Portlaoise’s silent motivation

It was a seemingly innocuous question towards the end of a group interview last Wednesday that had Brian Mulligan close to welling up.

Invited to explain why the word “Chief” sown into the shoulder of his Portlaoise training top, the captain replied: “That is one of the lads that passed away two years ago. That is just a memorial thing that we have on our tops, that’s all.”

Never forgotten, Peter McNulty, Chief or Chicken as he was also known to his team-mates, remains a source of inspiration to this Portlaoise group. Two weeks after his death in October 2010, then-captain Michael Nolan dedicated their fourth consecutive county title to him. “I know you were looking down on us today,” he said in his acceptance speech.