The recent death of Joe Crotty , O’Curry St. brought back the reality of what many of our players, who were forced to emigrate from our town, did for the club when they eventually found a place of residence and employment.
Joe was a member of the Kilkee Minor team that contested the Minor A Final against Miltown Malbay in 1948.
The team panel included the following:
Paddy Nolan, Bobby Kerr, Aidan O’Reilly, Ger Foran, Pat Harvey, Stephen Quinn. Willie Bradley, Marcus Haugh, Paddy O’Donnell, Willie Barry, Francis Kiernan, Paddy Lillis :Frankie Clohessy, Joe Crotty and Flan Carey.
Emigration had taken its toll on the local youth population and many quality players had left these shores for distant lands. Many of these men who left the town continued to spread the GAA gospel especially in America.
In 1960, Joe Crotty and Martin Halpin from Kilkee, and Thomas Boland from Doonbeg were elected to the Executive of the GAA at that year’s New York Convention. Seamus O’Connell from Circular Road, who had formed the Bridgeport Connecticut GAA club in March, 1958, was elected manager of the club, who entered the All-American League for the first time in 1960.
Under the Chairmanship of Joe Crotty a committee was formed in New York to raise funds for the home club in order to improve the local playing facilities, in Kilkee.
The Committee for the fund raising in New York was as follows:
Chairman: Joe Crotty
Vice-Chairman: Seamus O’Connell
Publicity Secretary: Martin Halpin
Treasurer: Joe Marrinan
Committee: S. Mulvihill, S.M. Collins, L. Collins, M. Collins, M. Lillis,
J. Lillis, J.Carney, J. Foran, M. Mangan, P. Quinn, J. Behan, P. Behan, W. McSweeney, E. McSweeney and T. Boland.
In early January, 1962, the Kilkee GAA club received an unexpected windfall when it received £420 from the exiles in New York for the benefit of the local sports field. The money was the proceeds of a function in New York, in 1961, and was sent to his native town by the Treasurer of the exiles Committee, Mr. Joe Marrinan, who had the honour of winning a Clare Senior Football Championship medal with Kilkee in 1928, prior to immigrating to America.
On a recent visit to Kilkee, Joe still was was helping his home club when he bought a lotto ticket with a 12 month subscription.
Thank for all the help Joe and may you rest in peace. R.I.P.
