Iron Man’s sporting life littered with epic feats
“Maybe in the world,” he retorts, without raising an eyebrow.
“I’m afraid of nobody,” says the famous sportsman Mick Murphy and he means it. He sits defiantly in his modest home where he was conned out of a substantial amount of cash by a silver-tongued shyster, less than two weeks ago. And, though now a quite stiff 78-year-old, he’s still not a man to be trifled with.
“I could give a punch all the time,” says the pensioner who throughout his colourful life has been known as the ‘Iron Man’, mainly for his feats as a top racing cyclist. He was also a farm labourer, construction worker, boxer, circus performer and a wrestler.
The ‘Iron Man’, who was in his prime in the 1950s and ’60s, is back in the news again because he wants to make people aware that professional conmen are preying on vulnerable people, such as himself. He has had two visits from such tricksters in recent weeks — the second was not successful — and gardaí in Kerry are investigating.
He lives in an old house on a bleak, but beautiful hillside, near Caherciveen. His few worldly possessions, including newspaper clippings and photos from his glory days, are all around him in plastic bags and cardboard boxes. He apologises for the clutter. “There’s a reason for it. I can just sit down and reach out for whatever I want,” he explains.
Mick won the national cycle race, An Rás Tailteann, in 1958, and also became known for his natural diet and training methods — ahead of his time, some would say.
When the race would arrive at a stage end town, he would always inquire if there was a gym available. If not, he would cycle out into the country until he came across ditches with heavy stones he would use for weight-lifting.
He still has an iron bar, with concrete blocks for weights at either end, which he uses in his home.
In his sporting heyday, his diet consisted of raw steak, raw vegetables, nettles, hawthorns, up to eight pints of milk per day and a half-dozen eggs, also raw. Other performance-enhancers included honey and glucose.
But it was something far more odd that had people talking — doses of cow’s blood. “I’d go into a field and draw blood from a cow’s neck, or legs, with a sharply pointed instrument like a penknife. Cows were all over the place in those days and were very quiet — some of ’em would lick you when you were taking the blood,” he recalls.
“Athletes drank cow’s blood thousands of years ago. It’s a massive food, very powerful. If I hadn’t taken the blood, I’d be dead by now, because I worked and trained so hard.”
Though somewhat reclusive, the ‘Iron Man’ loves company and talks at a rate of 100-words-a-minute, telling stories of his days as a hod carrier and bricklayer in London and Germany and as a professional darts player when he lived the high life for a few years, until his money had gone.
In the circus, he was an acrobat. He says he could walk for up to a mile — and up a ladder — on his hands.
“I was also into magic. I nearly caused a riot in Covent Garden once after cutting a woman in half. You know that trick. That was real magic. What you see now on television is a fake,” he says.
Mick keeps up with the world through radio and newspapers. He got a TV set for the 1972 Olympic Games, but gave it away some years later and has not had a set since then.
He accepts that age has caught up with him, saying his joints are simply worn out, and walks with the aid of a stick.
Throughout his life, he has been guided by a homespun philosophy which he calls ‘the law of averages’ and believes people’s wrongdoings come back on them.
He remained single and has no regrets about his life during which he was penniless at times. “There were ups and down, but when days darkened for me, there was light on the other side. Something always opened up for me.”
One of his unfulfilled ambitions is to have a book written about his life. With the stories he has to tell, it would certainly be worth a read.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
