TONY Browne is still soldiering away with the Waterford senior hurlers at the age of 40, while it was only a few weeks ago that Sir Alex Ferguson brought the curtain down on his 26 and a half year rein at Manchester United.
Both men, though, would have some catching up to do to match Liam Bourke, who last week celebrated 75 years as a member of Claughaun GAA Club.
Liam was the subject of an appreciation night on Saturday 15 from the club, for whom he holds great affection.
“I started playing in 1938. I would have been 13 then and at that time the lowest competition was juvenile which was under 16.
“I think I was only about 18 years old when I was secretary of the club. That’s going back to the 1940s and I’m still belting away. I was secretary at that time and I was president afterwards.”
The Childers Road club is one of the most successful in the county, with 10 senior hurling titles and 14 senior football crowns.
It has had its share of ups and downs over the years, although Liam has always enjoyed being involved in the green and white of Claughaun, regardless of their fortunes.
“The only honours I won were city honours and a minor county championship. We had a nice team and we enjoyed ourselves but we were only junior at the time.
“There had been a senior team for years and back in 1914-16 we were winning three championships in a row but then we got into the shallow years and things went backwards for a while. We came back then again and it was enjoyable all the way along.”
Liam’s only regret was that he never lined out for his county, although he came agonisingly close to fulfilling that dream.
He was selected for a match against Tipperary but a newspaper notice brought bad news – “It said ‘Cumann Luthchleas Gael regret to announce, due to travel restrictions, the suspension of the minor and junior hurling championships’. I never got to play then after that.”
He may have been cruelly denied the chance to represent Limerick, but Liam has more than made up for it with his involvement at club level. After 75 years, his is still a daily presence at Claughaun GAA, and he would not have it any other way.
“I’m only living down the road. I’m here every day and I do a lot of the book work. There’s something to be done here all the time.
“I’m going all the time here and that’s the one thing about the GAA. You have fellas who get involved in a club and they give everything they have to it. You give your life to it for the sake of the game.”
