Walsh, Richard (‘Droog’) (1877–1958), hurler, was born December 1877 at Rathkieran, Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny, second son among seven children of William Walsh of Rathkieran and Anastasia Walsh (née Quinn) of Ballygorey, Mooncoin, both of farming stock. He was educated at Carrigeen national school. Walsh's family moved to Main St., Mooncoin. Walsh is one of only three hurlers to captain three winning All Ireland senior hurling teams. He was on the 1907 Mooncoin selection that defeated Dungourney (Co. Cork) by a single point, on the 1909 Kilkenny side that defeated Thurles (Co. Tipperary) by six points, and on the 1913 Kilkenny team that defeated Toomevara (Co. Tipperary) by five points. The 1913 match was the first fifteen-a-side final and also the first final in which Kilkenny wore the famous black-and-amber vertical stripes, which became the official Kilkenny colours. Walsh also won four other senior All Ireland hurling medals: in 1904 with Tullaroan (Co. Kilkenny) when Cork lost by one point; in 1905 with Erin's Own, when Cork were again the losers (this time by 13 points); in the so-called ‘substitute’ final of 1911 when Kilkenny defeated Tipperary by five points; and in 1912 when Tullaroan defeated Cork by a single point. With three team-mates (Sim Walton (qv) of Tullaroan, Jack Rochford (qv) of Three Castles, and Dick Doyle (qv) of Mooncoin), Walsh held the record of seven All Ireland senior hurling medals (won over a ten-year period) until it was broken in modern times by the Cork hurler Christy Ring (qv).
Walsh's nickname ‘Droog’ came from a ballad, ‘The bold dragoon’, which he sang on formal occasions. Walsh was unusual because in a long playing career (lasting until 1915) he never played for any other club but his native Mooncoin, with whom he won three Kilkenny championships (1906, 1908, 1913), and because he was never on a losing Kilkenny team in an All Ireland final. He is reputed to have been the first person to call publicly for the hurling ball to be coloured white for the convenience of spectators. In 1908 he captained the Leinster side that won the Railway Shield outright. In 1915, at the age of 38, Walsh played for Kilkenny against Laois in the Leinster senior hurling semi-final at Tullamore, which Kilkenny lost by a point; the previous year he had captained Kilkenny when they defeated Laois in the Leinster final by a point. As late as 1924, when aged 47, Walsh turned out for a veterans side at Kilkenny, and in 1925 he trained the Waterford side defeated in the Munster final by Tipperary after the first ever GAA collective training session, lasting a week in Dungarvan. His long hurling career finished, ‘Droog’ Walsh returned to farming and fishing. He died, unmarried, in Kilkenny Hospital on 28 July 1958 of natural causes.