Extract from The Clare Champion by Seamus Hayes
The senior hurling and football county final referees from 1990 and 1991 were honoured at a function on Saturday last.
It was jointly hosted by Clare GAA and the Clare Referees Committee in Hotel Woodstock. Newmarket’s Seanie McMahon was the official in charge when Éire Óg and O’Callaghans Mills played in the 1990 senior hurling final which was won by the Ennis side, captained by Michael Glynn, Sean Hehir captained O’Callaghans Mills.
“It was the lowest score in a final since 1923, a game that was abandoned after twenty five minutes by then referee Michael Hamilton who later became Canon Hamilton and served as Chairman of Clare GAA”, according to Flan O’Reilly.
The 1990 final scoreline was 1-05 to 1-03 while the 1923 score was 1-01 each at the time the game was abandoned. The finalists in 1923 were Kilkishen and Feakle. The game was abandoned when a Feakle player refused to leave the field after being sent off. Subsequently the game was awarded to Kilkishen and Feakle were suspended. Fr Hamilton as he was at the time, also refereed the football final in 1923.
It is interesting to note that in the 1990 final, current Clare GAA chairman Joe Cooney was at full-forward for the Mills outfit.
Kilmurry Ibrickane native Joe Hurley refereed the 1990 football final between Miltown and Kilmihil, he received a presentation along with McMahon and the 91 county final referees, Michael Quinn and Kevin Walsh.
Seanie is the current Vice Chairman of our club and we would like to thank him for his service to the GAA be it as a player, mentor, official or officer. We would encourage more individuals from our club to become referees as without them our games would be nothing, interested personnel are asked to message our Facebook page or email nofgaa@outlook.com