McCarthy, John
July 31, 2004
The Late John McCarthy
The recent death of John McCarthy, Ballincourcey, has removed one of the most popular personalities in the Timoleague/Darrara area.
Coming from a family deeply involved with the farming and sporting life of the hinterland, the McCarthys were well known through their involvement in many organisations. His father was a pioneer of the Co-Op movement and was instrumental in persuading Barryroe Co-Op to set up their first branch at Darrara.
Keeping up the farming involvement, John was quickly into the mechanised system and was placed second in the first tractor class held at Timoleague Ploughing Match in 1949. Keeping up his interest in ploughing, he travelled to All-Ireland and World Championships on many occasions and always took a certain pride in providing a site for the Timoleague fixture.
But it's for his sporting attributes that he will be best remembered and during the forties he was a member of the famous Ballincourcey full back line with his brothers Cal and Jackie Cunningham which was the powerhouse of the Timoleague football team. His love for the gaelic code never diminished and he regularly attended Munster finals in Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick and Thurles town and of course the All-Ireland was always a big occasion for him. No man could analyse a team or officials as well as John and he would never hesitate in being outspoken in his comments.
He was also a great horseman and how often we enjoyed him with his fine chestnut trotter of the mid-August meetings in Timoleague each year as he would guide the son of 'Pilot' to victory around the 'Mill-Corner'.
A man of deep religious conviction, he was a daily mass-goer and often went twice on Sundays and was a life-long member of the pioneers' total abstinence association. With his mother, a member of the Cahalane clan from the Bay Road, Lislevane, he had uncles, aunts and first cousins all the way from Kinsale to Union Hall. The turnout for his requiem mass in Darrara Church, where his cousin Fr Jim Duggan, C.S.Sp., was the chief concelebrant, and in the family grave in Timoleague Abbey bore testimony to the esteem in which he was held.
Ar dheis de go raibh a anam dilis.
Courtesy of the Southern Star July 2004
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