Stephen Hennessy – A Youghal Sporting Legend - Report by John Walshe

STEPHEN HENNESSY – A YOUGHAL SPORTING LEGEND

This article by John Walshe appeared in the Youghal/Midleton & District News

stephen hennessy

Stephen Hennessy

His athletics career may have been all too brief, but in a short few years in the late 1960s Stephen Hennessy achieved more honours at national and local level than most pack into a lifetime.

On a recent Tuesday morning, over a coffee in the Boardwalk on the Mall, as Stephen flicked through his beautifully-kept scrapbook the memories came flooding back of races, venues travelled to, and of the people who enriched his life along the way

It all began for the man from Sarsfield Terrace at the end of 1963, when he first commenced running. The following year, he joined the then-fledging Youghal Athletic Club. “Some of the people there at that time would be Paddy Coleman, George Walsh, Freddie Walsh, Mick Buckley, Mick Harty, Jerry Russell, my brother Christy and Raymond Carr,” he recalls. “My first year running was a big surprise to me as I came second in the Munster Youths to Donie Walsh and also second to Donie in the All-Ireland.”

Walsh - then with the Hilltown club, and later Leevale - would go on to become one of Ireland’s greatest runners and proved to be something of a thorn in the Youghal man’s side when again defeating him in both the 1966 All-Ireland Youths and Cork Novice championships. There was some consolation in the latter race as Stephen, along with Freddie Walsh, Mick Buckley and Michael Harty, took the club award

But all that changed a year later, as he explained: “I won the County Youths, Munster Youths and All-Ireland Youths and captained the Cork team, but my big achievement that year of 1967 was to beat the NACA champion John Buckley, and the AAU champion PJ O’Sullivan, in the All-Army senior cross-country.”

stephen henessy podium All-Ireland Youths Cross-Country, Tullamore, 1968. Stephen Hennessy tops the podium, with Richie Crowley, Blarney AC second, and third PJ Leddy, Ballinamore AC

This brought national attention to the 18-year-old from Youghal, as the following report by the knowledgeable John Comyn in the Sunday Independent relates: “One of the biggest shocks of the sporting year was the success of Cork’s latest prodigy, Stephen Hennessy, in the Army cross-country championships. Though still a youth, Stephen took on the top men in both associations and simply ran away from them over a very muddy course in the Phoenix Park. At 18 years of age, he must now rank as the top senior in the NACA and on form behind only Derek Graham and Tom O’Riordan in the whole country.”

Winning performance from Stephen Hennessy, at Frogmore Youghal, 1967

At the time, any member of the FCA – which Stephen joined at 16 - was eligible to run the Army championships. “It was Paddy ‘Waxer’ Daly who got me to join; I was a member of the C Company 23rd Battalion based in the Sluagh Hall, Midleton. In 1966, at 17, I won the All-Army mile at the Curragh in a time of 4:20, which was my fastest. I qualified to go to Switzerland to represent the Army but due to lack of funds they didn’t send a team.”

Another major achievement was to win the individual All-Ireland Army cross-country in 1967 and he was also on the All-Ireland winning team three years in a row. That was the year that the ‘split’ in Irish athletics was healed with the formation of BLE and Stephen created another bit of history the following season when he was a member of the Cork team to win the first BLE national cross-country title at Mallow.

His numerous victories while still a youth saw him named as the Evening Echo Sports Personality on a couple of occasions, the citation following one success reading: “Fair haired Stephen Hennessy of Youghal created a major sensation at Baldonnell, Co Dublin, on Sunday last when he won the All-Army Cross-Country Championship, beating the cream of the ‘over the country’ men in Ireland. This was undoubtedly the 18-years-old Youghal boy’s greatest achievement, for although he enjoyed great success since he first competed in this gruelling sport he was very little fancied in this particular race.”

To achieve such marvellous results at an age that would be unheard of today, was it natural ability or training that brought him to such a level? “I suppose I had the ability for running but I got the experience from the lads I trained with. When I started I was only doing three miles a day and then after a few months I went up to four miles and after that I was doing six miles a day. I used to train a lot on the strand which I found very good and I’d recommend it to anybody. I used to run in the soft sand for maybe a half-mile and then go down onto the hard sand for another half-mile and then back up to the soft sand. I found that gave me the strength and the power at the finish of a race to break away.”

Stephen also got great advice from the late Paddy Coleman who won Irish championships over 1500m and one mile, along with training partners George and Freddie Walsh. “We used to do between 10 and 15 miles a day and then every three or four months I’d run 26 miles to build up the stamina. I’d go off on my own on a Sunday morning from Jerry Russell’s garage almost to Talllow, and back home. I never used to look at the watch until I finished; I can’t understood today when I see people looking at their watch every few hundred yards.”

Although road races weren’t as prevalent as today, he notched up another significant victory on New Year’s Eve 1966 when coming first before his home crowd at the inaugural Youghal Round-the-Houses event which took place just before midnight. Another major fixture of the time was the Cork to Cobh 15-miler held in April. Here, Stephen Hennessy has another amazing tale to tell: “My disappointment there was one year I finished fourth. I had run 12 miles that morning in training when Jerry Russell said he was going up to Cork and would I run the race. He persuaded me to go and I maintained if I hadn’t run the 12 miles that morning I would have won it. I was third at one stage but was passed by Mick Molloy [1968 Olympian] before the finish.”

Towards the end of his running career, Stephen also played hurling and football with Youghal. On one occasion when Youghal were playing Cloyne in the semi-final of the U21 hurling at Castlemartyr, after the match he put on his running gear and ran the 10 miles home to Youghal!

Regrets - as the song says, ‘he’s had a few, but then again too few to mention’ – include not being offered an athletics scholarship like many of his contemporaries and also not to be given the opportunity to run overseas with the army due to lack of funds. “After I retired, I still ran for years but I could never show the interest that I had. I said what’s the point, I won what I won and I proved that I was able to run. I was happy that I had done something and I got a great sense of achievement out of it.”

The countless trophies and cups won by Stephen also served a purpose as he donated five or six boxes to his club-mate Willie O’Mahony from Gortroe who re-used them for some of the many under-age events he used to organise.

stephen hennessy youghal midleton news

Youghal and Midleton News

After working in Seafield Fabrics for 14 years, Stephen spent over 30 years in the army which included eight trips to the Lebanon. Today, he still retains a great interest in the sport he enhanced with such distinction over 50 years ago. He plays golf on his local course a few times a week and on alternate days walks a brisk four miles to maintain fitness.

And no doubt after some of those walks as he sits by his kitchen table that bulky green scrapbook is once again taken down as he re-lives those glory days when he brought such honour and enjoyment to his native town

Other Guest Articles by John Walshe

1972 Fermoy Cross-Country Championship Recalled

Midleton AC County Novice Cross-Country Team 1971

Donie Walsh - 1971 European Championships 10,000m Recalled

Willie O'Mahony has clocked the miles building East Cork Athletics

Memorable Youghal Road Race Took Place at Midnight on New Year's Eve

Midleton AC Virtual Club Challenge

Cork Cross-Country of 1980

Cork Marathon Magic in 1986 as Marion Lyons Wins

The 1985 Cork 800 Marathon

Tullamore Man Won First Cork Marathon

Pioneering Women of Cross-Country