They remain third in the all-time honours list, only pushed from second when Toomevara began their period of dominance in the early 1990s.
In a senior final for the first time in 42 years, Moycarkey-Borris are once more squeezing and hanging ’em out to dry, to paraphrase their old war cry.
Ed Donnelly, Munster GAA communications manager, was 14 when the band led the team back into the villages of Littleton, Moycarkey and Two-Mile-Borris after their 1984 success over Lorrha, the latest of their 12 titles.
“Ken Hogan was Tipperary U21 goalkeeper that year and he made a save and the ball trickled out and John Flanagan, who was a veteran at that time, ran in and struck the ball first time to the net.
That sealed it for us.
“Jack Bergin collected the Dan Breen and Eamonn Darmody, one of my idols, a classy wing-back, was man of the match.
The team came into the Horse and Jockey after the game.
“The team were probably at the end of their days at that stage.
They had also won in 1982 and there were no stars on the team.
Like, Jack Bergin made the county – he was captain in 1983 when Tipperary won our first match in 10 years – but it was a really balanced team.” It’s 23 years since Moycarkey-Borris were relegated from the senior ranks for only the second time in their history.
They came back up in 2008 and have remained, but it wasn’t until a juvenile team began winning all around them that the tide began to rise.
“Towards the end of the 2000s, a lot more focus was put on the under-age,” says Donnelly.
“By around 2015, the Rhys Shellys of this world had won an U12 and U14 county titles.
You’d have seen many a team over the years that wouldn’t follow through on that but they did.” A first ever U21 title came to the club in January 2022, the latest in a long line of success for a team captained by Shelly and featuring the likes of Max Hackett and Kyle Shelly.
A county minor final appearance soon followed and Joe Egan was part of that side.
