Mouse joins hurling's one thousand club
Mouse's 1,000 goal strike Photo: Pat Ahern
Pearse Park, Longford, deep in Midland football country, is an unlikely setting for a story on a historic hurling occasion but in this week’s column we will reveal that not only did the GAA pitch at Lisbrack on the outskirts of Longford town play host to a famous small ball first but was also the venue at which the genesis of a milestone photo of a legend of the ash was formed?! First up the famous hurling first. On the way to Longford recently to watch the Carlow minor footballers play the home county in the All-Ireland Minor Championship I was reminded of my first visit to the venue and the unusual events that occurred. Instead of relying on memories now 17 years old your scribe delved into the archive to resurrect his own report of the events of January 19, 2008.
“Hurling history on the double! It was known heading off for the Kehoe Cup first round fixture on Saturday morning that this would be the Carlow senior hurlers first ever appearance on Longford soil. However, before the sliotar was thrown in at a virtually deserted Pearse Park the match was destined for the record books for a completely different and far more unique reason. Westmeath referee Michael Mannion refused to start the match until every participant was wearing a helmet. While this rule has long been an accepted part of juvenile hurling and has in recent years been extended to minor and Under 21 level no one, apart from the match official in question, was aware that it had been made compulsory at senior level. Indeed we’d be fairly sure it hasn’t - Waterford and Limerick IT were live on TG4 from Dungarvan on Sunday, Hurler of the Year Dan the Man (Shanahan) adding to his goal haul without any protective covering. Thus this all-helmet inter-county match is guaranteed an even more special place in hurling lore; Cork’s Donal Clifford caused quite a stir by wearing an ice-hockey helmet in an inter-county fixture of the late 1960s, now four decades later we have the first competitive senior match in which every single participant donned a specially made hurling helmet. The throw-in was delayed five minutes as three or four players who normally do not wear headgear borrowed the required item from the subs bench.” FOR THE RECORD: For the record the Carlow team that played on that historic occasion, winning 3-14 to 0-5, was: Mark Ryan (St Mullins); Andrew Gaul (Ballinkillen), Michael Ryan (Ballinkillen), John Rogers (Erin’s Own); Eddie Coady (Mount Leinster Rangers), Shane Kavanagh (Naomh Eoin), Richie Coady (Mount Leinster Rangers); Joe Waters (Naomh Eoin), Alan Brennan (Naomh Bríd); John Miley (Erin’s Own), Mark Brennan (Naomh Bríd), Paul Kehoe (St Mullins); Karol English (Carlow Town), Des Murphy (Naomh Eoin), John Coady (Mount Leinster Rangers). Subs called on: Seamus Murphy (St Mullins), ‘Red’ Brian Murphy (Naomh Eoin).
Not content with recording the historic events the reporter also noted that while 38,588 thronged through the Semple Stadium, Thurles turnstiles when Carlow manager Jim Greene played with his native Waterford in the 1982 Munster final against Cork there were just FIVE present at the delayed throw-in time in Pearse Park! The late arrival of a few Carlow supporters ‘swelled’ the attendance to just 14! Recorded for posterity were the faithful five - Tommy Corcoran, ‘Black’ Murphy, Mick Miley, Deirdre Kenny and her father Paddy Kenny, a native of Ballymahon, Co Longford but who was shouting for Carlow. A young lady whose name I meant to get but who had disappeared before I could was also present - suspect this may have been Deirdre Tomlinson - while after the report had appeared in ‘The Nationalist’ the following week I was informed by Tommy Murphy, with whom I had travelled, that Ned and Carmel Kavanagh were also in situ, “below behind the town end goal.”
