How Georgie Comerford played football for four counties and two provinces

George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford (1911-1988), a member of An Garda Síochána, played football for Clare, Louth, Dublin and Kildare, and for Munster and Leinster

Patrick Comerford

During my visits to Co Clare and Co Galway in recent weeks as part of this summer’s continuing ‘road trip,’ I have visited a number of houses associated with the Comerford family in places such as Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon, Kilfenora and Kinvara.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to revise and update my family trees for different branches of the Comerford family in Co Clare and Co Galway. However, one well-known Comerford in Co Clare, with family connections in Limerick, seemed to continue to evade my efforts to find his place on the family tree.

George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford (1911-1988) was a member of An Garda Síochána and was a well-known Gaelic footballer who is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer. He played football for four counties – Clare, Louth, Dublin and Kildare; and he played inter-provincial football for two provinces – Munster and Leinster.

Georgie Comerford was born in Whitegate, Co Clare, on 25 January 1911. But despite his name, he does not seem to have been closely related to two similarly-named contemporaries: George Comerford, who was a publican in Doonbeg, Co Clare; and George Comerford, whose father, Harry Comerford, was the station master in Ennistymon.

Instead, this Georgie Comerford’s father was Daniel Comerford (1866-1913), a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and his grandfather was John Comerford, a farmer in Loughtagne, near Stradbally, Queen’s County (Co Laois).

Daniel Comerford was born on 2 January 1866 near Stradbally. He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary on 22 November 1888 and was posted to Co Limerick on 29 June 1889. On 12 July 1898, Daniel married Mary Anne Murphy, daughter of Thomas Murphy, carpenter, in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick.

When he married, Daniel was transferred from Co Limerick to Co Clare, and he was an RIC constable, living at Ennis Road, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, in 1901 and 1906.

Daniel was promoted Acting Sergeant on 1 January 1908 and became Sergeant-in-Charge of Quin RIC Station. Later that year, he was transferred to Whitegate RIC Station and was promoted to Sergeant on 1 October 1909. He was Sergeant-in-Charge of Whitegate RIC Station in 1908-1913.

Daniel died on 24 October 1913, at Whitegate, Co Clare, and was buried in Clonrush. His family then returned to Miltown Malbay, where Mary Anne died on 20 December 1946.

Mary Anne and Daniel Comerford were the parents of seven children:

1, John Alphonsus Comerford (1899-1902), born Limerick City 2 June 1899, died 2 December 1902, buried Ballard, Milton Malbay.
2, Thomas Gerard Comerford (1900-1900), born 24 July 1900, died 27 August 1900.
3, Eleanor Maud (1901-1986), born Miltown Malbay 13 June 1901, died 1986.
4, Daniel Christopher Comerford (1903-1980).
5, Joseph Comerford (1905-post 1930), born Miltown Malbay, 4 May 1905.
6, Michael Henry Comerford (1906-1906), born Miltown Malbay 29 April 1906, died 19 June 1906.
7, George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford, the famous Co Clare footballer.

The eldest surviving son, Daniel Christopher Comerford (1902-1980), was born Miltown Malbay on 10 December 1902. On 4 August 1922, he joined the new National Army as an infantry private, during the Irish Civil War.

Daniel emigrated to New York in 1925 and lived there for at least five years before returning to Miltown Malbay. In the 1930 census, Daniel and his brother Joseph are recorded as living in Astoria, Queens, with their cousins the Furlongs.

Daniel returned to Co Clare and he married in Miltown Malbay on 7 June 1939 Emelia (Amy) Wilson (1907-2003), a daughter of Leonard Wilson (1867-1932) from Portadown, Co Armagh. Leonard joined the RIC in 1888 and was posted to Clare that year. He married Bridget McMahon (1865-1934) in Miltown Malbay and was posted to Co Limerick in 1898. While he was stationed in Limerick, Bridget ran the family business, Wilson’s Pub, on Main Street, Miltown Malbay. Leonard was promoted Acting Sergeant on 1 October 1902 and Sergeant on 1 December 1905. He retired in April 1913, and when he died on 10 April 1932, he was buried in the Church of Ireland churchyard in Miltown Malbay.

Sergeant Daniel Comerford’s youngest child, Georgie Comerford, was born in Whitegate, Co Clare, on 25 January 1911, and he was only two when his father died. He attended primary school in Miltown Malbay and secondary school in Ennistymon. Miltown won the first minor championship in Co Clare in 1924, and won it again in 1926 and 1927. Georgie Comerford was on all those teams and played with the Clare minors in 1929 when they won the All-Ireland.

