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Bottom row L to R-Paddy Rankins, Aidan Downey, John Ramsbottom, paddy Fingleton, George Rankins, Donal Kearns (mascot), Billy Fitzgerald (C), Jimmy Rankins, Mick Fingleton Middle Row L to R-Brendan Fingleton, Joe Ramsbottom, Paddy Ramsbottom, Har Ramsbottom, Pat Leonard, Har Fingleton, Tom Leonard, Joe Fingleton, Back L to R-Harry Ramsbottom, Din Hickey, Dan Drennan, Jackie Kelly, Jim Leonard, Tom Fingleton, Pad Drennan.

With The Park Football Club flourishing in the area following its 1952 Senior Championship win; another notable movement was beginning to stir in the area. After years of men in the area hurling with surrounding Club’s, a group of men decided the time was right for a Hurling Club of their own, and so it was that the Ratheniska Hurling Club came to be. A junior hurling team was to be entered into the 1953 Championship and the Club would move on from there. 

The Officers elected at the first Inaugural Meeting of the Club were as follows,

President Fr Mulvahill  Secretary Kevin O’ Rourke

Chairman Paddy Cahill  Treasurer Jimmy Rankins. 

The Club was destined, as any fledgling Club would be, to taste defeat, before it could scale the heights. It wasn’t until 1958 that a title was to be delivered.  

The Club started off the year with a steely determination not seen in previous campaigns. Paddy Kerins took over the training of the team, ably assisted by his Selectors, Kevin O Rourke and Paddy Morrin, Kerins also introduced a schedule of training sessions three nights weekly. Billy Fitzgerald was appointed Captain and training took place at the time in Flynns field in Loughteague, and this particular year was one of the wettest in living memory. Players at the time recall slopping around sometimes in pools of water, longing to see the end of it! Such training was to stand the men in good stead however come the challenges ahead. 

The first round of the Championship approached rapidly and the team’s first hurdle was to be against Ballypickas in Abbeyleix. A tough first round encounter but in the end it was the Ratheniska men who advanced. Next up was a Colt side who many had fancied for County honours come seasons end. However nobody had seemed to inform the Ratheniska men of this and they despatched the favourites with ease and progressed to a semi final appearance. 

Borris in Ossory were the next opponents and by this stage, momentum had begun to grow, not only in the team itself, but also in the community. A bus was hired for the journey to the semi final venue in Mountrath and it was packed full of both players and indeed supporters. The match itself turned out to be a right ding dong struggle, semi finals they say are horrible things to lose, and it was evident here that neither side was ready to give way to the other without a fight. Victory was to be hard won, and it was the Ratheniska men whose noses were out in front when the Referee’s whistle blew for the last time, and the Club’s first final was reached. 

The final was to be a great occasion for the Club. Their first time at this stage in county competition and they were determined not to let it pass them by. Led from the front as always by Captain Billy Fitzgerald Ratheniska grabbed a hold on the game early on and were not about to release it for anyone. Firing a score of 2-7 to Derrymalogue’s 3-0 the Ratheniska men ran out deserving winners and victory was theirs at last.  

The cup was brought back home to Ratheniska that evening in a blaze of glory as all and sundry attended a dance in the local community hall to mark the occasion, and mark the occasion they did with festivities going on long into the night. The following Monday a celebratory dinner was provided by the local ladies committee, which included mothers, sisters and wives of the players. 

The panel on that great day back in 1958 was as follows: George Rankin, Pat Drennan, Har Ramsbottom, Billy Fitzgerald, John Ramsbottom, Joe Fingleton, Tom Leonard, Paddy Fingleton, Paddy Rankin, Paddy Fingleton, Har Fingleton, Jimmy Rankin, Brendan Fingleton, Dan Fingleton, Dennis Hickey, Aidan Downey, Mick Fingleton, Tom Fingleton, Jim Leonard, Joe Ramsbottom, Jackie Kelly, Dan Drennan, Harry Ramsbottom, Pat Leonard.​