Mike McNamara
| Personal information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Hurling | ||||
| Born | 1949 (age 67–68) Scariff, County Clare, Ireland |
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| Nickname | Mike Mac | ||||
| Occupation | Publican | ||||
| Inter-county management | |||||
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Michael "Mike" McNamara (born 1949 in Scariff, County Clare) is a retired Irish hurling manager and former player. He played hurling with his local club Scariff from the 1960s until the 1980s. McNamara is also a publican and night club owner in Scariff and served as manager of the Offaly and Clare senior inter-county teams.
McNamara was appointed manager of the Offaly senior hurling team in November 2002. In his first season in charge, his team lost to Wexford in the Leinster semi-final on a scoreline of 0–16 to 1–12. In the subsequent qualifying campaign, Offaly overcame Dublin and Limerick to qualify for an All Ireland quarter final against Tipperary. They lost this match 2–16 to 2–11 after a relatively poor display.
The following year, 2004, Offaly reached a Leinster final, only to be beaten by Wexford for the second successive year on a scoreline of 2–12 to 1–11. They were later knocked out of the qualifiers by Clare. Following a strike by the Offaly footballers which resulted in the resignation of their manager, Gerry Fahy on the grounds of lack of support by the county board, McNamara quit his post as Offaly hurling manager for the same reasons.
McNamara's first season in charge was a reasonably successful one. After a relatively lacklustre National Hurling League campaign, Clare were drawn to meet Waterford in the quarter-final of the Munster Championship and were installed as underdogs. An intriguing game developed, however, at the full-time whistle Clare had won by 2–26 to 0–23. The provincial semi-final pitted Clare against Limerick. While more was expected of the Shannonsiders McNamara's side had another relatively comfortable 4–12 to 1–16 victory. This win allowed Clare to advance to a first Munster final since 1999. Tipperary provided the opposition on this occasion, with Clare being regarded as underdogs once again. A close game developed in the second half as Clare ate into Tipp's lead, however, in the end victory went to Tipperary by 2–21 to 0–19. In spite of this defeat McNamara's side were allowed to advance to the All-Ireland quarter-final. Cork provided the opposition on this occasion, however, Clare went seven points ahead at one stage. Cork slowly fought back to eventually clinch a 2–19 to 2–17 victory. Thus ended Clare's involvement in the championship.
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