Paudie Butler: the hurling evangelist

HIS term as hurling’s missionary — also known as national coordinator — expires this weekend, but Paudie Butler remains true to the creed. “I’m going to commit the rest of my life to supporting coaches and clubs who want to develop hurling. Because I know that we’re winning.”

HERE’S a passage towards the end of one of Paudie Butler’s favourite books about another top coach but could just as easily apply to Butler himself. In Sacred Hoops, Phil Jackson recalls his sister-in-law once dropping by the Chicago Bulls’ locker room after a game to tell him she had been tearful watching him on the sideline that night. “I realised this is exactly what you were meant to do,” she said. “You’re so comfortable out there. It just seems so right.”

Watching Butler operate at a coaching forum in Limerick last month, addressing coaches and instructing kids, we refrained from welling up, but as he moved from oratory through comedy and back to oratory again, we were struck by the joyous conclusion that here was a man in his absolute element.