Turlough Carr - a busy year for club, school and county - and more to come

What a year it has been for the Four Masters minor captain, Turlough Carr. On New Year’s Day he played his part in Four Masters retaining their Ulster minor club title. The Mac Rory Cup final was next on the list with Abbey VS before making his senior club debut with Four Masters.

By the end of the year he was named on the Democrat Team of the Senior Championship, lost out narrowly in the Ulster U-20 final and on Monday last lifted the Division 1 Minor championship once again as captain.

“It is very special. It’s a great bunch again. What it is for me is that we have had such a great bunch of players four years in-a-row. That’s new boys coming in.

“It’s not even as if it was the same sort of players playing at the same time. Only four of us have been involved in the four in-a-row.”

Carr, despite now being a marked man, continues to be central to whatever team he plays for as a playmaker. It’s what makes him special, being able to control a game and rarely will he give the ball away.


Four Masters minor celebrate their win Picture: Matthew Harvey

On Monday the minor final against Glenswilly was close for 20 minutes but then Four Masters hit 3-2 in a blistering four minute period with Carr among the goalscorers.

“The goals really won the game for us there. It was a tight day (for football); very slippy conditions and towards the end it got a bit messy. But we got the goals and we knew about Glenswilly; we knew they were a team that wouldn’t give up, they would go to the final whistle. But we knew we had them buried after them goals.”

Conditions were not conducive to good football but despite that Four Masters racked up a score of 6-10.

“It was very slippy and I didn’t have the metal studs with me so it was worse. It was tight to hold on to the ball. But we have very good hands in the team. Tomás (Carr) caught a few very good balls and the ball did stick. It stuck to Conor (McCahill) and he gave in great ball. 

“He set up good scores and Thomas Lenehan got firing then. Whenever the attention is on McCahill, it’s the boys like him that stand up now and it just shows the depth we have in our squad.

“We have a lot of depth in the panel. It’s a 20-man game for us. I think we were able to make subs and that was a great boost.”

As well as the long list of teams and competitions mentioned above that Turlough Carr has been involved in this year, there is also the county U-21 competition at the moment and he is also playing Freshers football with DCU in Dublin.

“I haven’t really had a break this year at all but it’s going to keep going too. I’m carrying a bit of knock there today but you just have to go through it.”

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Next weekend it will be back to U-21 action and there is the small matter now of defending their Ulster minor crown looming.  And no doubt Jim McGuinness will be calling.

“It’s going to be a big few games in the U-21s now because obviously we were short numbers down in Termon (last Saturday). We’ll be looking to kick on now that we have all our panel back.”

And as for the Ulster club: “We’re looking for three in-a-row in that and this will be our fourth year going up there. We really enjoy it because it’s a great tournament and well run. We’ll be motivated for that as well,” said Carr.