Richie McCarthy: Criticism was more an insult to my family than me
Former Limerick hurler Richie McCarthy who works in the community, culture and placemaking directorate at the City Hall in Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
A request for a former Limerick full-back’s mobile number is met with his digits and the name: “Ooh Richie McCarthy”.
Long before the Kilfinane man retired 12 months ago, he was knighted with the prefix. Seven years ago, as a group of J1 students celebrated Limerick’s Munster final success at a pool party in the US a phenomenon was born as McCarthy was tributed to the tune of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”.
And for the next five seasons, the three-word chant filled the Limerick-populated terraces and the pubs.
Folk. Cult. Unlikely. McCarthy doesn’t mind what hero is called.
He always took the attention in his stride. Well, almost always.
“I’ll never forget coming out in 2014 for the Munster final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and they were singing it and I could barely think because they were blaring it. The lads were saying it to me during the warm-up but I got myself right. I never let it affect my performance. I might look for a gee-up from the crowd once in a while but that was if I thought we needed it.”
Like TJ Ryan from his neighbouring parish of Garryspillane, McCarthy was a throwback to a different era, a converted full-back who regularly threw caution to the wind to attack the ball, leaving his man behind.
An All-Star nominee in three consecutive seasons winning one in 2013, that fearlessness combined with his barrelling gait endeared him to thousands. Yet when Limerick lost he was an easy target.
After the 2018 All-Ireland success, his proud brother and journalist Barry in this newspaper hit back at those who took aim at his younger sibling.
“Plenty of people have criticised him over the years, claiming he lacks pace, is overweight, or just isn’t good enough to play for Limerick. Like every winner, Richie turned the criticism to his advantage, using it to prove people wrong.
McCarthy admits he would note what was written about him but didn’t take as much of it to heart as those closest to him.
“It would be more an insult to my family than me because at training I was well able to look after myself as I would in matches. Over 10 to 20 yards, there wouldn’t have been many faster than me so I was comfortable in my own skin. It didn’t get to me but I did see what was being said.
"You’d often hear fellas say they don’t see stuff but they do, they’re human. You’d click into things but it wouldn’t bother me.
“It was especially tough for my sisters and brother. They would often approach me about it, saying you might need to do stuff about it but I was training as hard as ever. They might say ‘you might have to watch your weight’ but I knew I was doing the right things for myself.
"If I was felt I was found wanting in training I would have changed things but I didn’t feel the need to do that. They didn’t understand what I was doing in training and it affected them.
“I’m out of the loop now but you see the abuse some players are getting and it’s awful. John Allen always referred to them as the keyboard warriors.
McCarthy wouldn’t get easily upset but that’s not to say he was immune to nerves and doubts. So much so that he was chastised by a team-mate nine years his junior for his perceived negativity a couple of years ago.
“At a meeting before a game in 2018, I said, ‘Hopefully, we’ll win this weekend.’ And Tom Morrissey spoke and questioned me. ‘That’s a seriously bad attitude to have,’ he said. ‘Hopefully going to win this weekend? We’re definitely going to win this weekend.’ He put me back in my box.
“I wouldn’t be a person going into a game too confident because I’d feel you would lose track of yourself but the younger lads are going in totally convinced. That doubt with me would have developed losing a few championship matches but these lads are so used to winning that there is no fear. It was a bit of a comeuppance for me.”
McCarthy works with Cork City Council and helps out a lot with the family’s undertaking business or pub. Maybe it’s his background in the former that also tempered his optimism but it’s a profession that requires decorum.
“When you talking to people who have just suffered a bereavement, you have to stay calm, listen to the family. They could be in an awful way over the phone with you but you just have to do everything you can for them. I’m a calm person anyway. I look to keep in the moment. When Caroline took over, I found myself being calmer.”
The Caroline McCarthy speaks of is Currid, the Sligo-born sports psychologist who was with them in 2018 as she was with All-Ireland winning Dublin, Tipperary and Tyrone in the past. When he heard she had returned to the set-up this year, he was thrilled.
“She’s the best in the game. A lot of psychologists do the same things but it’s her approach that makes her so good. She might ring you up or you’d meet her one-to-one and she makes you feel so comfortable. I was travelling up and down from Cork to training and some things didn’t feel right to me but it would have been awkward to approach management so you might talk to Caroline and she might relay the message.
“Sometimes there might be a separate meeting on a non-training night and I was finding it difficult to make everything. I was finding it difficult to make all the training sessions coming from Cork. I had Graeme Mulcahy travelling with me for a couple of years so that made it much easier.
“Coming up to the final in 2018, I was unsure if I was going to see any action. So I spoke to Caroline about it and she said the best thing to do was ring John. So I did and he said if there was any injury in the full-back line I would be the first sub in and I came on for Mike Casey.
“She’s very approachable. You can see the lads aren’t panicking this year and a lot of that is to do with Caroline. Even when Noel McGrath picked up the ball for that Tipp goal the last day, they were undeterred.”
Now 33, retirement is something that sits with a lot easier than it does 27-year-old Shane Dowling who was forced to quit because of injury or Paul Browne who recently admitted to badly missing being part of the panel.
Work and building a home with his girlfriend in Emly keeps McCarthy occupied. And when it came to breaking the news to John Kiely, he found himself at peace with it.
“Once we won the All-Ireland in 2018, I was happy. I had just had a successful year last year winning the premier intermediate with Blackrock.
“We met personally, we spoke about it and it was the best thing to do. I had given 10 or 11 years’ service to Limerick. We got close in 2013 and 2014 that after finally winning it and me pushing on in age and with the cruciate injury that it make sense to step away.”
Down two of his All-Ireland winning full-back line prior to this year’s Championship, even if Kiely was inclined to reach out to McCarthy the player wouldn’t have been able to oblige due to a chipped bone in the knee that required surgery in late 2018.
In Kiely, in Paul Kinnerk, he is convinced Limerick have their greatest chance of becoming a long-term force.
“No disrespect to the previous management teams but had we this management team 10 years ago we would be in such a better place. We have the best manager, the best coach, a brilliant psychologist. Seánie O’Donnell, the stats man, came in three years ago and brought it to a new level with statistics and game-plans.
Coming on for Casey two years ago, McCarthy drew a line back to his cousin Tommy who won All-Irelands with Limerick in 1934 and ’36 playing alongside Mick Mackey. A plaque commemorating his successes is on the front of the pub on Kilfinane’s Lower Main Street.
“My father (Henry) tells me I was similar to him in a lot of ways. They had a homecoming in the 1930s and he knew of the crowd so he slipped in the backdoor and just waved at people from the window. He didn’t really want the attention.
“In 2013, we brought back the Munster Cup to the pub the Monday after and the place was thronged. We weren’t allowed to bring the Liam MacCarthy Cup back in 2018 but the team came back and it was incredible.
“People at that stage were so grateful and so happy to see a local man playing for Limerick. At the same time, you would go to ground after defeats but the people in the locality are very good. You might get an odd smart comment in the pub but that went with the whole thing.”
The aahs with the oohs.
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