Johnny McGovern a lifetime at the heart of Bennettsbridge

By PM O’Sullivan

Johnny McGovern is famously self effacing and pleasant, modest to proverbial fault.

He smiles now at the memory, much as he smiled to himself, 66 years ago, walking up Station Road in Bennettsbridge. Barely begun, the June day was creaking with birds. He might have been disorientated but not for the usual reason.

This young man of 20 was in his first season hurling senior with Kilkenny. Dublin had just won a Leinster semi-final by three points. The wait since 1947’s All-Ireland senior hurling win had lengthened.

Now he is a quite remarkably hale 86-year-old. “I wasn’t even playing,” he says, head tilted back and face crinkled.

“A sub, not brought on. The car stopped, coming back, in Kilcullen for a dance. Then they drove across to Carlow afterwards, to give someone a lift.

“The car didn’t arrive back here until seven in the morning. And I not drinking or doing anything… My father and mother were wondering what was wrong with me at all, that I wasn’t home.”

There was no time for anything but a quick bit of breakfast: “I was working at the time down the road in Bennettsbridge Creamery, and I had to be in at half eight. But I got myself down there. I slept well the following night.”

He tells me the other players in the car but wants names unmentioned. Seven decades have left Johnny McGovern’s courtesy untouched.

He was not daunted by the experience and his potential counted as plain. The same young man featured with Kilkenny in two All-Ireland minor finals, flopping to Tipperary in 1949, unexpected winners over Tipperary in 1950. McGovern proved one of the best performers on both occasions. Bennettsbridge were coming and this lad was rising with them.

Modesty is salted by success, by the challenge success presents to any sense of entitlement. Between 1952 and 1971, Bennettsbridge met nearly every gauntlet. They won 11 senior titles in that 20- season span. Johnny McGovern started on each one of those winning sides, with this haul still a record.

Born on March 7, 1932, he grew up in a parish not noted for producing top players. His was a Kilkenny life because dad Joe McGovern, from Newcastle in County Dublin, found a job in neighbouring Thomastown. He married Bridget Jackman, from Bennettsbridge, and they settled on Station Road in 1940. Their son still lives in the same house.

He has seen the place’s hurling in all weathers. Back then, the only senior win lay as far back as 1890. Johnny Dunne, the first native to win a Celtic Cross, did so in 1933’s triumph over Limerick, when he scored the decisive goal and was a Mooncoin clubman.

All changed in the 1940s. The two pivots were Edward Lyng, a schoolteacher, and Fr Nugent, the curate.

“They were absolute fanatics for hurling,” McGovern relates.

“Fr Nugent came after Mr Lyng but he kept on the same system of play. We won a school league in 1944 and proceeded from there. We won junior in 1948 and 1951. It all took off after 1952.” 

There were other influences. Jimmy O’Brien, a Cork native, was manager of Bennettsbridge Creamery. A friendship ensued with his young employee and they would travel together to see matches. One memorable trip involved going to Limerick to watch the 1951 Munster final between Cork and Tipperary.

That day, Christy Ring hurled midfield on Séamus Bannon. Producing one of his finest performances, Ring saw off the highly rated Bannon, even though Cork went down by two points.

As McGovern recalls: “Jimmy knew all the Cork players, Christy included. We went to their hotel afterwards. I was there, a young lad of 19, and a bit overawed, standing so close to Christy Ring.

“Then Jimmy called him over and said: ‘By the way, I’ve a fella here with me and he could be out playing against you some day yet.’ Christy had a look at me, like that [indicates sharp glance]. He mustn’t have been too impressed, because he said: ‘Never count your chickens before they’re hatched.’ I mustn’t have looked like a prospect.”

Cork and Kilkenny never met in the championship during Johnny McGovern’s career. Still, this exchange swerved into history, because he is now Leinster’s oldest living captain of a successful Railway Cup team.

He is amused and level in recollection: “Three years later, in 1954, and it came to the Railway Cup final. I happened to be captain because I’d been captain of Kilkenny the season before. I went down for the toss, and Christy was captain of Munster.

“He came up to toss, and he looked at me. ‘Well, Johnny, howyah,’ he said. Jimmy O’Brien had been talking to him, filling him in. He knew that it was the same young fella from the hotel.

“We beat them, anyhow. And it was the first time Leinster had won for years. So at least one of those chickens hatched…!”

The day might easily have been tragedy rather than triumph. Paddy Phelan, Kilkenny’s superstar wing back during the 1930s, drove up four players, including Leinster’s captain and Jim Hogan, the Tullaroan man who was Ring’s chosen marker. A terrible accident was barely avoided: “Coming down a steep hill near Ballylinan, the brakes went on Paddy. He’d had the car serviced the day before but all the brake fluid leaked out, because the mechanic hadn’t tightened it back up properly. There was a sharp bend at the bottom of this hill, and we didn’t think we’d make it.

“Jim Hogan was shouting: ‘Let me out! I’ll jump out!’ Jim was inside me on the seat and I said: ‘Don’t, Jim! It’ll be worse.’ I held him back from the door.

“Paddy had the gear lever up, the old sort of one that was on the steering wheel. He was tugging at it, trying to get out of gear. And he barely did it, and we barely got around the bend. We got more brake fluid in a nearby service station.”

Drama stiffened into shock.

“We made it up to Barry’s Hotel. The first thing Jim Hogan did was to go into the bar and order a glass of whiskey. I think he might have got two of them… I suppose it was the sheer fright of it.”

Shock released into virtuosity: “We went over to Croke Park. Jim just ignored Ring and went out first for every ball. Grabbed it, sent it 70 yards down the field. He had a blinder, the best game he ever had. He was ‘Sports Star of the Week’ in the papers for that performance.

“We were lucky. We could all have been killed. It was a tight one.”

Kilkenny hurling experienced far more lows than highs during the 1950s. There were many disappointments before 1957’s All-Ireland win over Waterford.

“I got on the team at left half-back in 1953,” McGovern notes.

“We were close but lost a lot of big matches, and were under pressure with the supporters.

“Ten years is a long time to be waiting in Kilkenny. Winning in 1957 was a relief more than anything.”

They lost to Tipperary in 1958’s All-Ireland semi-final, to Waterford in 1959’s All-Ireland final. For Johnny McGovern, injuries started to nag. But he was so determined and versatile that he started at centre-forward in 1963’s All-Ireland win over Waterford. He ended up a sub for the heavy loss to Tipp in 1964’s senior final.

Then he retired from stripes, staying in Bennettsbridge’s green and gold hoops long enough to win that unique 11th medal. This enduring achievement befits one of the county’s most popular figures.

Like so many former stars, Johnny McGovern found an afterlife on the sideline. 1970 excepted, he acted as a senior selector with Kilkenny every season between 1967 and 1978.

“I really enjoyed my playing career,” he states.

“But I don’t know whether I’d do the selecting all over again. You just can’t please everyone…”

Now Bennettsbridge are back. The club was hurling junior in 2014, lodged there since 2004, but face Ballyhale Shamrocks in tomorrow’s senior final. He is the same level man on their chances: “We have young lads coming along, which you always need. Two minors with Kilkenny this year, Ciarán Brennan and Jamie Harkin. They’ll be eligible for adult hurling next year. And we have younger lads again coming as well.

“Whatever the result against the Shamrocks, I don’t think it’ll be the end of this Bennettsbridge team.”