An updated history of St. Mary's GAA by P.R.O. Jack Hennessy

For the record that historic team that defeated Ballydonoghue at Moyvane on Sunday October 2nd lined out as follows:
Gerdie O'Carroll
Martin Costello - Tom Kennedy - Kevin O'Callaghan
Padraig Vallelly - Liam Doyle - Tom Long
Sean Doran - Barry Healy
Danny Finucane - Done O'Keefe - Patrick O'Brien
Sean Mulvihill - Eoin O' Mahony - John Kennedy
Subs: Mike Long for Martin Costello, Gerard O'Connor for Donie O'Keefe. Kevin Vallelly, Patrick Moloney, Nellie O'Connor, Eamon O'Connor, Paudie Deenihan, Liam Collins and Danny
Mulvihill. Final Score - Asdee 1 :: 10 - Ballydonoghue 1 :: 09 - Referee: James Chassie
Cronin, Duagh. Both juniors and minor teams lost in the latter states of the league on both
occasions to Duagh.

A HISTORIC OCCASION
And so we move on 1997 which will always remain as the biggest day in the clubs history. The opening of Thay Jack Walsh on Sunday June 8th PRO of Cumann Luthchleas Gael, Danny Lynch and now president of the GAA, Sean Kerry were among the invited dignitaries present for our official opening. On the playing field we didn't enjoy very much success. Our minors had good wins over Brosna and Abbeydorney. Listowel Emmets had a 2-18 to 0-6 win over us in the North Kerry Championship and that was about it. However we did have an under 16 County title to celebrate.

Moving along to 1998 and we were still looking back to those early years when the club was
reformed in 1986 and the great success we enjoyed. However we must take the bad with the good and even though the trophies weren't as plentiful we were still hanging in there and still managing to bring glory to our end of the parish. All teams were competing in both
County and North Kerry in all grades of competition.
Our minors created their own piece of history that year when they defeated St. Senans in the Division 3 North Kerry Championship final which was incidentally not played until Sunday
February 21st 1999 at Stack Park Ballybunion. Asdee 1-7 - St. Senans 0-2.
Minors who did get a good start to the season did have impressive victories in both County
and North Kerry leagues. Knocknagoshel knocked us out at the North Kerry Semi-Final stage
having reached the North Kerry Championship Semi-Final our juniors went down to Clounmacon.Our seniors put up a magnificent performance in the North Kerry Senior Championship at Listowel before going to former All Ireland Club Champions Desmonds on a 3-11 to 1-9 scoreline.

1999
1999 started well with the already mentioned minor success of 1998. Again the 1999 minors
reached the north Kerry league final but this time St.. Senans gained revenge on a 5-9 to 0-3 scoreline. This seemed to set the trend for the remainder of the year with both junior and
senior teams going out of the competition early on. However there was on bright spot left in
the year which was the North Kerry Shield. This was a competition for teams who failed to
qualify for the league play off. In this case it was Division 4 of the league and after
defeating Knockanure in the Semi-Final 3-11 to 1-5. It was on to a final date with Gale
Rangers at Shannon Park, Tarbert on Sunday October 3rd; The end result was victory for Asdee 2-6 to 0-7. A sponsored man of the match award went to John Scanlon. The team were:
Tom Kennedy
David O'Connor - Sean 'red' Stack - Conor Scanlon
John Gorman - Eaman Doran - Karol Kissane
Hugh O'Donoghue - John Scanlon
Tomás Walsh - Matthew O'Hanlon - Paul O'Hanlon
Tom Hayes - Mike Griffin - Charles Dalton
Subs; Micháel Walsh, Kevin Lynch, Dan Kearney, Sean Doran, and Liam Collins.

2000
2000 was a most interesting year as it promised more than it delivered, but even in defeat
we were still in the shake up of a number of North Kerry and County competitions and the
saga of our senior team, we reached the County Novice Championship final against Kilgarvan
at Austin Stack Park, Tralee on a fine September Sunday afternoon but the team never rose to the occasion and lost by a couple of points 0-10 to 0-8. Seniors lost to Emmets 'B' in
the Semi Final of the Intermediate Championship 1-6 to 0-7. Minors drew with St.Senans in
the Minor North Kerry Championship but lost the Semi Final replay. Duagh knocked us out of
the Junior North Kerry Championship at the Semi Final stage. Eoin Kennedy got on the Kerry
Primary schools team and scored the winning point of the game that year.

2001
In 2001 we still were hitting the headlines with success on the playing fields. Victory over
Ballyduff 'B' in the North Kerry Intermediate Championship Final at Stack Park, Ballybunion
was certainly the highlight of the year winning on a scoreline of Asdee 0-8 to Ballyduff 1-3.
Our juniors reached the division 4 shield final but went down to Emmets 1-11 to 1-4.

2002
2002, maybe no silverware but unlucky on a few occasions especially as both seniors and
juniors having reached North Kerry Finals having been impressive in their run in to the
North Kerry Intermediate Championship Final. Our seniors after having the game at their
mercy. Took their foot off the pedal and were caught napping in the final quarter by
Knocknagoshel. However a controversial goal late in the game seemed to upset our plans.
Final score Knocknagoshal 3-7 to Asdee 0-7. This was not the case with our junior squad who were drawn down 11 points at the break but staged a remarkable recovery to reduce that defeat to a single point at the final whistle in the North Kerry League Divisions final
again going down to Knocknagoshal 3-4 to 0-12. In the County Novice Championship it was
again Knocknagoshal who provided the opposition in round 1 and after a draw our seniors went down 2-11 to 1-5 in the replay. There were other bright spots on the year with many of our underage players helping Ballylongford win underage titles. Eoin Kennedy and Tomas Mulvihill won under-14 County Championship medals with Shannon Rangers.

