Limerick\u2019s Declan Hannon, the most successful captain in All-Ireland SHC history, has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.<\/p>\n
The Adare man, who lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup five times in six seasons between 2017 and \u201922 and turns 33 next month, confirmed his decision via a statement on the Limerick website on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
In an illustrious career that began when he debuted as a 17-year-old in 2010, Hannon claimed five Celtic Crosses, seven Munster SHC medals (2013, 2019-24), six as captain, including the inaugural Mackey Cup in 2022. He also led Limerick to two Division 1 titles in 2020 and \u201921.<\/p>\n
Afforded the captaincy by John Kiely in 2018, that appointment combined with his switch from attack to centre-back where he won three All Star awards \u2013 \u201818, \u201921 and \u201922.<\/p>\n
A knee injury sustained in the 2023 Munster final win over Clare ruled him out for the remainder of the championship but he was invited by playing captain Cian Lynch to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup when Limerick defeated Kilkenny.<\/p>\n
After guiding his county up the steps of the Hogan Stand in 2018, bridging the 45-year gap to Limerick\u2019s previous All-Ireland success, and in \u201920, \u201921 and \u201922, Hannon was replaced by Lynch as full-time captain this past season.<\/p>\n
Hannon didn\u2019t play in this year\u2019s National Hurling League and his championship appearances were confined to the dead rubber final Munster SHC clash with Clare and a substitute\u2019s appearances against Cork in the Munster final and Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final.<\/p>\n
His statement read: \u201cFollowing 15 years of representing Limerick, I have made the decision to retire from inter-county hurling. It has been one of the greatest honours of my life to wear the Limerick jersey, to represent my county, and share the highest of highs with people I love. Hurling has been a major part of my life since I was a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt tested me, it humbled me, and it gave me moments I will carry in my heart forever. It has been one of the greatest honours of my life to wear the Limerick jersey, to represent my county, and share the highest of highs with people I love.\u201d Hannon thanked his family, his wife Louise, friends, club-mates, sponsor JP McManus, Noreen and their family, the Limerick County Board and the county\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n
He paid particular tribute to Kiely. \u201cI want to thank John Kiely in particular. You instilled a belief and confidence in our group as both people and players that empowered us to achieve what we did. I will be forever grateful to you. I will miss you all, you will always be in my heart. I wish you every success for 2026 and beyond.\u201d The Limerick management and county hailed Hannon in a joint offering: \u201cDeclan has served his county with great distinction for the last 15 years, making history in captaining the team for a record number of All Irelands and Munster Championships and becoming the first Limerick man to lift the Mick Mackey Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeclan has worn the jersey with pride and excellence throughout his career. His leadership was quiet and understated, exemplified by his relentless drive to be the best he could be and to help those around him be the best that they could be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team always came first with Declan. He always led by example, assured and at ease in the midst of the chaos of championship hurling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Limerick\u2019s Declan Hannon, the most successful captain in All-Ireland SHC history, has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,129,19,17,13889,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-137538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-hurling","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limerick-gaa","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}