Still a voice to be reckoned with

THE VOICE was arresting people. We were in an alcove in a Cork hotel, killing a pot of tea, and those hurrying past kept slowing down and peering in when they heard the soft tone drifting out.

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh was looking back. Last year he hung up his microphone, so for the first time in over 60 seasons — he’ll be in next year’s Guinness Book of Records, the longest sports commentating career — his voice will be missing from a GAA summer.

“A lot of people have said I’ll miss it, and they may be right. I won’t be doing much (for RTÉ), I might be doing little bits, but I gave 62 seasons to it, after all.”

Was he surprised by the fuss that was made of his last All-Ireland? “I was, really. By not saying much about it all year I thought I’d drift out, but it shows what the GAA is, I suppose.”

Sadder events have also shown what the GAA is about. Ó Muircheartaigh made two trips to Ballygawley last week to sympathise with Mickey Harte on the loss of his daughter Michaela.

“I know Mickey since he was with the minors and I knew Michaela well. I couldn’t think of a time I ever spoke English to her. She loved Irish, she took to it early and it was the one thing she wanted to do in college, and she did.

“She was an extraordinary person. She wore a Pioneer pin. Now it’s nothing for someone my age to wear one, but I could understand a young person not wanting to wear one. That didn’t worry her. She wore hers but didn’t mind other people drinking.

“I never heard her criticise a player from another county — from Armagh or Derry or wherever. She loved Tyrone and followed Tyrone but didn’t get involved in knocking others.

“To see all the clubs in Tyrone get involved in helping out with her funeral — with stewarding, and car parks and so on — was great. They were saying to a couple of Kerry players at one stage, ‘we hate ye on the field but we’re delighted ye came up’. That shows you. There are other, more important things.”

62 seasons with the mic gave him better memories. Wexford in the 50s: “They mightn’t have been the best team I saw, but they were my favourites,” and Down in 1960. The border was a big thing that time and you’d think it had been removed when they won, it gave such a boost to the nationalist community.

“They were the first team that played with a plan, a system. They had good players as well, but I think Ulster is often a step ahead in the game with tactics and so on. Down were the first team to have coaching, to have tracksuits — and other teams would say ‘who do they think they are’ when they started with tracksuits.

“They even had little gearbags. It mightn’t sound much now, but it was another step forward at a time when players would arrive in with the togs tied around the boots.”

Ó Muircheartaigh dates the beginning of GAA hype to that general era, and to the 1955 All-Ireland final between Dublin and Kerry.

“Dublin were coming — in the previous year’s league final John D Hickey said ‘even their misses were good’ – and in 1955, with 12 St Vincent’s players, they beat Meath, who were then All-Ireland champions, in that year’s Leinster final and beat them well.

“Kerry football was dismissed as old fashioned, and that built it up between the two teams — and it was a good final between them that year, which you wouldn’t always have.

“Kerry played beyond themselves, they drove themselves because they’d been written off, and that set Dublin back.”

John Dowling was good that day for Kerry.

Shortly afterwards, Ó Muircheartaigh was on the Hill for Dublin-Kerry in the league and Kerry were late taking the field. The tension was building and he heard a Dublin supporter say, ‘they’re taking the chains off Dowling’.

His choice of a stand-out hurling final is more recent: last year.

“There was great hype, Kilkenny were established as a great team, the five in a row, the intensity of the game, the skill and pace from start to finish... you couldn’t say until very close to the end who’d win.

“A football game... the 1982 final between Kerry and Offaly. An injustice has been done to that game in that all people think of is the Seamus Darby goal, but it was a mighty game outside that.

“There were great scores, a great atmosphere, and great defensive play in particular, but all people ever talk about is the last minute or so.”

Away from the field of play, Liam Mulvihill is someone to whom Ó Muircheartaigh pays a warm tribute.

“Himself and Peter Quinn. That’s where the redevelopment of Croke Park came from. Liam Mulvihill understood the minds of GAA people — that you couldn’t rush them into anything, that you had to bring them along with you.

“For instance, he dropped into his annual reports the possibility of other ways of playing the championship.

“He’d seen the backdoor at work in Australia and was readying the ground, eventually it came in here.

“With Croke Park, Peter Quinn had a model made of the proposed development and went around the country talking it up. Between them they convinced the Association to go ahead, and you have to give them credit — when you compare it to the Aviva or Wembley, the GAA was able to keep playing games while it redeveloped its stadium. It’s only now when you look back you think, ‘how was it done’, but it was.”

The Kerryman points to Paddy Buggy’s focus on the clubs and club facilities in the run-up to 1984, and the improvement in those facilities as a result; and Jim Brosnan increasing the number of games for club players. He doesn’t see complacency as a danger to the GAA.

“No, though obviously the GAA needs to guard against it. It’s accused of conservatism but it actually has a great ability to look forward. Everyone is praising the GAA now but something I’ve faulted it for is a lack of interest in former players.

“A lot of former players are involved, but all of them shouldn’t be forgotten. There should be someone in every club whose role is to ensure there are activities to help former players maintain a healthy lifestyle. You meet players who are the picture of athleticism but then 10 years into their retirement they’re out of shape.

“That’s neglect, and it needs a change of attitude. If clubs had people assigned to keep those former players healthy it’d make a huge difference.”

The tea was gone so we headed for the lobby. A scrum soon with people shaking hands with Ó Muircheartaigh.

Going out the door I heard him say “How are you?” over and over.