page_title: Seir Kieran GAA
section_title: Schools hurling and underage hurling
hierarchical_section_title: Seir Kieran GAA / At senior grade 1970 to 1979 / Schools hurling and underage hurling
caption_attribution_description: English: Inscription on wall of Seir Kieran National School, Clareen, Co. Offaly, Ireland
context_page_description: Seir Kieran is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in a parish and Electoral Division of the same name. Seir Kieran takes its name from Saint Ciarán of Saighir, who founded the parish as a civitas in the 5th century. The club's playing facilities are based in the village of Clareen in County Offaly in Ireland.
  Seir Kieran caters mainly for players of the games of hurling and camogie, although the club has also competed in the Offaly football competitions and reached the Offaly Senior Football Semi-final in 1927. Founded in 1887, for 67 of its 128 years, and continuously since 1970, the club has competed in the Offaly Senior Hurling Championship, winning the Sean Robbins Cup on four occasions. Seir Kieran have also had successes at Junior, Intermediate and under-age level, for example winning the Offaly Junior 'A' Hurling Championship for the seventh time in 2014.
  Players from Seir Kieran were on each of the four Offaly teams that have won the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and eleven hurling All Star Awards have been won by five players from Seir Kieran: Eugene Coughlan; Johnny Dooley; Kevin Kinahan; Billy Dooley; and Joe Dooley.
context_section_description: Even more encouraging for the Club's future was the organized effort being made at primary school level, led in Clareen's case by successive Principals of Seir Kieran National School: Mr. Frank McNamara; Mr. Tony Hogan; Mr. Damien White; Mrs. Majella Gibbons; and Mr. Jonathan Dunne in the present day. In 1974, a team captained by Joe Dooley won Seir Kieran's first Bord na Scol hurling championship. This feat was emulated in 1976, when Mick Mulrooney captained the Bord na Scol team. Seir Kieran went on to claim the Offaly U-14 'B' hurling title for 1976 – an achievement indeed for a club that had waited 40 years to win an under-age championship. The school teams were mentored by Damien White N.T., Canon Seán Collier, and Tony Murphy; while the U-14s were looked after by Club chairman Paddy Guinan, Canon Collier, Seamus Mulrooney and John Joe Coffey. There was also a big input from the parents and many others in the parish community.
  Although ultimately unsuccessful, Seir Kieran had also won through to both the Minor 'B' and the U-21 Hurling Finals of 1974. Of the Minor 'B' Final against much-fancied Killeigh, the Midland Tribune reported that "At no stage was full back Eugene Coughlan allowed to relax his most extraordinary talents". Future stalwarts such as Paddy Mulrooney, Noel Bergin, Jimmy Connor, Mick Coughlan, Johnny Abbott and Joe Mooney also featured. Johnny Abbott played in goals that year for the U-21 team, coached by Tony Murphy. He was kept busy in the U-21 Final against Kinnitty, where much of the Minor panel, augmented by players like Liam Corcoran, Brendan Coughlan, Val Kennedy, Sean Coughlan, Barney Breslin and Joe Bergin, proved no match for a Kinnitty side powered by Pat Delaney, Des Egan and Frank Bergin. Despite this setback, it was clear that Seir Kieran's unfolding horizons were very bright. At the club's AGM for 1975, an intense discussion took place on how to bring on all of the young players. This resulted in something of a "new departure" for Seir Kieran – the establishment of a Minor Club with Seamus Mulrooney as its first chairman.
  From the 1960s onward, the Vocational Schools and the other post-primary schools in Offaly had put emphasis on the proper preparation of their GAA teams. This process would receive an important boost with the opening of St. Brendan's Community School in Birr in 1980. The catchment area of the Community School comprises much of Offaly's hurling heartland, as well as contiguous parts of north Tipperary. The experience of winning together for the School tended to dilute the old parochial bitternesses, and to ensure that these students would give of their best for their County later on.
caption: Inscription on wall of Seir Kieran National School, Clareen, Co. Offaly, Ireland
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