Mickey Byrne, Irish hurler, Died at 93

  Sports

Mickey “the Rattler” Byrne was born on September 10, 1923, in Dublin, and died on October 16, 2016.

He was an Irish hurler who played as a right corner-back for the Tipperary senior team.

He had first excelled at hurling whilst at Thurles CBS.

Byrne arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Tipperary minor team.

Byrne joined senior team for the 1945 championship.

He went on to play a key part for the next fifteen years, and won four All-Ireland medals, four Munster medals and seven National Hurling League medals.

He represented the Munster inter-provincial team at various times throughout his career, winning one Railway Cup medal as a non-playing substitute in 1955.

Whikle he played for his club, he won a record fourteen championship medals with Thurles Sarsfields.

For most of his career, He made 34 championship appearances, which in his day was considered to be a significant career total given that in some seasons in the 20th century, teams might expect no more than one or two appearances in the Championship, nontheless, in a period when there was no opportunity to re-enter the Chamopionship following a defeat in the early stages of competition.

Byrne announced his retirement from inter-county hurling following the conclusion of the 1959-60 National Hurling League.

He was widely regarded as one of Tipperary’s greatest ever players.

Byrne has been repeatedly voted onto teams made up of the sport’s greats, including at right corner-back on the Tipperary Hurling Team of the Century.

He won a Railway Cup medal with Munster in 1955.