It was behind the same town end goal in Pearse Park last month that the planning for the photo the accompanies this week’s column took place. You see with the Carlow minor footballers playing in Longford at 1.30pm and the senior hurlers in action in Mullingar at 4pm, tactical awareness dictated a hasty retreat from venue No 1, hence the presence of your scribe on the terrace behind the goal at the town end, the end where photographer Pat Ahern was also situated. Aware that Marty ‘Mouse’ Kavanagh was within six points of another major milestone in the scoring stakes I alerted Pat to that fact in confident hope that his lens would capture the moment for posterity. Then the football went and finished in a draw. Extra-time! Plan A remained Plan A. Head her for Mullingar. With pilot Kieran Murphy and chief navigator Ger Doyle in control we landed in Cusack Park in time for the McDonagh Cup throw-in.
Saturday, May 17, 2025, 4.17pm: Going into the game against Westmeath the ‘Mouse’ in 137 competitive games with Carlow’s flagship hurlers had racked up 40-874, a points total of 994, requiring just six points to join a very elite inter-county 1,000-club, only sharpshooters surpreme Patrick Horgan, Eddie Keher, TJ Reid, Henry Shefflin, Shane Dooley and Joe Canning having attained such lofty heights. Now our Mouse was within striking distance of the mammoth milestone. Three early white flags from Kavanagh’s stick brought the St Mullins maestro closer and then in the 17th minute he let fly with a rasper which rattled the Dunne’s Stores end rigging. And it is that sizzling shot, captured magnificently by Pat Ahern, that adorns this page today. We had kept the 1,000 story under wraps, aware that manager Tom Mullally was, rightly, more concerned with the group ethic and the goal of regaining the McDonagh Cup. By games end we had to keep more startling statistics under wraps.
You see not only did ‘Mouse’ clear the Beecher’s Brook of 1,000 career points that day, he proceeded to break two more records as well. He had 2-8 to his name by half-time, the second goal from a penalty. Early in the second half Marty drilled home another great goal. That green flag meant he had broken his own record of the highest individual tally in a single championship game, the previous high being his 1-13 v Meath in the 2020 Covid Championship and another 1-13 v Laois in 2023, including the penalty goal that was pivotal in Carlow winning the McDonagh Cup that year. That early second half green flag also saw Mouse equal the highest individual score by a Carlow hurler in any flagship competition, Des Murphy’s 5-2 v Fermanagh in a NHL match in Irvinestown in April 1996 and Mouse’s 1-14 v Kerry in Dr Cullen Park in a Covid NHL game in June 2021 the previous highs in this category. A point from a free in Mullingar shortly after his third goal put Marty Kavanagh on top on his own and by games end ‘Mouse’ had scored an astonishing 3-12, the 21-point total comprised of 2-2 from play, 1-10 from placed balls, the goal from a penalty, 0-8 frees, 0-2 ’65’.
While keeping the story of Mouse’s elevation to the 1,000 club out of the news until the campaign was over was my own decision, and taken for the greater good, I felt that the man himself deserved to know and went out on the field afterwards to inform him of his feat and presented Mouse with a juvenile sliotar emblazoned with a Carlow crest, a little memento I suggested he might pass on to a budding juvenile in his life. It was as an U-14 I first saw Mouse weave his magic at the 2008 Leinster School of Hurling in St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny and knew we had been gifted ‘one for the future’. The future came to pass and hopefully there is a lot more future to come.
Competitive Senior Appearances: 139 Scored: 43-896 (1,025) Fom Play: 34-222 (324) From Placed Balls: 9-674 (671) Placed Ball Breakdown: 9-2 penalty, 0-625 frees, 0-47 ’65’ SENIOR HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP Appearances: 49 Scored: 20-355 (415) From play: 14-86 (128) From Placed Balls: : 6-269 (287) Placed Ball Breakdown: 6-1 penalty, 0-250 frees, 0-18 ’65’ NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE Appearances: 72 Scored: 21-423 (486) From Play: 18-98 (152) From Placed Balls: 3-325 (334) Placed Ball Breakdown: 3-1 pen, 0-302f, 0-22 ’65’ WALSH/KEHOE CUP Appearances: 18 Scored: 2-118 (124) From Play: 2–38 (44) From Placed Balls: : 0-80 (80) Placed Ball Breakdown: 0-73f, 0-7 ’65’
