Keady Lamh Dhearg lift Jimmy Carlisle Cup after eight-year Armagh Senior Hurling Championship drought
Team captain Conor Renaghan praised the resilience of the squad and thanked the Keady community for their unwavering support in winning back the Jimmy Carlisle Cup after an eight-year wait.
Following Keady Lamh Dhearg’s dramatic 0-17 to 0-15 victory over arch rivals Middletown in the Armagh Senior Hurling Championship final, team captain Conor Renaghan delivered an emotional speech upon lifting the Jimmy Carlisle Cup at the Box-It Athletic Grounds.
The speech carried massive weight for the club, marking the end of an agonising eight-year wait and providing profound relief after Keady suffered the heartbreak of losing the previous five consecutive county finals to the exact same opposition. Renaghan, a cornerstone of the county’s senior hurling team, spoke heavily on the sheer resilience of the squad, acknowledging the immense psychological toll of those deciders and praising the players and management for holding their nerve when Middletown mounted a late second-half comeback.
A central theme of the celebration was stopping Na Fianna from achieving an unprecedented eighth consecutive title, with the captain graciously acknowledging Middletown’s historic seven-year reign while celebrating the return of the cup to Keady. He also dedicated the victory to the tireless work of manager Niall Arthurs, the coaching staff, and the club volunteers who kept the faith through nearly a decade of near-misses.
The raw emotion of Renaghan’s address was fuelled by how tightly contested the match was, as Keady initially found themselves in an early 0-5 to 0-1 hole before a masterclass performance from Man of the Match Conor Corvan—who scored 0-7—dragged them back into a narrow 0-8 to 0-7 halftime lead. Late points from Shea Harvey and Renaghan himself proved decisive before Corvan slotted over the insurance point to spark wild celebrations.
Noting that facing disappointment year after year and finally getting over the line was incredibly satisfying, Renaghan stressed that breaking the drought was life-changing for the Keady community, whom he explicitly thanked for their unwavering support in winning back the prize that had so painfully eluded them.