Jimmy Finn: ‘Christy Ring was unbelievable. Tremendous arms, and a great hurling brain’

Ahead of the centenary of his birth Friday, Christy Ring is remembered by another hurling legend, his Tipperary friend and foe, Jimmy Finn

Borris-Ileigh clubman Jimmy Finn, the youngest Tipperary man to captain the county to an All-Ireland SHC title. “(Ring) could pick a ball going at full speed — one touch and it was in his hand and then over the bar.” Picture: Brian Arthur

He might have been the youngest Tipperary man to captain the county to an All-Ireland senior hurling title, but that wasn’t an accident. Just early recognition of his quality.

For a decade, Jimmy Finn’s stylish hurling was a blue and gold cornerstone. The Borris-Ileigh clubman was duly named on the GAA’s Hurling Team of the Century in the centenary year of 1984, but his class was acknowledged a lot earlier than that.