*Dr Daly Park. Photograph: Natasha Barton
INTER-COUNTY hurling action returns to Dr Daly Park in Tulla this weekend for the first time in five decades.
Ger O’Connell’s Clare minor hurlers host Cork in the East Clare venue on Saturday at 2pm as they bid to record successive victories in the Munster championship.
Dr Daly Park’s €1.8m redevelopment which was completed in 2022 now boasts a 1000 seater covered stand, an internal viewing area for 200 people, a 150m squared fully equipped gym area, toilets, club shop, club meeting rooms, a media commentary area and a physio room. The glass overlooking the seated area was encouraged by the design of Croke Park and Abbotstown.
Over the past two seasons, the Tulla venue has hosted key fixtures in the senior and intermediate club championships in Clare.
Ruan’s Jimmy Smyth who was once labelled by eight-time All-Ireland winner Christy Ring as “the best hurler bar none” detailed the significance of Dr Daly Park. Smyth recalled spoke of this in ‘The Claret and Gold, A History of Tulla Hurling’ published in 2012. “Tulla is a unique hurling venue. Extraordinary hurling feelings come from the trees, the fields, the houses and the people of these hurling places that consumed so much of my thinking. I experienced the tension that permeated the games on hurling days, the excitement of the clash of the ash, the natural hill from which the games were watched and the firm dry ground. Pat Henchy, Ruan and Clare hurler, summed it all up when he once said to me, ‘Tulla is the spiritual home of Clare hurling’,” he stated.
Clare’s senior hurling side of the 1970s managed by Fr Harry Bohan who won two National League titles (1977 and 1978) played their home matches in the competition in Tulla, they were undefeated at Dr Daly Park in the 1970s.
Dr Daly Park was officially opened in May 1941, in memory of Dr Tommy Daly, holder of four All-Ireland Senior hurling medals with Dublin, an All-Ireland Junior medal with Clare in 1914 and six Fitzgibbon Cups with UCD.
Karl Quinn who was one of the authors of The Claret and Gold noted, “Tulla is a venue bestowed with extraordinary memories for Clare hurling people; it was where, in 1941, Tulla and the ‘Mills played before one of the largest crowds ever seen at a hurling game in East Clare; where Sixmilebridge won their first Senior hurling championship in 1977; where Feakle enthralled their supporters en-route to four u21 A titles in the early 1980s; where nine minutes of injury time led to the Ogonnelloe and Wolfe Tones 1998 Senior hurling quarter-final being replayed; where the Tulla hurlers built their 2007 Senior championship winning team”.
Officials in the East Clare club are expecting a large crowd on Saturday. “Supporters and players alike will hope to experience the same excitement and tension that Jimmy Smyth felt in the 1950s and 1960s. And Clare hurling people look forward to the clash of the ash, to standing on the hill of Tulla and to hearing the Banner roar in this unique hurling venue,” Quinn said.
