GAA loses one of the great scribes with death of Downey

Paddy Downey, whose death took place yesterday at the age of 84, was one of Ireland’s best-known and respected sports journalists, whose vivid prose and expertise on Gaelic games enriched the pages of The Irish Times for over three decades.

He was a native of Toormore, near Schull in West Cork and the last surviving founder of the GAA All Stars scheme, started back in 1971.

He was a familiar figure at venues all over the country as the paper’s Gaelic games correspondent, dating from 1962 until his retirement after reporting on the All-Ireland finals of 1994. Previously, he had worked with the defunct Evening Mail in Dublin.