champions for a fifth time. Once again, the Junior Final was deferred until the following Spring. On 26 April 1970, the team traveled to Tullamore and defeated Clara by the minimum (3-2 to 1-7).  Tim Mulrooney the captain lifted the James Clarke Cup. Seir Kieran have fielded a Senior team in each subsequent year.