First Davin team to win a County Football title
Photo courtsey of Mr.Tom Norris

Carrick-on-Suir has a history of hurling and football going back to the 1800s when there were nine teams in the Carrick catchments area and consisted mainly of families and relations,games were played in the nine acre field and there were no regulation size of pitch usually the bounds ditch of fields there were also no set team numbers of players members a team could consist of up to thirty players a side.In 1914 a selection from Carrick-on-Suir won a title then the war came about and most of the teams players went like everywhere else in Ireland went to help our friends in far off lands win battles in 1918 the war ended and the lads came home heroes and fought battles of a different kind in the nine acre field and went on to win a second title and a dicision was made that the town of Carrick should have a team to represent Carrick-on-Suir in the Tipperary championships. Founded in 1922 and registerd as Carraig-na-Suire, the first club from Carrick to be affiliated to the then fledgling GAA our founder's John (Jack)Norris, P.J (Wacksey)Kenny, Jerry Shelly, Paddy Walsh, Willie Walsh,James Babington, Dennis(Dinny) Daly Duffy Murphy,Jack Mullins and others of whom three decendents are still directly involved in the club to this very day (can you name them!) laid the corner stone which was to be the foundation of a strong Gaelic tradition in Carrick-on-Suir which persist's to this day,their first meeting took place in Bridge Street in the premises of the late Mr.Francis Mullins jewelry and fishing tackle shop up stairs.

In the early year's there was a leaning toward's the Football side of the association and we wore Green and white jerseys borrowed from our neighbors Grangemockler until the thirties when we chose Cork red for our colors hence the nick name The Red Rebels in the early thirties we registered as The Davins in honor of the Davin brothers founders of the G.A.A and from that day to this our club is known as the Davins. within the club were many prominent exponents of the big ball code donning the county colours. It was therefore appropriate that on our 63rd and 80th anniversary the Davin minor teams won both (names of both teams will follow as soon as possible) South and County titles in football, a fitting tribute to the memory of those whose effort so many years ago enables The Red Rebels of today, to wear the Red and White of the Davins.

THE DAVIN'S
The upsurge of Hurling in the 1930's, saw many Davin players wear the blue and gold with distinction leis an cuman, notably Jimmy Cooney, Paddy Griffin, Pat O'Neill, Paddy O'Callaghan, Martin O'Toole, Eddie'O Reilly, Fran and Willie Roche and Mick Dwyer and as was previously said It was around this time that the suffix DAVIN'S was adopted by the club in honour of Maurice Davin, A native of the town and founder member of the GAA.and we took on the colour of Cork Red which brought about the name The Red Rebels of Carrick the powers that be at the time felt that nick name was causing controversy and tried to suppress it which they suceeded for a while but in 2005 it's back and we're back.Arais go dti 1932 an cumann agus an sloither started to come to the fore within our club and players were being chosen to represent the Blue and Gold in many grades and added to the Inter-County honours won by our players, names like Paddy"Harra" Cleary, Lal Holden, Tom"Senator" Murphy, John Mackey, Tommy"Tucky" Ryan, the irrepresible Tommy Foran and the ageless Sean Organ spring to mind some silky hurlers and a few who pulled where they thought the ball was.

HISTORIC ERA

We were however about to enter our most fertile and bountiful period of the club's History. This historic era heralded by the arrival on the scene of the precocious talent that was Mick Roche, Jimmy, P.J and Micheal Ryan,Nicky Butler,Jackie Walsh, Tom and Paddy Arrigan, Richie Walsh(rip) Michael(Mixie)Hassett,Con Broderik(rip) Tommy Waters, Noel Walsh, Brian and Seamus Kenny. In conjunction with some old stagers such as Stevie Cleary, Patsy Tobin, Ritchie Ryan,
the Pierce Cronin,Jimmy Roche and others, a County Junior title was annexed in 1963 and backboned by youngsters of the affore mentioned group, a South Minior title, 4 consecutive U21 South titles and in 1965 the First of 11 South Senior Titles in the space of fifteen year's.

1966 Senior Couny Champion's

The "Holy Grail" was captured in 1966 when home came the  Davin's with the "Dan Breen" cup. As Senior County Champions of Tipperary. Players, mentor's and suporter's tought they had reached the pinnacle but the best was yet to come! 1967 saw the retention of our County Senior Title and us being crowned "King's of Munster". As the First club from the County to win a Munster Senior Club Championship. Sucess for The Red Rebels led to even greater honour's on a national scale as witnessed by Mick Roche captaining Tipp. To Two Munster Titles and Munster to Railway cup success. P.J Ryan was the first and only player from a Carrick club to captain a Tipperary team to All Ireland glory, winning the U21 Hurling Title in 1967 andalso captaining Munster to victory in the Railway cup. Jimmy Ryan also won Munster and U21 All Ireland honour's and graced Croke Park in 68, having already won a Munster Senior Medal with Jackie Walsh who contributed handsomely to Tipp's U21 sucess in 1967.

