Br Larry Ennis celebrates big milestone in home county
Coralstown native Brother Larry Ennis will be returning to his home county on Friday August 17 for a special family event in Bloomfield House Hotel to mark the 70th anniversary of him leaving home to become a Christian Brother.
Brother Larry was born in May 1933, in Hightown, Coralstown, the eighth child of Elizabeth and James Ennis. He attended Knockaville Primary School, just up the road from the family farm, and later attended St Mary’s CBS in Mullingar for one year before, at 15, leaving home on August 17, 1948 to join the Congregation of the Christian Brothers in Marino.
His life has been distinguished as dual-player, teacher – not least as a celebrated maths teacher – and as administrator, and as a GAA football and hurling manager. His talent for organisation became apparent when he was a first year pupil in St Mary’s, Mullingar, where he set about organising a Street League for the town. The team he captained, Mount Street, won the cup.
After his Profession, Larry (Brother Finian) moved to Belfast, where he trained as a teacher at Queens University. He was to spend his working life in Ulster, starting at Omagh CBS in 1957, apart from some years as principal of a transformational school St David’s in Artane, Dublin, in the ’70s, where he modernised facilities adding a swimming pool and ancillary sports facilities for students.
Before his time in Dublin, he spent a number of years teaching in Belfast at the Glen Road CBS and during that period trained the Antrim Vocational Schools Hurling Team, All Ireland winners in 1971.
On his return to Belfast, he became manager of the St Theresa’s Senior team who won the senior county championship in 1979, and before that the Junior and Intermediate Championships.
During the turbulent ’70s, Larry also helped to organise the temporary re-settlement in Waterford of Belfast families forced to flee their homes at the height of the Northern conflict of the day.
In the 1980s while in Armagh CBS, Larry managed Pearse Ógs, a club that won the senior football championship in 1985 and 1988. He became manager of the Armagh minor football team, which had a number of future senior All-Ireland winners among its ranks and won the Ulster Championship in 1992 and 1994, as well as losing the 1992 Minor All-Ireland final.
Larry’s name is associated with the schools MacRory Cup in Ulster. His involvement stems from his time in St Mary’s, Belfast, and while in Omagh CBS he managed the teams that won the MacRory in 2001, 2005 and 2007. He was also manager and advisor to the team that won the Schools Hogan Cup in 2007.
Over the years, he played no small part in mentoring players who were to become Senior All Ireland medallists, including the late Cormac McAnallen, Sean Cavanagh, Colin Holmes, Philip Jordan, Ryan Mellon (all Tyrone) and Diarmuid Marsden, Paul McGrane, Ronan Clarke and John Toal (Armagh).
While he was in Omagh CBS, the team were considering a change of jersey, and looked to the manager, who chose the maroon of his native county for them! Rumour has it too that he played under a nom de plume for club and county elsewhere.
He follows the fortunes of Westmeath footballers and hurlers, male and female, at club and county level, in the pages of the Westmeath Examiner every week.
For his services to the GAA, Br Larry was made honorary Ulsterman of the Year twice in Gaelic circles. He served as chairman of the Ulster Colleges Gaelic Games for 20 years and represented the Ulster colleges nationally. When he retired from active involvement, following a successful quadruple heart bypass, his face was still a familiar one for years presenting the MacRory Cup on BBC NI on St Patrick’s Day.
Larry has been the recipient of many awards and presentations throughout his involvement with Gaelic games and their organisation, including the President’s Award.
Retired now, with other brother colleagues and living in Dun Laoghaire, Larry makes a return visit on August 17 next to the county he left some 70 years ago to join in a celebratory family meal in the Lynnbury Suite, Bloomfield Hotel, to commemorate the day he left home – August 17, 1948.
The world may have changed a lot in the seven decades since he left his native county, but Br Larry certainly made a positive and lasting contribution wherever he went.