As I Roved Out: Ciss Carpenter's Camán wielding story
Ciss Carpenter and the 1959 Killeshin camogie team
A searing Summer Sunday, July 1961, the roads leading to the seaside are thronged. The traffic around the North Dublin suburb of Donnycarney is light and a local wit coins the phrase ‘chicks with sticks’ as he spots a bevy of hurley carrying females make their way towards Parnell Park, the GAA Grounds near the old ‘Tin Church’. ‘Parnell’ is hosting the Leinster Senior Camogie final in which all conquering Dublin, unbeaten in the province since 1936, are warm favourites to add to their extensive roll of honour.
The Sky Blues are, of course, the reigning All-Ireland champions too and number among their ranks such all-time greats as Kathleen Mills (winner of a record 15 All-Ireland medals, seeking her 21st Leinster medal that day), Kay Ryder (early in a career that saw her win 10 All-Ireland medals) and Una O’Connor (a scoring machine with Carlow blood in her veins, her mother a Harvey from Pollerton Road).
The opposition is provided by Laois, appearing in their first senior final thanks to an impressive 6-2 to 2-2 semi-final victory over Louth in Fr Maher Park, Graiguecullen and while the O’Moore girls were, as expected, well beaten, respected camogie correspondent Agnes Hourigan in her ‘Irish Press’ report the following day stated “that the final score did scant justice to the efforts of a great-hearted Laois team” That final score was 8-4 to 2-1. Two women combined to compile that Laois 2-1, two women who this Tuesday morning will be the reason for crowds congregating in Ratheniska, Co Laois and Carlow Town’s Barrack Street. Anna May Brennan scored 1-1. Ciss Whitty 1-0. Anna May is now McHugh and the long time Managing Director of the National Ploughing Association, whose massive flagship Championship festival gets underway this morning. Ciss Whitty, of course, became Ciss Carpenter and sadly, to-day, the popular Ciss, will be laid to rest in St Mary’s Cemetery.
It’s fair to say Ciss was a Carlow town institution, ‘institution’ in the case of a person defined as ‘they have been an important part of a place for a very long time’. Very, very true in Ciss’ case. In the late 1950s she came to Carlow from her native Craanford in Co Wexford to work in the Provincial Bank on Dublin Street. Her early days in this area were spent in Killeshin before marriage to Carlow and O’Hanrahan’s Gaelic footballer and businessman Paddy Carpenter brought her to Barrack Street.
In September 1967 in this newspaper renowned columnist Mary Norton wrote, “it is always a pleasure to meet young people with drive and initiative such as the young couple from Carlow whom I met last week, Paddy and Ciss Carpenter; when I dropped into their new lounge on Thursday they were playing host and hostess very capably to almost 400 patrons. Attractive auburn haired Ciss (a former Killeshin, Laois and Leinster Camogie star) and her go-ahead husband decided that it was time to ‘gip up’ the Carpenter family business and the most ‘with it’ method seemed a fine new lounge and regular ballad sessions with national and local groups”.
Carpenter’s became an integral part of the ballad boom that hit Ireland at that time but today it is mainly on that “Killeshin, Laois and Leinster camogie star” line we will focus and shed light on a career that Ciss herself was loth to expand on. “She’d never talk much about her playing days,” sighed son Marc though we do know Ciss was extremely proud that both herself and her youngest son shared the honour of having played inter-provincial with Leinster, Ciss in the Gael Linn Cup, Marc in the Railway Cup.
Not only did Ciss ‘hurl’ with Leinster, she did so in all four provinces and her farewell appearance was as captain, a massive honour at a time Dublin were the dominant force. Famed Fraher Field in Dungarvan was the scene of her inter-provincial senior debut in October 1959, mid-field in a 7-2 to 6-3 semi-final victory over Munster, full-forward Una O’Connor netting six times at the Waterford venue. The final took place in Casement Park, Belfast on November 1, Una O’Connor bagging five goals in a 6-0 to 1-3 win against Ulster, Ciss Whitty again an influential mid-fielder as she won a coveted Gael Linn Cup medal. She was to add a second the following year, Leinster beating Ulster 10-5 to 3-3 in the Parnell Park semi-final (Una O’Connor 6-2) before outscoring Munster 4-2 to 3-1 in the final played in Cahir, Co Tipperary, Ciss as industrious as ever in the midfield engine room on both occasions, Carlow’s Tereas Nolan a useful wing back. Ciss completed her personal ‘discover Ireland’ tour in 1961 when playing inter-provincial Camogie in her fourth province when Leinster, captained by the Killeshin and Laois Wonder Woman, travelled to Pearse Stadium, Galway to play Connacht in the semi-final. Alas Leinster lost that day 7-3 to 5-2, Salthill then her Gael Linn Cup swansong.
