Christy Ring: The legend in art and in verse

Statues in Cloyne and Cork Airport, a stadium and a city bridge all honour the memory of Christy Ring. Poetry in motion, they said.

Christy Ring and American actress Jean Seberg at the Cork Film Festival in 1959.

Christy Ring’s fame was amplified in his own time by press reports and popular ballads, and he still reaches down the decades to artists today.

Two Cork poets of different generations have paid tribute to the hurler: Billy Ramsell’s ‘Lament For Christy Ring’ is a neat counterpoint to Theo Dorgan’s ‘And Did You Once See Shelley Playin?’.