Book honours Kerry visionary

ONE of the greatest Kerrymen of all time is how Pat O’Shea describes Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan, a true visionary in the field of sport and medicine, who shares with Mick O’Dwyer the distinction of training eight winning All-Ireland teams — except that he achieved it over a period of 38 years!

O’Shea makes the comment in Weeshie Fogarty’s book, “Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan — A Man Before His Time,” launched in Killarney last night, saying he was a “hugely iconic figure”.

“A kind of mythical figure to our younger generation, Dr Eamonn was a man who came and did something unbelievably extraordinary, with the successes he had and all his achievements,’’ he wrote.

O’Shea (incidentally the first Dr Crokes man to train Kerry since the late Dr Eamonn) is one of a huge number of people interviewed for the book, which features previously unpublished accounts of Dr Eamonn’s life — written by himself — dealing with not just his football involvement, but his career as Resident Medical Superintendent (RMS) of St Finan’s Hospital in Killarney.

One of the recurring themes is the vision he displayed in regard to the training and preparation of Kerry teams — truly innovative in the times he lived in and so relevant today.

“What has been described as wholetime collective training is the ideal form to guarantee optimum results. This is constituted in a special training camp, where the team and subs are subjected to a daily 24-hour schedule of alternating exercise, tuition, rest and play,’’ he wrote.

“It can, with the injection of the right spirit, develop a pleasant holiday atmosphere.”

Said O’Shea: “He instigated this idea of bringing players together for a particular length of time. Now it’s called bonding and we are told that it’s more important than twice nightly sessions. Dr Eamonn could see all of this way back in his time. He had amazing vision.”

Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan — A Man Before His Time,’ published by Wolfhound Press, (€14.99).