Rising Brownstown star is an All-Ireland champion

Brownstown’s Conor Raleigh captured the U16 All-Ireland Poc Fada title on Monday August 4, on Annaverna in the Cooley Mountains, Co Louth.

Completing the course in 25 pucks, Conor squeezed out Galway’s Oran Stratford by five metres to take the title. Well done to Conor and his team of spotters on a fantastic achievement.

Conor is a talented hurler and scored 3-8 for the Clann na Gael (Brownstown/Castlepollard) U14 hurlers in their championship final victory over Clonkill last year. Conor is a dedicated hurler with the Clonmellon club and his talent has not gone unnoticed

Alan Mangan, manager of the Castletown Geoghegan senior hurlers, was speaking about the achievement on the Iarmhí TV podcast on Monday evening and he was full of praise for the rising star.

“He is a phenomenal hurler and a player with a great attitude as well as wonderful skill. He has a powerful strike and the great thing about this is he is underage again next year for the U16 grade, which is remarkable,” he said.

“I know him quite well as he competes at the same age group as my young son, and he’s a seriously talented hurler. The Leonard family are steeped in Brownstown and his dad played for Meath for a long time - it’s great that he has thrown his lot in with Westmeath.”

Meanwhile, Pat Burke of Ringtown and Patricia Coote of Southern Gaels also competed in the Senior Hurling and Camogie competitions, with Pat finishing 11th and Patricia in sixth. All of the Westmeath competitors can be pleased with their displays, but Conor Raleigh’s success will go down as a noteworthy achievement.