Mick Kennefick

Mick Kennefick

Personal information
Irish name	Micheál Ciniféic
Sport	Hurling
Position	Left wing-forward
Born	Cork, Irish Free State
Club(s)
Years	Club
1941-1944	St. Finbarr's
Club Titles
Cork titles	2
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County	Apps (scores)
1942-1944	Cork	8 (3-6)
Inter-county titles
Munster titles	2
All Irelands	2
NHL	0

Mick Kennefick (1924–1982) was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club St. Finbarr's and with the Cork senior inter-county team from 1942 until 1944. Kennefick captained Cork to the All-Ireland title in 1943.

Playing career

Club

Kennefick played his club hurling with the famous St. Finbarr's club in Cork. He was only out of minor ranks when he won back-to-back senior county championship titles in 1942 and 1943. These were Kennefick’s only county victories.

Inter-county

Kennefick’s skill as a hurler was soon spotted and he quickly joined the Cork minor hurling team. In 1941 he won a Munster winners' medal in that grade before later lining out in the All-Ireland final. Galway provided the opposition on that occasion, however, Cork were the victors with Kennefick collecting a coveted All-Ireland minor medal.^[1]

In 1942 the minor hurling championship was cancelled due to ‘the Emergency’, however, Kennefick joined the senior panel at the age of seventeen. In his first game in the Munster Senior Championship he was given the almost impossible task of marking Limerick’s Mick Mackey, one of the all-time greats of hurling. He succeeded in this task and later collected his first senior Munster title. Cork later qualified for the All-Ireland final with Dublin providing the opposition. Cork took a 1-7 to 2-1 lead at half-time and held on to win the game by 2-14 to 3-4. It was Kennefick’s first All-Ireland medal.^[2]

In 1943 Kennefick, at the age of eighteen, was appointed captain of the Cork senior hurling team. That year he guided his native-county to a 2-13 to 3-8 defeat of Waterford and collected his second consecutive Munster medal. The subsequent All-Ireland final saw Antrim provide the opposition. It was the first time that a team from Ulster had qualified for the championship decider. The economic reality of the war saw an unusual exchange take place prior to the game as Kennefick presented a quantity of tea to Antrim captain Jimmy Walsh, who in turn handed over butter to his opposite number. The game, however, turned into a rout. Cork took a 3-11 to 0-2 lead at half-time and went on to claim the three-in-a-row on a score line of 5-16 to 0-4.^[3] It was Kennefick’s second All-Ireland winners' medal, while he also had the honour of being one of the youngest captains ever to collect the Liam McCarthy Cup..

By this stage Kennefick had come to be regarded as something of a teenage prodigy, however, his story is one of the great ‘might-have-beens’. In the first-round of the 1944 Munster Championship Kennefick’s wrist was broken by Tipperary player James Ryan. The injury proved detrimental to his career as Kennefick never played for Cork again.

Provincial

Kennefick also lined out with Munster in the inter-provincial hurling competition. He first played for his province in 1943. On that occasion he collected his first and only Railway Cup winners’ medal as Munster defeated Leinster.

Death

In retirement from the game Kennefick maintained a keen interest in the game. He lived to see his son-in-law, Jimmy Barry-Murphy, win three of his five All-Ireland hurling titles with Cork in the 1970s.

Mick Kennefick died in 1984.

References

1. ^ Donegan, Des (2005). The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games. DBA Publications. p. 30. 
2. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 349
3. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 349

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jack Lynch	Cork Senior Hurling Captain 1943	Succeeded by Seán Condon
Achievements
Preceded by Jack Lynch Cork)	All-Ireland Senior Hurling winning captain 1943	Succeeded by Seán Condon Cork)

Teams

Persondata
Name	Kennefick, Mick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1924
Place of birth	Cork
Date of death	1982
Place of death