The ranks of the Waterford hurling heroes of 1957 who won Munster championship glory but agonisingly lost the All-Ireland final to the neighbouring Cats, have been further depleted by the death last week of Abbeyside's Dom Enright. Dom, who was aged 73 and had been ill for only a short time passed peacefully away at the Waterford Regional Hospital on Tuesday of last week. He was the eighth member of that '57 panel to cross the Great Divide. The seven who have preceded him were goallkeeper Ned Power, defenders John Barron and Mick Lacey, midfielder Philly Grimes, and forwards Donal Whelan, John Kiely and Tom Cheasty. The bed of heaven to all of them. There have been very few better hurling families in Abbeyside down the decades than the Enrights, and if Pat was probably the greatest of them all Dom certainly wasn't far behind. To have won his place onto that multi talented county panel fifty one years ago says all that needs to be said of his hurling prowess, and he missed out on an All-Ireland medal two years later in difficult but understandable circumstances. His Kerry born father Tom, a member of the Garda Siochana, died that year and it resulted in a lessening of Dom's resolve as far as the county team was concerned. As a consequence he was left off the panel and the rest is history with Waterford winning that coveted title and Dom missing out on fulfilling one of his great sporting ambitions. In an era of great Abbeyside teams Dom stood tall as one of the greatest, but like that elusive All-Ireland medal a county senior title also passed him by as it did some of his heroic colleagues of the time - Austin Flynn and the late Donal Whelan and Liam O'Dea among them. Fittingly the blue and gold of Abbeyside and the green and white of Ballinacourty adorned his coffin as it made its final journey from Abbeyside Church to Ballinroad cemetery last Thursday. Among the GAA hierarchy was Munster Council chairman Jimmy O'Gorman and the concourse was one of the largest and most representative the parish seen in many a year. It was the kind of send off befitting the sporting icon Dom Enright was. To his wife Margaret, his sons Tomas, Donncha, and Cormac, his daughters Onra, Niamh, Emer, Ciara, Deirdre and Grainne, his brother Noel, Johnny, Fr Michael PP, Liam and Pat and all of the other members of his extended family sincere sympathy is extended. Go ndeine Dia trocaire ar a anam dilis. Waterford News & Star, 17th October 2008 Tweet

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