Special day for Laura

LAOIS camogie team may have travelled to Croke Park with some small degree of confidence on Sunday, but by no means cocky. They had beaten their opponents in the round robin stage but still fresh in the minds was that one-point loss to Tipperary at the same stage last year.

Last year’s championship final was one of three finals they lost last year – National League, Leinster and All-Ireland - and each one by just a single point. And it was Sunday’s opponents who inflicted that League defeat.

This was the day to bury those ghosts, get revenge against Armagh and bring home the All-Ireland crown to Laois. And boy did they do it in some style. For three-quarters of the game picking a winner was near impossible. Laois would go ahead, Armagh would come back before Laois might get the upper hand again. This was how the game would play out until Laois finally took control in the final quarter.

Oh yes it was a day to remember and a day to celebrate.

And for one of the Laois players it was a not only a special day, but also a unique one.

Laois’s corner back was one named Laura Finlay. Laoura’s great grandfather And great granduncle were on the only Laois team to win a senior All-Ireland title, the hurlers of 1915. Exactly 90 years agon Tom and John (Jack) Finlay were instrumental n bring that All-Ireland title to Laois and Ballygeehan.

Jack was captain and played alongside Tom in the half-back line.

Tom was later to move to Dublin in 1924 joining the Kickhams club winning many honours. He also won a second All-Ireland medal with Dublin in 1924, one of three Laois men who were in the Dublin side, the others being Din O’Neill and Ned Tobin.

It is not many families who have won All-Ireland medals by those separated by four generations.