John Lyons (hurler)

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John Lyons (1923 - 11 June 2005) was an Irish hurler whose league and championship career with the Cork senior team spanned fourteen years from 1946 to 1960.

Born near Blackpool in Cork, Lyons first played competitive hurling during his schooling at the North Monastery. Here he was a key member of the college team that completed the final two stages of winning four successive Harty Cup titles. Immediately after leaving school, Lyons joined the Glen Rovers senior team. In a club career that spanned three decades he won ten county senior championship medals, serving as captain of the team on two occasions. As a Gaelic footballer with the Glen's sister club, St. Nicholas', he also won a county senior championship medal. Lyons retired from club hurling at the age of thirty-eight following the Glen's failure to secure a fourth successive championship in 1961.

Having never played minor or junior hurling for Cork, Lyons made his debut on the inter-county scene at the age of twenty-three when he was picked on the Cork senior team for the first time in 1946. He won his first All-Ireland medal that year, albeit as a non-playing substitute, before later being dropped from the panel. Lyons was recalled to the team in 1950 and retained the full-back position for a decade, winning a further three All-Ireland medals in succession. He also won five Munster medals and one National Hurling League medal. Lyons played his last game for Cork in July 1960.

Lyons was moving towards the end of his career when he was chosen for the Munster inter-provincial team in 1954. He was a regular at full-back over the course of the next five years and won three Railway Cup medals.