Tipperary GAA County Board are saddened to learn of the death of former Tipperary player Rory Leahy. A nephew of the late Paddy Leahy and brother of Seamus Leahy (Clonmel), Rory played against Clare in the first round of the minor hurling championship in 1942 but the championship was abandoned due to wartime restrictions and was not resumed until 1945. He was under age for the two years during which no championship was held.
In 1943 Rory was on the Munster Colleges team which won the All-Ireland and in the same year he was on the Tipperary senior team which won the 4 Counties League, a competition which was intended to give counties some games at a time when the National League had been discontinued. In 1944 he was again on the Tipp team which won the same competition. In 1946 he was on the Tipp team which beat Galway in the Monaghan Cup in London.
As a club player Rory alternated between Nenagh and Boherlahan and before moving to work in Kuwait in 1947 he won a county championship with St.Mary’s, a London club.
Rory moved to Canada in the late 1950s and long after he had settled in a small town in the Rocky Mountains he discovered that it was the last home of Joseph O’Ryan, one of the seven men who had attended the meeting at which the GAA was launched in 1884. It gave him great satisfaction when a ceremony was held at the grave last year which was attended by GAA representatives from across Canada.
The Tipperary GAA County Board would like to send our heartfelt condolences to the Leahy family at this difficult time.
By Jonathan Cullen Fri 3rd Oct