He joined the Garda Síochána in the late 1920s. He was the only non-Kerry player on the victorious Munster Railway Cup team in 1931, when all other 14 team members were from Co Kerry. He was a member of the Ireland selection for the Tailteann Games in 1932, representing his native Co Clare.

He played in the All-Ireland final for Dublin at Croke Park in 1934, when Galway scored 3-05 to Dublin’s 1-09. He also won a Railway Cup medal with Leinster in 1935, this time representing Dublin.

As a garda, he was stationed in Athy, Co Kildare, for a number of years in the mid-1930s. He captained the senior championship winning team in 1937, and played for Co Kildare in the Leinster Final in 1938, when, for the second time in three years, Kildare were defeated by Laois.

When he was in his mid-40s, George Comerford played football for Co Louth and won a championship with Dundalk Gaels in 1945. In retirement, he returned to live in Co Clare. He died on 20 July 1988 in Miltown Malbay and was buried in Ballard Cemetery.

Updated: 17 August 2022

Georgie Comerford is remembered as as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer … he played for four counties and two provinces

Christ Church, Spanish Point: a ‘Mediterranean Gothic’ church in West Clare

Christ Church, Spanish Point, Co Clare … designed in a ‘Mediterranean Gothic’ style by William Henry Allen and built in 1927 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Spanish Point on the west coast of Clare, and the former Comerford Lodge, now Clare Cottage and once a Comerford family home, I visited Christ Church, Spanish Point. This church was built in 1927, and is one of the few Church of Ireland parish churches built in post-independence Ireland.

Although Christ Church is less than 100 years old, the history of the Church of Ireland in Spanish Point dates back to 1780, when Thomas Morony inherited his family’s lands in Miltown Malbay and Spanish Point, and moved from Limerick. He built a new house and turned to developing the area, building several public buildings and amenities.

At the time the first Church of Ireland parish church was in Miltown Malbay, rebuilt in 1804. Tourism was developing in the early 1800s, and people came to stay in Morony’s Atlantic Hotel and in the lodges in Spanish Point, and so a larger Church of Ireland community started to grow.

The parish church at Kilfarboy or Miltown Malbay and the surrounding graveyard were on an eighth century site. A 15th century church was replaced in 1804, but it was burned down in an arson attack on the night of 14 December 1922.

After the fire, rather than rebuild the church, parishioners and visitors formed a committee to build a new church at Spanish Point. While the church was being built, the dining room of the Rectory next door was used for Sunday services. At least two baptisms took place in the Rectory. The new committee included the Rector, the Revd David Elliott (later Canon David Elliott), several vestry members and house owners in the area.

Inside Christ Church, Spanish Point, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The church was designed by the architect and engineer William Henry Allen for the site in the Glebe Field beside the Rectory. The church was consecrated by Bishop Henry Edmund Patton of Killaloe on a sunny day in August 1927.

The architect William Henry Allen was born in Co Wexford at Merrion Lodge, William Street, Gorey, on 26 May 1871, the son of Dr John Burgess Allen. He studied for five years at the Royal College of Science, and received a Diploma in Engineering. He returned to live in Gorey in the 1890s, but moved to Ennis at the beginning of the 20th century. He was architect to the Diocese of Killaloe and Kilfenora until the 1940s.

Allen’s church in Spanish Point has been described as ‘Mediterranean Gothic’ in style. It has a two-stage tower with a concrete broach spire, a gabled porch, two-bay side elevations, a projecting vestry and a polygonal apse. There is a pitched and hipped clay red tile roof with cut-stone copings and two finial crosses. There are roughcast rendered walls, stepped buttresses, and a plat band.

Inside Christ Church, Spanish Point, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The inscription over the porch door quotes Psalm 100: 4, ‘Enter into his courts with praise.’ The date inscribed on the vestry gable is ‘1927’.

The church has timber matchboard doors, and the pointed arch openings with render architraves are filled with leaded and stained glass.

Families whose memorial plaques were destroyed in the fire in the old church five years earlier were invited to replace them with pieces of church furniture, stained glass and other items.

And so, apart from the pews, the new church was furnished in this way. For example, the altar was donated by the Morony family, who had donated the altar to Kilfarboy Church.

The three lancet windows above the altar in the chancel apse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

There are three lancet windows in the chancel apse at the east end of the church, donated by the Wise and Browning families. These are the work of the Jones and Willis studios of Liverpool and London and were installed in 1927. They draw specifically on the account of the Crucifixion and Resurrection in Saint John’s Gospel.

