Meelick Personalities

Gerry Ryan

Gerry Ryan served Meelick with distinction spanning three decades.  He played Senior Hurling with Clare winning an Oireachtas medal in 1954 scoring  two goals while being marked by the legendary Nick O'Donnell. Gerry played with the Clare county and was on the team beaten by Tipperary 5-6 to 5-5 in the Munster Hurling Final of 1949.

In a recent interview Gerry said that he played against all the top class names of that era. He said he found Limerick's Donal Broderick one of the most difficult opponents "although", he said "our own Billy Gavin, God rest him, was the most difficult of all and he appeared to love marking me in training and I could get nowhere against him".

Asked about the famous Clare - Limerick game of 1955 he said "we had beaten Cork by a point in the first round, we then beat Tipp and were red hot favourites to beat Limerick in the final, but we all played so badly we deserved to be well beaten.". "Strangely enough, my biggest disappointment was losing the minor final to Tipp in 1949, we could have and should have won this game and Tipp went on to win the All Ireland".

"I played in all grades with the club, Juvenile, Junior A, Junior B, Intermediate and Senior in a variety of combinations with Meelick, Parteen and Ardnarcrusha throughout the years". " I was also Club Secretary for a number of years."

Gerry also won a basketball medal with Limerick and is organiser of the Hurlers Golfing Society which is open to retired senior county hurlers.

He said he often regretted not putting more back into the club but moving to Limerick, working away from home and having three daughters took him in many different directions.

Clare V Cork at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds

L -R   Mick Cashman, Naoisi Jordan, Pat Philpot, John Lyons, Gerry Ryan, Noel Looney