Ciss Whitty played three championship campaigns with Laois and contested three Leinster finals, the Junior in 1959 and 1960, the aforementioned senior in 1961. Alas provincial final defeat was her lot on all three occasions. In 1959 Laois travelled to Pearse Park, Longford and returned with a 1-5 to 0-0 first round victory over the home county before hosting Westmeath in Fr Maher, Graigucullen and recording a mammoth 12-1 to 1-0 semi-final triumph. Fr Maher Park also hosted the final against Kilkenny who emerged narrow 3-2 to 2-1 victors, the Monday morning papers, which recorded 0-1 after her name also declaring mid-fielder Ciss Whitty, was “outstanding”. The ‘Kilkenny People’ noted “Laois had a fine all-rounder in Ciss Whitty who figured in defence, at centre-field and in attack”.
1960 saw the Laois girls again march to the Junior final, beating Kildare (7-2 to 2-0 in Fr Maher Park), Louth (2-2 to 1-1 in Knockbridge, Co Louth) and Longford (11-2 to 1-1 in the Fr Maher Park semi-final). Laois embarked on a special 10-day training regime in Ballylinan ahead of the final, again against Kilkenny, this time away in Ashgrove, Mooncoin. Once more disappointment was in store for Ciss and her colleagues, beaten 4-1 to 2-3, having led 2-1 to 1-1 at half-time in front of a big crowd among them the reporters who described Ciss Whitty as “prominent’ at mid-field. Graiguecullen’s Mary Nelson and Geraldine Callinan located the net for Laois.
1961 saw a restructuring of the Leinster competitions and Laois were promoted to senior ranks, the aforementioned victory over Louth bringing the O’Moore women to the Donnycarney final we opened the column with, a day Anna May and Ciss (who both served a year as the Laois Co Camogie Boards’s Leinster Council delegate) procured all the Laois scores.
Not only did Ciss Whitty play her club camogie with Killeshin the Wexford bank clerk was instrumental in forming the club whe enjoyed a meteoric four year existence, winning back to back Laois championships in 1959 and 1960. Anna May’s Ballylinan were the standard bearers when Killeshin was formed in 1958 and indeed as recently as 1955 the Ballylinan girls played (and won) the Carlow championship due to the total lack of opposition in their own county. The arrival of Killeshin (and Graiguecullen a year later) changed the landscape. On Killeshin’s maiden voyage in ’58 they lost a controversial county final to Ballylinan by a point, an objection saw a replay ordered but delayed to the following January as Ballylinan had players away in college. There is no record of the actual final replay taking place but there is an advertisement for a ‘replay of the great challenge camogie match’ which preceded a Marquee Dance in The Swan. Again there doesn’t appear to be any record of that game being played. What we do know, though, is that on September 6, 1959 in Fr Maher Park, Graiguecullen, Killeshin beat Ballylinan 3-1 to 2-1 in the ’59 county final, this after the new champions had trained five nights a week ahead of the game. “The speed of the youthful Killeshin team” proved crucial and Mary Holden, around the time of a re-union for that team, revealed “the next night we had a dance in Killeshin hall but before it we had tea in Gaffney’s”. The photo of that victorious Killeshin team accompanies this week’s column, Ciss fourth from left in the back row. The title was retained the following year, the county final a local derby against Graiguecullen and while we cannot find an account of the game itself we did read that at the Killeshin GFC AGM chairman Jim Delaney congratulated the Camogie team on winning the county championship, a notable back-to-back for Ciss and her camán wielding cailíní.
To Ciss Carpenter’s family and friends we send our deepest sympathy. Many, many Carlow families, including my own, were deeply touched and consoled by her empathy and guidance at our times of bereavement. May Ciss Rest In Peace and enjoy her ascension to the level lawns of God.
