Former Antrim and Loughgiel Great Liam McGarry maintains an immense interest in the Small Ball Code The proprietor of the Pound Bar in Loughgiel is one Mr. Liam McGarry. And a greater hurling enthusiast in county Antrim, or indeed anywhere in Ireland, you could hardly find. For the former club and county player maintains an immense interest in the small ball code. He would travel anywhere in Ireland just to see a good game of hurling - and he will testify until his dying day that it is without doubt the greatest sport on the face of the planet! And the affable gentleman has lived in Loughgiel all his life has attended every single All-Ireland Senior hurling final since Cork beat Galway 3-3 to 0-8 on September 6th 1953. There are few people better qualified to discuss the game of hurling than Liam McGarry. Which is exactly why we decided to pop into his Loughgiel home for a brief matter. "Sitting in the Hogan Stand on the first Sunday in September is hard to beat!", he enthuses. It doesn't take too long for one to gather that Liam thinks very highly of his beloved Loughgiel Shamrocks club, a club which is very close to his heart. Liam McGarry was born and bred in Loughgiel, and resides there to this very day. And it's very much a case of 'The Town I love So Well'! "I've spent all my life in Loughgiel and I wouldn't change it for the world", he says. As a young boy growing up in the Glens of Antrim or in Loughgiel (which is about twelve miles outside the glens) one cannot help but get involved in hurling. The game means everything up there. "It's especially strong here in the Loughgiel parish. It'd be even stronger there than in the glens. Loughgiel is one of the stronger clubs in Antrim. We were beaten in the semi-final of the Championship this year - but I thought we could have won it. Our Minors were beaten in the county final, as were the Under 16's and the Under 14's". 1993 mightn't have been the greatest of years for the famous Loughgiel club, but they did win a few honours, such as the county Minor League and the Senior Reserve Championship. By their own standards, though, it was a year which yielded a poor return for the club and they will, as a result, be all the more determined to set the record straight next season. The game of hurling has always been very much to the forefront of Liam McGarry's life. "It was one of the first things I ever did", he accepts. "Eighty per cent of the people in the parish are interested in hurling. There's very little football played up here". Liam actually started to hurl as soon as he was fit to walk. He was on the Loughgiel Minor team at the age of fourteen and graduated to the Senior set-up when he was seventeen, playing with his native club right up to the age of 38. His Senior playing career with the club spanned over twenty years from 1950 to 1971. During that period the Loughgiel Shamrock collected six Senior county Championship medals, actually playing in thirteen county deciders. McGarry's first Antrim Championship success came in 1956, his most recent one in 1970. To the very day, Liam has no difficulty whatsoever in rhyming out the years of each of his county final appearances. "1951, '54, '56, '57, '58, '60, '62, '63, '64, '66, '66, '67, '68, '70, he recounts in the batting of an eyelid! McGarry played for Antrim's Minors for two years, winning two Ulster medals before graduating into the Senior ranks where he spent the best part of eight seasons. During his decorated playing career the Loughgiel man played in just about every possible position. He made his Senior intercounty debut against Clare in a National League game in Ennis, Playing in his favourite right back berth. With his county Liam won two 'home' All-Ireland Junior hurling medals in 1959 and 1963, but the saffrons were subsequently defeated by London in the final proper on both occasions - 5-10 to 2-10 in '59 and 4-7 to 3-6 in '63. The National League had a different structure in those days than it has now, but Antrim came up against all the top guns nonetheless, "We played against them all - Cork, Kilkenny, Wexford and Tipperary. I remember in '58 we beat Galway in Casement Park to stay up", he recalls proudly. During the fifties and sixties Antrim had a reasonably good side, but it is only recently that they have begun to make their work in the hurling world. "We were nearly good enough but never quite got there", admits McGarry. Winning his first Senior county Championship with the Shamrocks in 1956 was probably the highlight of his playing career. That was Loughgiel's first such victory in thirteen years. They had a young team at the time, and it was a whole new experience to them. the greatest moment of his long association with the club didn't arrive until approximately 27 years later, however, that brings us up to 1983. On April 25th that year Loughgiel Shamrocks defeated St. Rynagh's of Banagher in the All-Ireland club hurling final replay at Casement Park on a scoreline of 2-12 to 1-12. The first game at Croke Park a week earlier had finished a 1-8 to 2-5 draw. That win for Loughgiel signalled a famous landmark in the history of Ulster club hurling. It was the first time that a club from the province had won an All-Ireland club title, and no other team from Ulster has since done the same. Liam McGarry was a selector on that Loughgiel side. "The highlight of my days with the club was winning that All-Ireland title in 1983. In 1982 we won the Minor and Senior title both on the same day. That is the only time that has been done". The proprietor of the Pound Bar in Loughgiel is a very reliable authority on hurling. Praise from Liam McGarry is a very high accolade indeed Down through the years he has played against and watched some of the game's greatest names. He rates Kilkenny's Ger Henderson and also Eddie Kerr and D.J. Carey, whom he rates as possibly the best forward in the game at the moment. The Antrim man rates Cork's Brian Corcoran and Galway's Padraig Kelly as two of the best backs doing the rounds at the moment. "Christy Ring was the greatest hurler of all though", he enthuses. "He was the Daddy of all hurlers. I saw him playing four or five times and he was exceptional. I used to travel the length of the country to go to games in Cork, or anywhere else there was a good game going on". Within Antrim Liam also came up against some pretty formidable opponents. As some of the best he mentions Sean Burns from the St. John's club in Belfast, Seamus McDonald and Pat Mullaney from the Rossa club in Belfast, Brendan Donnelly and Robbie Elliot of Ballycastle and Hugo O'Prey from Ballycran in county Down. "The best All-Ireland finals I ever saw were those between Cork and Wexford in '54 and '56". As a player Liam spent most of his days on the right side of the defence, moving up to full-forward in his latter years. Physically, he was an exceptionally strong player, who marked tight and was always determined to get to the ball before his opponent. The former Loughgiel and Antrim hurler has been running the Pound Bar for the past thirty years now, since taking the business over from his father. The Pound Bar is an entirely family-run affair, and the premises are very much a gathering point for all the same number of Senior clubs then we'd be just as good as them". Liam McGarry's eldest brother, Paddy, played at right half back on the Antrim side which was beaten by the Rebels in the 1943 All-Ireland final. The McGarry family has always boasted a very strong hurling tradition. Liam's father, Paddy, hurled with the Loughgiel club way back in it's formative years and three of his brothers -Eamonn, Jimmy and Nicholas - all won county Championship with the club. And in 1947 his sister (Mary) won an All-Ireland camogie medal when Antrim beat Dublin by 2-4 to 2-1. Married to Ita with six children, four boys and two girls. His son Brendan (22) is currently on the Antrim county panel and has been playing very well for his club all year. Another son Kevin (17) was on the Antrim Minor side which was defeated this year by an extremely talented Kilkenny Minor team. And Liam's sixteen year old daughter Ciara has already won Minor and Senior county Championship titles with Loughgiel in camogie. She was on the team which triumphed in this year's Ulster camogie Championship. There aren't too many families who are steeped in G.A.A. tradition quite as much as the McGarry's in Loughgiel, county Antrim. Written by the Hogan Stand Magazine 26th Nov 1993 Tweet

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