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Canovee G.A.A. History.
Part 1

Canovee Gaelic Games, and in particular hurling were played in the Canovee area long before the foundation of the G.A.A. and Canovee had a hurling team of note in the middle of the 19th century.

Football became popular about 1880 and players from Canovee played with the Kilmurry Parish Team, which reached the County Senior Semi Final in 1890 and John Hinchon, Knockavullig and Con Moynihan of Bawnatemple were selected on the first Cork County Senior team.

The Parish team disbanded in 1893 and a new club called Carrigadrohid Castle Defenders was formed.
In 1896 the club changed its name to St.Johns and had its first success winning the Ryecourt Senior Tournament.

In 1897 St. Johns defeated Dohneys in the County Senior Quarter Final but had the game taken away on a technicality. Dohneys went on to reach the All Ireland Final that year. The sense of injustice was deeply felt and the club went out of existence.

St. Johns came back with a junior team in 1903, and in 1910 a united Parish team was re-established, this time under the Canovee name. This club was the last Parish team and disappeared around the time of the War of Independence.

Later a renewed interest in hurling saw a number of games played between teams from the eastern side "Fair Hill" and western "The Gravediggers". As a result of this the present Canovee Club was formed in 1932 as a hurling and football club.

The famous Kerry player of that the Jackie Ryan was a regular visitor to the area where his sister was postmistress and he coached the local players in football. The club soon became a football club only and the Canovee hurlers began to play with Cloughduv. In 1948 and 1949 Canovee fielded hurling teams and Cloughduv football teams and in 1949 Canovee and Cloughduv met in the Mid-Cork Junior Final. Since then Canovee have played football only and Cloughduv hurling.