Tom Moloughney: 'I didn't know who hit me but I knew it wasn't Christy Ring'

The Irish Examiner will publish a special bonus section with the newspaper this Friday to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cork hurling icon, Christy Ring

BLOOD AND BANDAGE; Ring surrounded by fans in the wake of the 1952 Munster final in Limerick against Tipperary.

He is revered forever, spoken of with awe wherever and whenever hurling is discussed.

The Greatest? Probably.

If he was alive, Christy Ring would be celebrating his 100th birthday this Friday. Burrowing through our pictorial archive, listening to the views of those who soldiered with Ring, who learned off him and those charged with limiting him, by fair means or not, is an intriguing journey.

Ring was genius, possessed of a sharp-edged wit, he was intense and he didn’t suffer fools. He died at 58, too, too young.

Says Gerald McCarthy of Ring the Cork selector: “He’d be talking to you and he had a habit of emphasising something by poking you in the shoulder – you’d be black and blue from him, that’s the kind he was, he was very intense.” 

In a special publication this Friday to mark the centenary of his birth, the Irish Examiner looks at the life and legend of Ring. 

There are stellar contributions from McCarthy, Michael Moynihan, Frank Murphy, Donal O'Grady, Diarmuid O’Donovan, Prof John A Murphy, Denis Coughlan, PM O'Sullivan, Donal Óg Cusack, Kieran Shannon and Paul Rouse.

Interesting nuggets too. When Ring invited JBM outside the door, for instance. Donal O’Grady went straight to the source of the infamous 1961 Munster final incident when Ring ‘struck’ Tipp’s Tom Moloughney. The alleged victim told O’Grady last week: “I didn't know who hit me but all I knew was that it wasn't Ring. We always had the highest of respect for him.” 

Donal Óg Cusack remembers the walk to school in Cloyne, down past Chapel Street towards Spit Lane and two statues looming either side – one of Christ, the other of Christy. “I spent many hours praying to one to be as good as the other.” 

Naturally Cusack is biased. But any robust interrogation of the Ring legend would reach a similar conclusion. That Ring was a legend of his time, that he was a sporting great, whatever that word means.

“Then there is the greatest intangible of all,” muses Paul Rouse, the academic. “How a sports person makes you feel… 

“Ring was also beloved because — in his daily life — he walked among those who revered him. Sport is a measure of dreams — dreams fulfilled and dreams dashed; you may not live them out yourself, but you can see them lived out by others and imagine how that feels. And this is particularly true when the hero is a man who spent much of his days in the cab of a lorry.” 

*Ring: A life, a legend is published with the Irish Examiner print edition on Friday, October 30th.