Reg Treacy’s Great Britain honours cap presentation.
From left to right: David Taylor (Church of Ireland VP), Derek Treacy (Reg and Jean’s son), and Jean Treacy (Reg’s widow).
Ireland has been on the FIH international hockey scene for the past half century and more. Before that of course the Home Countries annual competition was one of the most hotly contested hockey tournaments in our sport.
However, in the middle decades of the twentieth century the other great competition in men’s hockey was the Olympic Games. Because of the historical ties between Ireland and Great Britain, Irish players were able to play for GB in that era and a total of 19 men did so, winning a total of 110 caps. Consider that in those years there were many fewer international matches and GB fixtures only involved with the Olympic Games.
THM is trying to find all the 581 men that have represented GB from 1920 up to the Tokyo Olympic Games. With the help of our friends in Ireland who are collating their hockey history, we are finding the descendants of those 19 Irish players.
Recently, a wonderful presentation took place to the family of Reg Treacy who was the last of the 19 Irish men to play for GB, playing four times in the mid 1960s. Reg was a lifelong member and stalwart of the Church of Ireland Club. The presentation took place at the Club’s home, the Garryduff Sports Centre in Cork. Some 60 family, friends and ex-teammates were in attendance on 23 March to see Club Vice President David Taylor present Reg’s GB honours cap to his widow Jean.
Reg was also the first Irish player to represent his country 50 times and he was one of the first group of inductees to the Hockey Ireland Hall of Fame in 2006. After his long and successful playing career he went on to run the youth coaching at Church of Ireland for over 35 years. A true hockey stalwart.
Thanks are due to Reg’s nephew Shane Treacy for his support with the presentation and this article.
Useful links
Reg Treacy, inductee of the Irish Hockey Hall of Fame
Biographical article on Reg’s Treacy, from the Cork newspaper Echo Live
