By the time the Gormanston training camps were into their third year,they had become immensely popular, with players from all hurling counties – weak and strong – vying to get on the much-coveted courses.  Here’s what Ned Power himself had to say about Gormanston in an article from the Dungarvan Leader in 1996:

Gormanston 1965; All smiles before a typically competitive practice match

The Gormanston courses started in 1965 and continued into the late seventies when the GAA bureaucrats decided they had outlived their usefulness. I was there for all of them and will never forget them. Each year seemed to surpass the previous year in enjoyment. Gormanston College is a massive Franciscan second level institution in County Meath some 30 miles north of Dublin. The college possesses every possible educational and recreational facility. Besides dormitories with accommodation for over 300, there is ample provision of private rooms, classrooms, television rooms, language laboratory, a large refectory, a magnificent swimming pool and a beautiful chapel where we occasionally responded to the urge to acknowledge God’s munificence to us. The outdoor facilities could hardly be bettered with charming walks through the spacious grounds (we hardly took any notice of them!), several fine playing pitches, a handball alley with covered spectator accommodation, an athletic cinder track to championship standard and a testing nine hole golf course within the confines of the college complex.

Note the reference to “GAA bureaucrats” deciding that the courses had outlived their usefulness.  Opinion is divided on this one. From the point of view of the GAA heads and of many of the organisers (my father excepted), demand for the courses died away to a point where the Gormanston model had become obsolete and new shorter courses were brought to the clubs around the country.  For others I spoke to, including my father, Justin McCarthy and Diarmuid Healy, it was a scandal that they were stopped and many see the falling numbers attending as a result of a lack of enthusiasm of administrators around the country rather than a lack of demand from people willing to improve their knowledge of hurling.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.