Jimmy Brohan

Infobox GAA player
code= Hurling
sport = Hurling


name = Jimmy Brohan
irish =
fullname = Jimmy Brohan
placeofbirth = Ballintemple
countryofbirth = Cork
dob =
dob =
height =
nickname =
county = Cork
province = Munster
club = Blackrock
clposition = Corner-back
clubs =
clyears =
clapps(points) =
clcounty =
clprovince=
clallireland =
counties = Cork
icposition = Corner-back
icyears = 1950s
icapps(points) =
icprovince = 1
icallireland = 0
allstars =
clupdate =
icupdate =

Jimmy Brohan (born 18 June, 1935) is a former Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Blackrock and with the Cork senior inter-county team throughout the 1950s.

Early life

Jimmy Brohan was born in Ballintemple, Cork in 1935. The fourth child in a family of seven, he was educated locally by the Christian Brothers at Sullivan’s Quay. Here Brohan played both hurling and Gaelic football. He played on the school’s Harty Cup hurling team for five consecutive years, starting out as a goalkeeper but later becoming a back. In 1952 and 1953 Brohan was chosen on the Munster Colleges hurling team which played in the inter-provincial competition every year. He won two All-Ireland colleges’ medals in both those years.

After leaving school in 1953 Brohan worked with Dunlop’s in Cork until its closure in 1983. Other Cork greats who also worked there included Johnny Clifford and Willie Murphy. Brohan later worked with the Customs Service.

Playing career

Club

Brohan played his club hurling with the famous Blackrock club in Cork. In 1956 the club, with Brohan playing a key role, won the senior county championship for the first time in twenty-five years. Another county title followed five years later in 1961. Brohan also enjoyed some success with the St. Michael's football club.

Inter-county

Brohan first came to prominence in the early 1950s on the Cork minor hurling team, however, in both 1952 and 1953 Cork were defeated by Tipperary in the early rounds of the Munster Minor Championship. At the end of 1953 Brohan made his senior debut in the National Hurling League. He duly impressed the selectors and was subsequently called up to play in the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway. Brohan was replacing the injured Tony O'Shaughnessy and had a good game, however, O’Shaughnessy returned for the All-Ireland final and Brohan was left on the bench as Cork claimed victory over Wexford.

In 1955 Brohan was suspended for the entire Munster Championship because of his failure to turn up for a county championship football game. In spite of this setback he returned in 1956 to collect his first Munster title. The subsequent All-Ireland final ended in disappointment for Brohan as Wexford defeated Cork in a thrilling game. The rise of Waterford and Tipperary hurling in the late 1950s and early 1960s led to a very lean decade for Cork hurling. Brohan continued to play well into the mid-1960s, however, he never won a second Munster Championship title. He also won a Munster junior football medal in 1957 and lined out once for Cork’s senior footballers.

In spite of this lack of championship success Brohan won six Railway Cup medals with Munster’s hurlers in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1963. In a Gael-Linn sponsored poll in the Irish Independent in 1961, Brohan was named in the right corner-back position on a hurling team considered to be the best ever.

Unique style of play

Brohan had a unique style of play, often described and tidy and economical. This was best illustrated by his defensive stategy which made him one of the most famous exponents of the batting skill in hurling and he often delighted the legions of Cork supporters in the 1950s and 1960s by batting away the ball to great distances out of defence to the frustration of opposing forwards. This was a tactic which was not very well developed or used to effect by his contemporaries and he duly deserved his reputation of being master of this particular skill which was best employed in a tight entanglement which did not allow room for the full natural hurley swing more conducive to loose marking and open play.

Retirement

Following his retirement as a player Brohan became involved as a selector with the county hurling team. He was involved with the teams that won the All-Ireland titles in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1986. In the latter year Brohan had the pleasure of seeing his nephew, Tom Cashman, captain Cork to victory.

Family sporting associations

Two of Brohan’s brothers also had sporting success playing soccer in the League of Ireland.

Teams