11/08/2026
The club are saddened to learn of the passing of Rev. Jim Byrne - The Man Who Changed Half Way House Bunclody Forever
Half Way House Bunclody GAA club extends its deepest sympathies to Rev. Jim’s family, relatives, fellow clergy and his many friends.
The passing of Very Rev. Fr. Jim Byrne marks the loss of a man whose influence on Half Way House Bunclody extends far beyond football matches, medals and trophies. For generations of people in this parish, Fr. Jim was a priest, mentor, coach, community leader and friend. Few individuals can genuinely be said to have changed the direction of a club. Fr. Jim did.
A proud Gusserane man with football deeply ingrained in him, Fr. Jim arrived in Kilmyshall on Monday, 10th January 1966. He initially became involved with the adult junior footballers before making a decision that would ultimately transform Gaelic games in the parish, he would concentrate on the young players and build from the ground up.
To understand the scale of his impact, it is worth considering where the club stood before his arrival. Bunclody’s only championship success since the foundation of the GAA had been the Junior Football Championship won by the Bunclody Insurgents in 1913. During Fr. Jim’s 15 years in our parish, that story changed dramatically.
He was a selector on the junior football championship success in 1968, while at underage level his teams won six Rackard League titles and two Under-12 titles, as well as contesting numerous other finals. This included an unprecedented four-in-a-row of Rackard League titles from 1971 to 1974 adding further titles in 1976 and 1979, which became the foundation for everything that followed. Indeed, a newspaper report recalling that period described it as the era which marked the “dawn of Bunclody as a serious force in Wexford G.A.A.”
The boys Fr. Jim coached became the backbone of successful Half Way House Bunclody teams for years afterwards. His students went on to contribute to three Minor Championships, three Under-21 Championships, four Junior Championships, one Intermediate Championship and two Senior Championships.
The club awarded him its highest honour the Testas Omois at the club Dinner Dance in 2007 and held a wonderful Appreciation night on the 5th June 2023 in the Horse & Hound in Ballynaboola in which Fr. Jim was given a guard of honour as left the function room by over 160 people in attendance, some having travelled across the globe to be there.
The wonderful collection of memories assembled for Fr. Jim’s Appreciation Evening captures what he really meant to those young players. They remembered being collected for training in his Triumph Herald, his meticulous and no-nonsense coaching and his determination to ensure everyone got the opportunity to participate. Others recalled bottles of orange and bars of chocolate after important victories and the countless journeys to training and matches.
His famous instruction before matches summed up the standards he demanded: give everything “From the Word Go!”
Fr. Jim taught young men how to catch and kick a football, but his influence went much further. He taught teamwork, discipline, commitment, friendship and pride in representing your community. The children he coached became players, mentors and parents themselves, passing those values to another generation. The same family names from those teams of the 1970s can still be found throughout Half Way House Bunclody today.
That is his greatest legacy.
More than half a century later, the foundations Fr. Jim laid remain visible throughout our club. His contribution helped change what Half Way House Bunclody believed it could achieve, while his kindness, humour, competitiveness and dedication left an impression on countless young people.
Perhaps the words used when his former players gathered to honour him sum up the esteem in which Fr. Jim is held in the parish better than anything else:
“To us in Bunclody he was Moses and he brought us to the Promised Land.”
Funeral Arrangements
Fr. Jim will repose at Cooney’s Funeral Home, New Ross (Y34 FK44) on Friday, August 14th from 2pm, with removal at 7pm to St. John the Baptist Church, Gusserane.
His Funeral Mass will take place on Saturday, August 15th at 11am, followed by burial in Terrerath Cemetery.
Family flowers only, with donations, if desired, to The New Ross Community Hospital.
A great priest, a great GAA man and a great friend to Bunclody has gone to his eternal reward, but the legacy he created will live on in our club for generations to come.
Go raibh maith agat, a Athair Jim.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
The club will perform a guard of honour - details to be posted later.