2003
2003. Well, looking back on 2003 we have nothing much to report on the playing fields. I
suppose immigration certainly has taken its toll but I'm sure we will rise again. We never
came anywhere near to winning a competition, we failed to field a junior side, failed to win
a single game in the County League and our only consolation was a single victory over
Moyvane in Division 3 of the North Kerry League. Further victories were achieved by our
underage with Ballylongford winning county and North Kerry titles. The club ran a very
successful field development draw with proceeds going towards the development of the Jack
Walsh Memorial Park. Shannon Rangers under 14 squad won back to back County titles with John Kennedy at the helm again. Eoin Kennedy, Eoin O'Carroll were on the squad while not be out done. Rangers minors won the County shield with Noel Long and Padraig Ruddle on the panel. But, certainly the year ended on a high note with for the club when John Joe O'Carroll was elected joined treasurer of the County Board. Again history was made as he is the first County Board officer to be elected from the club.

The year 2004

2004 came and went with days to remember and days also that we would not bother to mention.However despite little success on the playing fields St Marys always held their heads high and always look to brighter days that may lay ahead.
Our Seniors reached the semi final of the North Kerry Division 2 League,Intermediate Championship and the County Novice Championship, loosing the latter two by a single point margin.County League results continued to be not very favourable but on saying that the team played their games and never failed to field.
The Junior squad who were always struggling to get a team together but never failed even though it was close enough at times, but once again their perseverance paid off, they qualified for the North Kerry Division 4 League Final and had a whopping 24 point winning margin over Gale Rangers played in Walsh Park on a scoreline of Asdee 5 10 Gale Rangers 1pt.Top scorer was the evergreen J P McElligott with 2 03 while Danny Finucane captained the side.This team also reached the North Kerry Novice Championship final only to loose to Listowel C after a replay in an action packed encounter. There was plenty success on the underage front with many Asdee players on some winning Asdee/Bally sides that won N K titles. Noel Long captained the Minor team to win the North Kerry Div 1 Championship and was also on the League winning side that did the double

The club were represented on all Shannon Rangers teams that took part in competition John Kennedy trained the under 16 side that reached the County Semi finals and the back to back under 14 teams that won County titles in the previous years. A presentation night in the Carmody Hall Ballylongford to present the Under 14 team with their medals ,Eoin Kennedy and Eoin O Carroll were playing members. Patsy Coughlan Vice Chair and Eddie Anthony Walsh Treasurer once again were Officers of the Rangers, The Club honoured the successful County Senior Football Champions of 1964 at a very well organised function at the Golf Hotel where the local club were well represented.Paud O Donoghue along with the late Eamon O Donoghue and Micheal Walsh were on the winning team.
Moving on to Scor and certainly the club have plenty success down through the years with the year 2004 no exception, At Senior Scor the Novelty Act team of Anna Maria Tydings, Nora Stack, Donal Dalton and Jack Hennessy won a County Title but were most unlucky not to have reached a Munster Final having been beaten at the semi final stage in Currow Mattie Quinn Quintronic Church Street Listowel kindly sponsored this competition.In Junior Scor it was again the Novelty Act team who won a North Kerry Title, Con Carmody,Orla O Carroll,Maura Doran Eamon McElligott and Patricia Doran The Sponsor of Junior Scor was local businessman Tom O Sullivan of O Sullivan Agri Supplies Kilcolman.
Scor NaBpaisti had another local sponsor in Feale Oil Products thanks to Con and Kathleen Carmody Larha.

Now this competition has been in operation only for the past two years and has been a huge success with the competition strictly for National Schools only.The local club have taken an active part each year and are still awaiting that first North Kerry win.Venue each year has been the local Community Centre.
To finish off Scor business for 2004, a presentation night was held in the Austin Stack Park Pavilion Tralee, this was organised by the Officers of Scor Ciarrai where Perpetual Cups and Shields donated by Clubs were handed over to the members of the Scor committee to be presented at the upcoming senior finals.The local club donated a beautiful cup for the Recitation section in honour of the late Mike Hennessy who represented the club on a regular basis in this catagory and reached Munster Finals on two occasions during the 90s. In fact the first winner of the cup was none other than Frances Kennedy, Listowel Emmets who has many connections in the Asdee area and was presented by Enda Hennessy son of the late Mike.

North Kerry Board continues to have Asdee Officers, Tom O Sullivan as Vice Chairman and the PRO is Jack Hennessy. Patsy Coughlan is a member of the Fixtures committee. John Joe O Carroll who made club history by becoming the first clubman to take Offership at County Board level last year remains in the hot seat.
Our AGM went very late Friday April 2nd being the date.Club Officers remained the same as in the previous year.A presentation was made by Club President Stevie Deenihan on behalf of the Club to our first County Board Officer John Joe O Carroll
Just something else to jog the memory,
Liam Doyle Tullahinell become the first sponsor of Bord Na Og Ciarrai Thuaidh and was known as Bobs Events Catering,
John Kennedy steered his adopted Clare senior footballers to a rare victory to become the first winners of the Tommy Murphy Cup and a trip overseas followed, while at home Gerdie O Carroll took charge of the whistle for his first County final at Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney,the occasion was the County Minor Championship Final. Gerdie was also honoroud by the North Kerry football Board having been chosen as the North Kerry Referee of the Championship.