The JBM I know

Tom Cashman (Former Cork captain and manager, selector under Jimmy Barry-Murphy at minor and senior level)

“I came into the Cork panel in at the end of 1976, and Jimmy would have been on the squad for a few years before that. Obviously you’d be well aware of him after he burst on the scene in 1973, and he had got a few goals for St Finbarr’s against Blackrock in club games too! The one thing that really set him apart as a player was that he’d always come up with the goods when the need was greatest. I can remember a league game against Offaly a way back when he was a sub, he came on with five minutes to go and got the winning point and the paper the next day said, ‘Jimmy Barry-Murphy wins it for Cork’!

He had, and has, a massive presence, and even though he can be quite unassuming, he’ll say something that needs to be said. He might only talk for five minutes but he’ll say more than others would by talking for a half-hour. He brought that with him into management; in 1994 we were unlucky to lose the minor final but a lot of those players were underage again in ’95 and we hammered Kilkenny. It went from there and Tony O’Sullivan joined us in the senior management but these were bad days as well as good, it was very tough at times, there was heartbreak before the joy of 1999.