THE LEE FAMILY have a long association with the Newcastle West club in Limerick. And their combined input is a major reason for why the team is enjoying such sustained success at the minute.
They’re three-in-a-row champions at home, and they fell just short of ending a 35-year wait for Munster glory last year. The Limerick giants will take another step towards bridging that gap if they can emerge from a Munster quarter-final against familiar rivals Clonmel Commercials of Tipperary this Sunday.
The Lee fingerprints are all over this ongoing rise. Jimmy Lee, the newly appointed Limerick football manager, is at the helm of the club’s senior football and hurling sides.
He’s joined in the backroom team by his brother Joe. Their sister Margaret is the club’s chairperson while another sibling, Billy, is also a Newcastle West stalwart. He’s currently occupied with managing the Austin Stacks footballers in Kerry, but he was on co-commentary duty with a local media outlet last weekend when Newcastle West picked up a third consecutive county championship.
They’re the first club to achieve such a feat since Treaty Sarsfields went back-to-back-to-back between 1973 and 1975.
Newcastle West are on a run of 21 unbeaten games in the Limerick championship, and last year, they were on the brink of a Munster title before Kerry’s Kerins O’Rahilly’s spoiled their charge at history. En route to the provincial final, Newcastle West shocked competition favourites Clonmel Commercials, and now they have a sequel to look forward to this weekend.
The Lee family have served their club well throughout each of those milestones, helping their local teams to soar with values they learned from a young age.
“Our mother gave us the love of the town and advised us to do what we can to help people out,” Billy Lee tells The42.
“My brother Joe has been secretary, Jimmy has been the chairman and now Margaret is the chairperson. My mother was treasurer for years. It all stemmed from her really, there’s no other way to put it. And our love of the town.”
Located just over 40km outside Limerick city, Newcastle West is an area that has been expanding for the last 20 years. GAA, football and rugby are vibrant sports in the community, and there is often competition for the rising talents who show promise with both the oval and round ball.
There’s an impressive athletics facility in the locality too; so impressive, that An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was in town recently for the official opening of the Limerick Regional Athletics Hub.
The production line is in constant flow around Newcastle West.
“Jimmy has been the manager of hurling and football for the last two years,” Billy says, looking more closely at the make-up of the GAA club, which is roughly equal parts hurling and football.
“That’s really important with a dual club because then one man is responsible for both sets of players. He’s able to mind them when they need minding, and that’s not always easy. The set-up they have is good and it has worked. The hurlers have been going well and were unlucky not to qualify for the semi-final of the premier intermediate so the structure is good. It’s always been 50/50 really down through the split.
“A lot of work has gone into the club by a lot of people over the years. It has developed a lot of the young lads that have come through. 10 or 11 players have gone since they won in 2021, and they still have enough talent coming through.
“People are working hard on the hurling side of things as well, and it’s paying dividends. We’re seeing a lot more of our young lads playing at minor and U20 level with Limerick in hurling, which we wouldn’t have had for a long time going back to the 80s.”
They don’t have long to soak in their three-in-a-row triumph. Seven days is a quick turnaround for a team to switch from county to provincial championship mode.
Additionally, Newcastle West had some fixture trouble to wade through this week, with a stacked list of game beginning on Friday with an U21 hurling match. A re-fixed Junior Football final against Feenagh Kilmeedy was to follow on Saturday, before the trip to Thurles for the Clonmel showdown on Sunday.
Such a pileup of games would surely cause some irritation due to the knock-on effect on player availability.
“The junior team have lost a number of players arising from Sunday’s game but they’ll take that game on on Friday,” Billy Lee explains.
“The lads will want to go and support each other because they all train together. It’s just made it a bit difficult.”
Jimmy will be following in Billy’s footsteps when he assumes the role of Limerick manager, a role which his brother occupied the role for six years before stepping down in 2022. Former Limerick boss John Brudair is part of Lee’s inter-county backroom team, along with Pat Donnelly and Stephen Kelly.
“Jimmy would be a shrewd operator and he’d know when to play the cards,” Billy says.
“He just had a quick call with me to inquire what I thought and would he be able for it? I certainly don’t want to encroach on that when he’s trying to forage his own way. The last thing he needs is me ringing up asking questions all the time. He knows where I am if he wants to bounce anything off me. He’s got a good management team around him.”
Lee cautions that Clonmel Commercials will be smarting from the lick they got from Newcastle West last year, and will be eager to give them a hostile welcome in Semple Stadium this weekend. There’s still some way to go before it can happen, but if Newcastle West manage to surpass their efforts in 2022, they would become the first Limerick club to capture a senior Munster title since Dromcollogher-Broadford in 2008.
Another historic feat with a Lee signature at the bottom.
“Clonmel had possibly nine inter-county players and had won a Munster senior championship not too long before that,” Lee recalls. “To beat a team of that calibre with that level of player, was a huge occasion for the club. We got a huge sense of belief that we’re not too far off the mark.
“It’s trying to go back and repeat that on Sunday. The consistency of doing that is where the challenge always lies.
”We need to get off to a good start. That’s never easy, I don’t care what county you’re in. That’s the key to it. Between here and Sunday is critical. And then get a foothold in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game, and go from there.”
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