Pat Gilroy and Mickey Whelan have returned to the life of club management.
Gilroy joined up with Dessie Farrell’s Dublin football set-up earlier this season as the capital looks to reclaim the Sam Maguire, with the former having previously led the team to glory in 2011.
In more recent times, Gilroy spent a season in charge of the Dublin hurlers in 2018, before work commitments prematurely ended his tenure.
St Vincent’s have now appointed him to be their senior hurling manager, and he will be joined by Dub icon Whelan — his long-time running mate.
Gilroy takes over the role from Proinsias de Poire, whose St Vincent’s side were beaten by 1-19 to 0-17 in the Dublin SHC quarter-final this year by Na Fianna.
The Marino club went through a dominant period locally in the football championship in recent times but have not lifted the hurling crown since 1993.
They most recently reached a county final in 2010, and have a team brimming with county experience in Rian McBride, John Hetherton, Conor Burke, Tom Connolly and rising star Darach McBride.
“A big part of me doing it was the fact that Mickey Whelan was quite interested in being involved coaching,” Gilroy said in 2014 of taking the Dublin job five years previously.
“I certainly wouldn’t have attempted to do it without him. He had so much know-how in that area and I just had none really in terms of the physical preparation and coaching of players at elite level. He had a good bit of experience and he was keen to do it.
“So in fairness to him, he managed me to win an All-Ireland club title and I felt I owed it back to him. He was keen to do it and he felt it would be good to do it with me.
“And I think it worked well in the years that we were there.”
