LI-STBY-0883

Record Date: 
28 February 2013
Graveyard: 
Stradbally
Exact wording of epitaph: 

IN
LOVING MEMORY OF
MICHAEL (MICK) MACKEY
ARDNACRUSHA
DIED 13-SEPT. 1982
HIS WIFE KATHLEEN
DIED 19-AUG. 2003
AGED 89 YEARS

R.I.P
ERECTED BY HIS LOVING
WIFE AND FAMILY

Memorial Type: 
Headstone
Grave location
County: 
Limerick
Latitude: 
52.708534722222
Longitude: 
-8.5051113888889
Additional details
Stonecutter/monumental sculptor: 
P J RYAN NEWPORT
Number of people commemorated: 
2
People commemorated: 
Name: 
MICHAEL(MICK)
Surname: 
MACKEY
Date of death - day: 
13
Date of death - month: 
September
Date of death - year: 
1982
Address: 
ARDNACRUSHA
Name: 
KATHLEEN
Surname: 
MACKEY
Date of death - day: 
19
Date of death - month: 
August
Date of death - year: 
2003
Age: 
89
Relationship with first person: 
WIFE
Notes: 

Mick Mackey was born in Castleconnell, County Limerick in 1912. He was born into a family that was steeped in the traditions of the game of hurling. He played hurling with the famous Ahane club from 1930 until 1948 and was a member of the Limerick senior inter-county team from 1930 until 1947. In a senior inter-county career that lasted for seventeen years he was the star player on the team during Limerick's golden age of hurling. Mackey won three All-Ireland titles, five Munster titles, five consecutive National Hurling League titles and eight Railway Cup titles with Munster. In 1980 he was the first recipient of the prestigious All-Time All-Star Award. Mackey was also posthumously honoured in 1984 when he was named, by popular opinion, in the centre-forward position on the Hurling Team of the Century. He was named in the same position on the Hurling Team of the Millennium in 2000. He officiated at games as a referee and as an umpire and he trained the Limerick side, known as “Mackey’s greyhounds,” that defeated favourites Clare in the 1955 Munster final. The Mackey Stand at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds is named in his honour. Mick Mackey died on 13 September 1982. His funeral was one of the biggest-ever for a sportsperson in Ireland with thousands coming to Castleconnell, not alone from all parts of Limerick, but from the heartlands of his traditional rivals, Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny. A statue to him has been erected on a stone plinth in the heart of Castleconnell village.