Liam Fennelly (born 1 January 1958 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, Ireland) is an Irish retired sportsperson.
He played hurling with his local club Ballyhale Shamrocks and was a member of the Kilkenny senior inter-county team from 1981 until 1992.
The fifth eldest son of Kevin Fennelly and the former Teresa Hoyne, he was born into a family that had a huge interest in the game of hurling.
[1] His skills were also honed on the family farm where he, along with his six brothers – Michael, Ger, Kevin, Brendan, Seán and Dermot – trained.
[2] By 1978 the new club had reached the top of the local hurling world and Fennelly played a key role as Ballyhale captured their first senior county title.
Once again Ballyhale Shamrocks reached the All-Ireland final where the star-studded St. Finbarr’s club from Cork provided the opposition.
Ballybrown stormed into a six-point lead in the middle of the first-half before Fennelly scored a goal in the twenty-fourth minute.
In 1982 Fennelly tasted his first major victory with the senior outfit when he captured a National Hurling League title.
After a close seventy minutes of hurling Kilkenny emerged victorious by just two points and Fennelly collected his first Leinster winners’ medal.
Fennelly’s brother, Ger, captured a third goal in the second half as Kilkenny completely trounced ‘the Rebels’ by 3-18 to 1-15.
He began the year by capturing a second consecutive National League victory before lining out in the Leinster final against Offaly.
Once again Kilkenny dominated the game, assisted by a strong wind in the first-half, and hung on in the face of a great fight-back by Cork.
‘The Cats’ bounced back in 1986 with Fennelly collecting a third National League medal before playing in the provincial decider against Offaly.
After a defeat in the provincial decider of 1989 Fennelly won a fourth National League medal in 1990 before his side were back in the Leinster final again two years later.
With seconds left in the game ‘the Dubs’ were winning by a single point, however, a last-gasp goal sealed a 1-11 to 0-13 victory for ‘the Cats’.
Another nail-biting win over Antrim in similar circumstances set up an All-Ireland final meeting with Tipperary, their first championship encounter in twenty years.
The opening thirty-five minutes saw both sides trade score-for-score, however, a controversial 2-metre free, miss-hit by Michael Cleary, landed in the net and gave Tipp a lead which they never surrendered.
In 2010, Liam Fennelly was selected as full forward on the Kilkenny 125yrs team - organised through the 'Kilkenny People' newspaper.