Quirke, Connie
January 31, 2008
The Late Connie Quirke
Connie Quirke, who passed away on New Year's Eve, Monday 31st December 2007, was a member of a very well-loved and talented Brogue Lane, Rock Street Family. It was something of which Connie was very proud.
He was one of ten children born to Mortimer and Mary Quirke (nee Murphy) and was 67 years of age. Brogue Lane has been replaced by St. John's Park, but Connie and very happy memories of growing in the lane and had very happy memories of a time when lasting friendship, hospitality and neighbourliness were to the fore.
He was also very proud to wear the black and amber jersey of the Austin Stacks GAA Club which is so rich in heritage and his history in the street of champions. Connie was a much admired sports personality growing up in Rock Street where kicking the leather or hurling a sliotar came naturally to him.
He was blessed with the skill of excel in both codes although Connie's playing years with Austin Stacks brought little joy to the famed club who were in a valley period at the time. From 1936 until 1973, the football title was absent until Billy Curtin and his men ended those 37 frustrating and heartbreaking years for all Rockies.
In those barren years, his team included Harry Curtin, Jim (Bawn) O'Mahony, Johnny B Brosnan, Kevin Barry and his versatile brother Mick Quirke among others. They turned out in the County Championship, Kerryman Shield, Town Leagues and Championships and to their credit they always fielded a team. When more often defeat was their lot, they were gracious sportsmen; it was not the winning of games that mattered to Connie but the enjoyment that was had.
Connie and his Rock comrades trained and enjoyed their youth in Rory and Joanie O'Connell's field next to the greyhound stadium where St Brendan's and Our Lady's Church now stands.
After training, the chat was about football and the previous Sunday's game which was played all over again in Mulchinock's Dick O'Neill's, Kevin Barry's, Dinna Fitzgerald's, Norrie Galvin's finishing at the bottom of the street with milk and doughnuts at either Rita O'Regan's or Mick Power's Bon Bon.
Connie and Mick doubled up in football and hurling for Austin Stacks but Connie was a footballer with immense talent and was always first to be pencilled in to wear the vital no 3 jersey. Connie had a safe pair of hands, always dependable under the dropping ball and the hallmark of his play were his lengthy clearances.
He was a vital cog in a famous hurling victory in July 1961 when The Rock defeated Kenmare to reach the quarter-final of the championship but he put all his efforts into football after this and during the era he had Joe Joe Barrett, Michael (Chucky) O'Connell, Buddy Cashman, Pat (Skeff) Sheedy, Taghg McMahon, Charlie O'Hanlon, John Barry as well as emerging players like Tim Crean and Gary Scollard as teammates.
A report on a 1964 County Senior Football Championship game against East Kerry credits Connie Quirke and Joe Joe Barrett as being the two outstanding players on the pitch for The Rock.
If he was there a decade later, there is no doubt that he would have figured on the victorious Stacks teams of the 1970's. When Connie emigrated to England he continued his love affair with Gaelic games. Playing with the all-Kerry Kingdom Club in London, he was a member of the team which won the London Championship and team members included Timmy O'Sullivan (Castleisland), Bruddy Burrows (John Mitchels), Moss O'Connor, Paddy Brophy, Mike O'Sullivan (Kerins O'Rahillys).
Connie returned home to Tralee and continued to support the Austin Stacks football and hurling teams. The highlight for Connie was the winning of the County Football Championship in 1973 and there was no prouder or happier man that evening.
Connie also played interfirm football with the C.W.S where he was employed and he turned in a stormer in the Munster inter-firm game against Mitchelstown Creamery, marking no less a man then Mick Burke, the Cork inter-county player. Connie was also one of the great dart throwers at a time when darts were a big part of the social scene in Kerry. He played with a star-studded C.E.S team which won the county title and included Noel Dowling, Frank Hennessy, Seamus Dowling, Tom O'Meara, Colm Hobbert, Gerald Fitzgibbon and Harry Curtin.
The late Connie Quirke was a simple person who enjoyed all things in sport. The removal of Connies remains took place on 2nd January from Gleasure's Funeral Home following requiem Mass in St John's Church. Burial took place in the family plot in Rath Cemetery.
Courtesy of the Kerry's Eye
31st January 2008
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