I was saddened to note the death of the legendary Colum (Colm) Corless of Kinvara and Galway hurling fame earlier this week.  The Connacht Tribune have a nice piece on him in this weekend's edition (aside: amazing the amount of athletics/running/road race stories in its pages).  Colum played minor hurling in 1940 for Galway, who were beaten by my beloved Limerick on the way to our only All-Ireland Hurling Minor/Senior double.  He played in the infamous All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final of 1953 (see Galway team in main image) which is still much talked about around these parts as the one that really got away in those barren years between 1924 and 1979!  He played right up to the 70s for his native Kinvara, where he was buried this week.  See also here.

He was also a very good master runner and many old-timers will remember him as a very successful one for years after his hurling career finished. 

The only time I met the man was in 2004 after the Loughrea 5M.  The result (XLS and DOC) of that race is attached here for completeness.  I spoke to him very briefly after he had finished in a little over 50 minutes, at 82+ years of age. 

It was the era before digital photography became ubiquitous as otherwise I would have done my best to get my photo with him.  I think he soldiered on for a while longer as I always looked out for his name in any published results.

May he rest in peace.

JAL.