Munster Club Final 1966

It would be too consuming to catalogue all the other's who wore the county jersey, but Paddy Arrigan, Brian and Seamus Kenny were also Davin players that served Tipperary with distinction.

JOG THE MEMORY

Just to jog the memory before leaving this era. I'll throw in a few names synonymous with the Davin club as mentors and players, Eddie"Knox"Lyon's, Micheal Hassett, John Walsh, Tom Roche, Willie Power, Willie Weston, Tony Blackmore, Nick Power, Brendan Mulvanney, Billy Mackey, Teddy Ryan, Harry Blackmore and Noel Walsh who played on all 11 South winning team's.

The 80s and 90s were not as productive, yet cousin's Paul and Ralph O Callaghan played inter-county at the highest level and Ritchie Ryan was a member of the Minor Football team who lost in the centinary All Ireland final.

South Intermediate Champions 1993/94

Antony Water's, Val Cronin and Conor Arrigan have all worn the blue and gold at Intermediate level. In 2002 our Minors won a South and County Football titles, a South Hurling title and were beaten in the county decider by the narrowest of margin's. 2005 we went that step further and claimed the County minor title in Semple stadium, our U21 were beaten in the Sth decider our Junior football team won Sth title and were beaten in the Co.decider and our Intermediate team won the South decider in a nail biting game to a good Fethard team, those three teams are backboned by the minor teams of 2002 and 2004 with some seasoned campaigners to steady the ship, this success coupled with the development of our Club augers well for the future of the Rebel Reds.

JUVENILES(THE LITTLE REBELS)

Our Juvenile record is sketchy but we are sure that we will develop as we go along

1970

we were south champions at U 13 grade and were beaten in the County semi final by Holycross

1972

saw our U 14 team win the win another South title and again were beaten in the County semi-finalby Cappawhite Davins 5-4 Cappawhite 6-4

1980

We won the South title in U 14 and were beaten in the County semi-final by Knockavilla Kickhams

1982

we had put together a good team with Sean Fleming goal a great stopper which a lot of people thought should have been given a chance on the County goal we had a full line of Bobby Fitzgerald Tommy Cooke and Paddy Power a trio that the mighty James Stephans people said they would not play the Davins ever again as our team were dangerous, the half line of Jimmy (Budda) Walsh Richie Ryan and Ramie Cooke(r.i.p) were as good as were in the County the half forward line Willie (the Wasp) Robinson (R I P) and Michael(Malachy)Fitzgerald fearless all rounder who given any number jersey was happy to be part of our team and a folk heroe of our club Mark Fitzgerald brother of Bobby and Malachy and their cousin on the full line was Steve Cleary nicknamed arses but a pain in the neck for anyone to mark, Peter Walsh another player that could be relied upon to play anywhere he was chosen, John Lyons and Pat (Mac)Sullivan and Declan Waters a troublesome mob for any team to handle again contested and won a South title in U 16 and were beaten in the County semi-final by Knockavilla Kickhams in very controversial circumstances where by we were more than holding our own and looked like we were in with a chance when at half time Knockavilla brought on a two subs who stood head and shoulders above everyone on the park the first act was when the ball was thrown in to "accidently" hit Richie Ryan in the in the mouth and as Ritchie was having a great game at centre back which the "accident"ended his game and was hospitalised,those two extrardinary players suffered the political disease of no recollection when asked for their names and age, when the club were asked for the team sheet they produced a slip of paper with names written on with the referee washing his hands of the whole affair. We objected and the objection was overuled on the grounds of a technicality we never got to know what the technicality was and the board were not obliged to explain such technical points until some time later when we were told that the club were a combination of Knockavilla kickhams-Donskeigh we had no doubt that they did not play the rules as did many more G.A.A.people we realy felt hard done by

We were in the doldrums at Juvenile for nearly ten years as we could not get anyone to look after the underage teams and without Juveniles where will the Minors come from and the knock on effect to the Senior teams as happened when we went five years without winning a gameup to 2003 this situation can never be allowed happen again in a proud club like ours.A little light started to shine in 1993 when after entering a C championships we won south titles in U 12 U 14 U 16 as there were no County titles in C grade we were happy to have made a south title

1999

Our U 12 team contested a B South final and won but were defeated by Kilruane in the County Final 2-0 to 0-3 things were looking up, emerging were players such as Philip Murphy,Noelie Butler,A.J.Cronin ,Michael Ryan,Richie MFEMFEM,Gerry Robinson,Steven Cronin,Michael Cronin, John Murphy,Allen Redmond,Shane Butler, a couple of years younger Lee Mackey, William O’Dwyer,Patrick Harris,J.J.Butler, Jonathen Coady, James Waters,Steven Harris,Ian O'Dwyer to name but a few, five of those young lads are currently involved in the County setup at Minor ,U.21 and Intermediate levels not since the late fifties have we had so much young promising talent coming through the ranks