The larger, central window (2040 mm x 520 mm) shows Christ walking on water: ‘It is I, be not afraid’ (John 6: 20). This has been described as a Resurrection window, but Christ is without stigmata and the quotation is from tomorrow’s Gospel reading (John 6: 1-21), a setting long before the passion, death and Resurrection of Christ.

The two smaller windows (1640 mm x 520 mm) show angels with cymbals (north) and a harp (south). The words under all three windows read: ‘He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee’ (Psalm 91: 11).

The Resurrection window on the north side of the apse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The lancet window on the north side of the chancel apse (1940 mm x 900 mm) was donated by the Browning family. It is also by Jones and Willis ca 1930, and shows the Risen Christ (‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’, John 11: 25) with stigmata (John 20: 20, 27).

Christ is surrounded by four symbols of the Passion: the seamless tunic (John 19: 23), four nails, hammer and tongs, and the crown of thorns (John 19: 2).

Two angels below stand by the empty tomb (see John 20: 12).

The Ascension window on the south side of the apse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

On the south side of chancel apse, the lancet window (1940 mm x 900 mm) donated by the Browning family is also by Jones and Willis ca 1927. This window shows the Ascension (‘I ascend to my Father and your Father’, John 20: 17).

Christ shows his stigmata and is surrounded by four more symbols of the Passion: three dice (John 19: 24), a whip (John 19: 1), a lance (John 19: 34) and a wine-filled sponge on a branch of hyssop (John 19: 29), and a ladder.

‘The Call of the Disciples’ … a window designed by the Harry Clarke Studios (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A window on the south side of the nave (1900 mm x 880 mm) was designed by the Harry Clarke Studios in Dublin. It is dated 1959, and is in memory of Canon Elliott’s wife, Nellie (Evans), who died that year. It depicts the ‘Calling of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew’ (see Matthew 4: 18-22; Luke 5: 1-11; John 1: 35-42) – although only one disciple is present!

The words below, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4: 19), are placed above a lobster and a crab.

The three lancet windows at the west end are by the Watson studios in Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

At the west end of the church, three lancet windows dated 1900 were donated by the Barrington, Morony and White families. The wording on the plaque below indicates they were salvaged from the church in Milltown Malbay.

These windows were made by the Watson studios in Youghal, which also made the windows in Sant Finbarr’s Oratory in Gougane Barra, and the Crowley family windows in Saint Patrick’s Church, Millstreet, Co Cork.

The larger, middle window (2230 mm x 510 mm) depicts Christ as the Light of the World. It is based on William Holman Hunt’s Pre-Raphaelite painting and draws on images in the Johannine writings (see John 8: 12, 9: 5; Revelation 3: 20). Two angels below hold a scroll that says, ‘I am the light of the world’ (see John 8: 12, 9: 5).

A vision of the heavenly kingdom in one of the Watson windows (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The smaller window on the left (1840 mm x 500 mm) shows Christ blessing the Children. The words below say: ‘Suffer little children to come unto me’ (Matthew 19: 14; Mark 10: 13; Luke 18: 15). Christ is blessing one girl, but above his right shoulder adults are following children into the kingdom, and above his left shoulder are some sheep, showing that this too is the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11, 14). In the top panel is an idealised image of the heavenly kingdom.

The smaller window on the right (1840 mm x 500 mm) depicts the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). The words below say: ‘Go do thou likewise’ (Luke 10: 37).

The spire of Christ Church was repaired in 2014, thanks to generous fundraising throughout the community in Miltown Malbay and Spanish Point.

Looking out from the vestry in Christ Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Canon David William Matthew Albert Elliott (1885-1972), the Rector of Spanish Point when Christ Church was built, was ordained deacon and priest in 1910 and 1911. After curacies in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, and Ballingary, Co Limerick, he became Rector of Kilfarboy (Miltown Malbay) and Kilmanaheen in 1922.

Kilfarboy and Kilmanaheen parish was united with Kilfenora, Ennistymon, Lisdoonvarna and Lahinch in 1931, and Canon Elliott was a canon of Killaloe Cathedral from that year until he retired in 1965. He died in 1972.

Later, Spanish Point was added to Drumcliffe Union of churches, centred on Ennis. Today, the Rector of the parish is the Revd Kevin O’Brien.

There are weekly Sunday services in Christ Church throughout the summer months (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

There is a Sunday service in Christ Church, Spanish Point, every second and fourth Sunday in winter months and weekly in summer months, alternating between Morning Prayer and the Eucharist.

The churchyard at Kilfarboy, with a gate on the Flag Road, Miltown Malbay, is still in use today.

The churchyard at Kilfarboy in Miltown Malbay is still in use (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)