Anthony ‘Sconey’ Kilmartin with the Canon Hamilton in 2012. Photograph: James Melody
WAVES of shock and sadness have swept from New York City to Newmarket-on-Fergus with the sudden and untimely passing of Anthony Kilmartin, affectionately known to the masses as Sconey.
Living in New York for over a decade, Sconey died at the age of forty following a fall on Sunday. His native Newmarket-on-Fergus was rocked to the core when word filtered through to the village that evening.
Efforts are underway to bring his remains back to Co Clare. “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of reports and stands ready to provide consular assistance. As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the details of individual cases,” a spokesperson for the Department told The Clare Echo.
Born on Valentine’s Day, Sconey was christened ‘Anthony Valentine’ and was certainly a loveable figure for all who knew him. He attended Newmarket-on-Fergus Boys National School and St Caimin’s Community School where he was once named Student of the Year.
From school, Sconey went to the building sites where he was a skilled blocklayer and ensured there was plenty of craic for each project. He later worked in Dromoland Castle as a porter where his charm was embraced by the American visitors to the five star hotel. He would continue working in hospitality when he emigrated, working behind the bar in New York City.
Witty and roguish, Sconey tended to be the life of the party wherever he went. Even in The Big Apple, mention of his name among the Irish diaspora would generally be recognised within moments and often result in a smile.
This was also the case within Co Clare, he is remembered as a gregarious, larger than life figure who was never far from devilment, when Sconey was around laughter was never far behind.
From an early age his ability as a hurler was evident and he would go on to represent Clare at all levels and won every honour with his beloved Blues in Newmarket-on-Fergus. As Jim ‘Puddin’ Cullinan (RIP), Liam Danaher, Paddy McNamara and Michael ‘Dala’ Daly had done before him, Sconey showed that hurlers from the village can often be the biggest characters of Newmarket-on-Fergus sides. A sign of his popularity was his selection to present medals to the Minor championship winning Newmarket-on-Fergus camogie side of 2011.
He won all underage titles with Newmarket-on-Fergus including winning the U16A and Minor A championships in 2002. He was part of the All-Ireland Féile Division 5 winning football side of 1999. Sconey was a central part of the Newmarket side which dominated Clare hurling, the force awakening with a twenty one game unbeaten run in 1995 which culminated in winning the Pádraig Quinn Division 1 Cup for U11s.
Where Sconey led others followed and it is why he was a successful captain of so many sides at club and schools level. Fierce and uncompromising at 6’2, he was one of the most talented hurlers of his generation. He led the Blues to win county championships at several age-groups where he got familiar walking up the steps of Cusack Park to collect silverware. He won three U21A hurling championships in a row and was part of the Newmarket-on-Fergus side to win the Clare Junior A and Munster club titles in 2003. In 2004, he made his senior championship debut and in the same year captained the club’s minor side which reached the county final losing to Kilmaley.
Given the underage success, it is a source of regret that Newmarket-on-Fergus have only won one Clare SHC since the turn of the millennium. That doesn’t take from the 2012 breakthrough which was one of the highlights of Sconey’s hurling career and it was a win that would not have been achieved without him. Lining out at full forward in the 3-10 0-9 victory over Cratloe, his selfless nature saw him create an abundance of scores including one of the two majors netted by Shane O’Brien Jnr. Born and bred as a back, Sconey was moved to the forward line after recovering from a horrific leg break in a challenge match against Gort in 2009.
Wearing saffron and blue, Sconey played in the Tony Forrestal in 2000 alongside clubmates James McInerney, Bernard Gaffney and David McInerney. The same quartet played for the Clare U16s in the Nenagh Co-op tournament in 2002.
He made his debut for the Clare minor hurlers in 2003 at wing back when they lost 0-15 0-5 to Cork and was introduced from the bench in their semi-final defeat to the same opposition. His teammates included future All-Ireland winners Brendan Bugler and Patrick Donnellan along with his clubmates Kieran Devitt and Martin O’Hanlon.
For the 2004 minor campaign, he started all four games for Clare, playing at full back and corner back on their run to the semi-finals. Following Clare’s first-round loss to Tipperary, The Clare Champion wrote “at the back Anthony Kilmartin stood strong in the face of unrelenting Tipperary pressure”.
Graduating from minor to the U21 ranks, Sconey was corner back on the side defeated 1-17 0-17 by Tipperary in the 2006 semi-final and in the first fifteen a year later when Cork overcame Clare 2-14 1-11 in the provincial semi-finals.
Following Newmarket-on-Fergus’ run to the 2006 Clare SHC final, Sconey was drafted into Tony Considine’s Clare senior squad for 2007 and made his championship debut at corner back in a 2-14 1-11 win against Laois. His omission from the first fifteen for the subsequent quarter-final against Limerick was a surprise where corner forward Andrew O’Shaughnessy delivered a man of the match performance with 0-11 as Limerick won 1-23 1-16.
Having done well in the pre-season for Considine’s successor, Mike McNamara, the Scariff man was left frustrated when Sconey opted to depart the county squad prior to the 2008 National Hurling League.
On the coaching front, Sconey was involved with several underage hurling sides in Newmarket-on-Fergus during his playing days including the 2010 side that competed in the Féile. He coached teams at U13, U14, U15, U16, minor and U21 level in the club. He recently became involved as a coach with the Clare hurling team in New York.
Away from hurling, he was an annual visitor to The Galway Races and was prone to the occasional bet. He took great pride in the horse-racing exploits of his niece, Jessica O’Gorman who last year was nominated for the Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) Ride of the Year Award.
Similarly, his own parents Eileen and Tony were immensely proud of all Sconey achieved, he had many fans but Eileen and Tony were his biggest. They will be devastated by his loss as will be his siblings Helen and David, nephew Conor, niece Jessica, extended family and wide circle of friends. His loss will be felt in Newmarket-on-Fergus for some time.
