The Origin of the Name Starlights   (Extract taken from Sean Whelan's book "The Ghosts of Bygone Days")   In Enniscorthy, the Duffry Gate area of the town is a place of proud history for inhabitant and non-resident alike.  It was the start of the ancient Dubh Thíre (or “black country”) which five hundred years ago stretched out from the river crossing that was Enniscorthy in a dense carpet of oak forest between the river Slaney and the Blackstairs mountains.  The Duffry has strong links with one particularly inspiring episode of the 1798 Rebellion involving the taking of that side of the town by rebels moving behind a herd of cattle.  A gate at the Duffry did actually exist at one time, said to have hung on one of the area’s most famous institutions, The Corner. Manhattan, Marrakech or Moscow may have their own corners but as far as the people of the Duffry are concerned there is only one Corner, where the “latest” is debated . And that’s their Corner. And if you ever want to bump into a few old ghosts of bygone days, that’s certainly the place to meet them.   Within yards of such town landmarks as St Aidan’s Cathedral, The Fairgreen and Pig Market Hill, and with a magnificent panoramic view of distant Vinegar Hill across the Slaney Valley, it takes its name from the original Irish stretching out westwards from the town to the wooded countryside at the foot of the Blackstairs. In days gone by, localised affinity was worn like a badge, and not just on the outside.  Residents of many neighbourhoods grow up with such loyalty, but in this context for an Enniscorthy-ite to be able to say they are a “Duffry Gate-er” seemed to carry a hidden resonance all of its own. (But there again, perhaps I’m slightly biased in this instance).   A starry night over the Duffry eighty-one years ago this year was the setting for the birth of a sporting legend in the county. On that particular occasion, the night sky shone brightly over the Murphy home at number 3 Lower Duffry Gate.  Jimmy Murphy was a tailor by trade, and his skills helped eke out a living for he and wife Charlotte and their young  family of Ben, Nick, Jimmy Jnr., Mary Anne, Kathleen and Bridgie.  Jimmy Jnr and his friend Joe O’Brien were standing in Murphy’s doorway on the night that “every star in the heavens seemed to be shining”. Jimmy recalled the story that would be told and lovingly re-told a million times over down the years that followed: “Everyone was poor that time and people hadn’t much. But all the chaps around wanted to start a team “for the Duffry”. There was always a crowd of us sitting around the fire in our house and the talk was often about starting a football team of our own. Joe Brien and myself were standing in the doorway of our house, talking away.  Then it suddenly came to us and we wetn back into the house and told the rest of the boys. It was settled – the new club would be called The Starlights”.   Another version of this story it should be recorded was that it was Duffry old-timer Mick “Boney” Mythen who was supposed to have been the inspiration for providing the club with its unique name, offering a choice of “Starlighters” or “Moon-lighters”. Jimmy Murphy’s brother Ben quoted the Mythen story in later years, but it was the Joe O’Brien/Jimmy Murphy version that was told by Starlights club’s first secretary Jimmy, a meticulous man in every way who gave me his clear-cut recollection on several occasions.