St Finbarr's mourning club stalwart Bertie O'Brien 

He skippered the Blues to glory in both codes during a glorious era for the Togher club. 

Bertie O'Brien, who has passed away after a long illness. 

The death has occurred of St Finbarr's club legend, Bertie O'Brien. 

O'Brien was the only player to skipper the Barrs to both hurling and football county championships.

A former pupil of Scoil Neasáin, Sullivan's Quay he went onto win eight senior county championships, six Munster medals and four All-Irelands with the Blues. 

A football goalkeeper, he was Billy Morgan's understudy with Cork for several seasons. 

He skippered the Barrs to hurling success -- part of a famous double -- in 1980 with victory over Glen Rovers in the showpiece. 

The all-conquering St Finbarr’s team of 1974-75 who beat Fenians of Kilkenny in the All-Ireland Club Final. Bertie O’Brien is back row, third from the left. 

And he later captained the Blues' footballers to county glory in 1982 as part of another double, thanks to victory over Duhallow in the final. 

After many years involved with the club as a coach and administrator -- he was awarded clubman of the year in 2019 -- O'Brien battled illness for the past decade. Though St Finbarr's run to both county finals last year was a welcome fillip.

“It has been a bad year for me healthwise," he told the Irish Examiner's Eoghan Cormican in September, "but as often as I can, I get out to Togher to watch training. It does perk you up meeting the members of the club and of course the players. And it definitely perks you up when you see them winning.” 

“This club is a great club, even if we were down for a little while. It is just fantastic to think that here we are again, the one club in the county that can come up with the possibility of having two county senior champions.”

Funeral arrangements can be found  here.