Moran family generation game

It's a question that could cause a few furrowed brows and quizzical looks if asked in a quiz, whenever they get back up and running again.

Who won the Meath Minor Hurling Championship in 1925?

Only the most devoted and dedicated GAA buff is likely to come up with an answer straightaway; at least the correct answer.

However, Dunboyne man Peter Moran could pick up a bonus point or two because he knows the answer.

Not only that, he has a medal from that year's final to prove it.

The medal was won by his father Jack Moran who, by all accounts, was a very talented hurler and an exceptional man in many other respects.

Jack Moran was part of the Dunboyne team that defeated Killyon (3-2 to 2-2) that year to claim the MHC crown - and the medal is now a treasured family heirloom.

"It's a very important link with the past and it certainly means an awful lot to our family to have it," Peter Moran told the Meath Chronicle.

"My father wouldn't have been one to say much about his achievements. I just know that he won the MHC with Dunobyne in 1925 because I have the hard evidence, the medal, with his name on it, to prove it."

The 1925 success is part of three significant triumphs Moran family members achieved in the same competition.

While Jack was successful in 1925, Peter also won a MHC medal in 1969 with Ratoath who defeated Trim (3-4 to 0-2) in the decider.

Then in 2007 Peter's son Shane also repeated the feat - and maintained the strong family tradition - by helping Dunboyne to the MHC again, 82 years after his grandfather did the business.

It was a great day for the Morans and Dunboyne who defeated Kiltale (1-13 to 1-4).

"I was Dunboyne chairman in 2007 and the same day we won the u-21 camogie title," recalled Peter.

"We played the camogie final in Dunsany and then we had to go to Navan for the minor hurling final.

"My daughter Bronagh was on the camogie team and many of those players went on to represent Meath. Some are still playing.

"To this day I can't understand why the two finals weren't played in Pairc Tailteann," he added.

There were many aspects of Jack Moran's hurling career and life that were remarkable.

He was employed for over 50 years with the Boylans, working closely with both Sean senior and junior. The Morans lived across the road from the Boylan household in Dunboyne and Sean Boylan junior remembers Jack as a major influence in his life.

"Jack Moran was a great hurler and an extraordinary man who could turn his hand to any trade, he had gifted hands," stated Sean Boylan.

"I, and four of my five sisters, were born in our thatched house as it was then and Jack would thatch the house, he was an amazing man, gifted.

"He also had an extraordinary understanding of herbs. Some of the most valuable herbs we would have had, he would have got elsewhere and brought them home and, more importantly, got them to grow," he recalled.

"Jack was the most private man in the world. He also had great wisdom, if anybody asked him a question he would think about it before he gave an answer.

"He was particularly involved with my father. After the troubles (War of Independence and Civil War) people would be coming into our house looking to see my father and Jack would never tell them where he was. No matter who he was involved with he minded them."

One of the big influences Jack Moran had on young Sean Boylan was in regards to hurling.

Boylan recalls how the older man would set up a routine that involved firing slioters into buckets at various distances and angles.

"I came home from Warrenstown in 1961 and I remember Mick Reilly at one end of the field and Jack Moran at the other and I was in the middle hitting the ball to each other.

"From being a very ordinary player, within three months I was turned upside down in terms of the skills I had learned from men like that.

"We would fire 20 balls at the bucket and he'd move it to another angle, that's the way it was. His message was to do everything the right way."

In time Jack's son Peter and grandson Shane were to follow in his footsteps.