‘Anthony always remembered his club and school’
Noel Murphy, then chairman of the Irish selectors and team manager, managed to catch up with Anthony at Shannon to break the news every player dreams of.
Speaking from his hospital bed in Cork, Noel said: “The young back row was waiting to catch a flight from Shannon to Dublin for a training session. It was January 1995.”
Noel, who is recovering from knee surgery in the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, said his sadness is made deeper as he cannot make it to the funeral.
Noel said yesterday: “That phone call back in 1995 was the first of many occasions when Anthony was named to play for Ireland. I remember Anthony as a young kid when I brought him into the Irish side. He was raring to go at such a young age. It’s so sad really that he has passed away so young.”
In his autobiography, Anthony Foley wrote about the same phone call from Noel Murphy: “Naturally at first I thought it [phone call] was a wind-up by Gaillimh [Mick Galwey] when I heard the announcement at the airport for ‘Anthony Foley to pick up the nearest courtesy phone’ — this was in the days before everyone had mobiles. I found a phone just in case and the voice at the other end of the line wasn’t Gaillimh’s. It was ‘Noisy’ [Noel Murphy], a man for whom I will always have enormous affection, and not just because of what he had to tell me then. I’d be making my Ireland debut against England at Lansdowne Road the following week, a blind-side flanker. Holy God. Ring home. Quick.”
Noel, who will be 80 next February, said yesterday: “There have been so many great words written and spoken about Anthony in recent days and his contribution to Irish rugby and Munster rugby, I don’t know if many more can be spoken by me.
But something I will always remember Anthony for was that through all of his career, he never forgot his club, Shannon, and his school, St Munchin’s. He always remembered his club and school, and what it meant to him to play for Shannon and St Munchin’s and the vast contribution they made to him as a player. That is my memory of Anthony.
“When many people move to the top, they can often forget who brought them there, but Anthony never forgot. Anthony’s father, Brendan is such a lovely man, a thorough gentleman; a great Shannon man, great Munster man and great Irish man. It’s so sad. That’s life.”
