'Tough' Barry pointed at me and said: 'this is your last time ever travelling with the Cork team!'
Gerald McCarthy training ahead of the 1978 Munster final against Clare.
My father brought me to the All-Ireland final in 1956, Cork against Wexford. It was my first time in Croke Park and that really stirred something inside me. Christy Ring was going for nine All-Ireland medals, a record, and unfortunately Cork lost but the memories of it really sunk into my head – Art Foley’s famous save from Ring, Nicky Rackard’s goal, just the whole atmosphere. I would never have even dreamed that only ten years later to play in an All-Ireland final, as captain!
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We lived on Bandon Road and I always had a hurley in my hand, even though it was all houses and a busy road. There was a gable end of a house with a chimney stack sticking out and there was an area about 20 yards wide that I used as a target.
My father played with Lough Rovers and I used to go to all of their games, so I had a good taste for hurling from a young age. He never pushed me to play for Lough Rovers but other people in the club used to say I was too good to play for them and that I’d be better off going to the Barrs!
The Barrs underage team that I played on was a very good one, though at the time you couldn’t call a juvenile team after the senior club. At U13, it was Ard na Croithe, U14 was St Brendan’s and the U15 team was Greenmount. Hurling was our whole lives. I played two years at minor level for Cork, in hurling and football. I was handy at the football and I enjoyed it, but hurling was my favourite game. The inter-county U21 grade began in 1964, my first year out of minor, and so I played for Cork in the first three years of the competition, though we didn’t get out of Munster in ’64 or ’65.
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The call for the senior team came in 1964, too – though it almost ended up being my sole involvement. Cork were playing Wexford in the national league semi-final in Croke Park and I was named as a sub.
At the time, you’d travel up in taxis – all the Barrs fellas in one car, the Glen fellas in another and so on. We decided to go into Dublin to see a picture and Tough had warned us to be back by half past ten. When we came out of the cinema, it was a small bit late but Johnny Russell, God be good to him, was driving our car and he said he knew a short-cut through the Phoenix Park.
Of course, having gone up through it, the gate was locked when we reached the other side and we had to go back out and all the way around. When we got into the hotel, Tough Barry was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and gave out mad to the older fellas. I stood at the back, trying to stay out of the way but he pointed straight at me and said, “As for you – this is your last time ever travelling with the Cork team!” I was rooming with Mick Archer and I could hardly sleep that night with the worry.
The following morning at breakfast, Tough came up to the table. “I want to apologise to you,” he said, “I thought you were the taxi driver!” I was a new face and he hadn’t properly recognised me – you can imagine my relief! Thankfully, I came on the next day. To be asked to wear the Cork senior jersey at the age of 18 and a half was great.
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The Barrs won the county in 1965. We had a good mix of older players and younger guys coming up. I was surprised when I was told that I was being nominated as captain. Peter Doolan would have been a far more experienced player than I was, but that’s just how it happened at the AGM. I was startled but I took it and I was honoured! I didn’t feel any extra pressure – I think people accepted that I was younger.
Cork hadn’t won the All-Ireland since 1954. I had gone to a lot of the matches in between and I can remember defeat after defeat – we weren’t even winning Munster championships. We were getting beaten by Tipperary every year and it kind of left a mark alright.
Tipp were knocked out early in ’66, destroyed by Limerick in the Athletic Grounds in a quarter-final, and that just opened it up for everyone else. I came on as a sub in the Munster quarter-final, when we drew with Clare, and kept my place for the reply and then the semi-final win over Limerick in Killarney. We had Waterford in the Munster final and they were handy at the time, they still had quite a few from their All-Ireland winning team, but we beat them too. We were underdogs in practically every game and that definitely helped us big-time.
From midfield up, you have eight positions and four of those were filled by U21s – Justin in midfield, Seánie Barry right half-forward, I was left half-forward and Charlie Mac was in the corner. That’s a lot, in a forward line, especially, but the way we approached it was there was nothing to lose. You’re out there, trying to make a name for yourself. There are times like that when you just need to give youth its chance and I think that’s something we’re seeing with the current Cork side, who got to the 2021 All-Ireland final with a very young team.
Midfield would have been my preferred position, but I did play quite a bit at wing-forward. I played wing-back in one All-Ireland final and centre-forward in another.
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I was working in McCarthy Stone-Cutters in White St at the time. That was my trade, like my father and grandfather before me, but it wasn’t our family business, they were different McCarthys. It was in the late 1970s that I started my own business in a small shop on Barrack St, stone-cutting and making trophies.
In 1966, Liam MacCarthy was the trophy I was keen on, but Kilkenny were raging-hot favourites, no doubt about it. Still, we were building confidence along the way. We had won a few championship matches and that gives you belief – we were willing to have a go off it. We knew we were very good and we weren’t overawed by them. We had a very experienced team – Peter Doolan, Tom O’Donoghue, Jerry O’Sullivan, Denis Murphy, Tony Connolly, John O’Halloran and Paddy Fitzgerald, father of Ger. John Bennett had come out of retirement that year, so we had a good mix. Another thing in our favour was the following that we had. It was unbelievable.
It was a first final for all of us and you’d expect that we’d be nervous. We stayed out in the West County Hotel in Chapelizod and, on the Sunday morning, when we got on the coach to Croke Park, all of a sudden a sing-song started and, all the way to Croke Park, we never stopped! It was all Rebel songs: “And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green/Where the helmets glisten in the sun.” It was brilliant and it relaxed everybody, the atmosphere was great. Whoever started it, I don’t know, he was a brave man but it worked!
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We were as fit as we were going to be, there’s no doubt about that. We didn’t have to be killing ourselves training for the final at all. Jim ‘Tough’ Barry was the trainer; he was seasoned and he knew his stuff. The last time that he’d have wanted would be that we’d all be ‘flahed’ out on the Sunday. He certainly prepared us well.
There was no introducing the players to the president or anything – as captain, all I had to do was go up for the toss. Even when Kilkenny started well, we never panicked. For Colm Sheehan to score three goals in an All-Ireland final was a superb achievement and those goals were the difference in the end.
When it was over, the crowd swarmed on to the field, the whole place was covered in red and white! I was very inexperienced in giving speeches. Tony O’Shaughnessy was as selector and he had said to me during the week that I should have something ready. I prepared a few words – I got a bit of help! – and I gave it to Tony. He had it in his pocket, but trying to find him wasn’t easy with all of the people, I could hardly move!
What a night we had. My girlfriend at the time, Mary – my wife now – was there with me. At that time, you daren’t bring a woman into the Cork set-up! They were all there that night and it was a change forever! The homecoming was incredible. When we came around Paddy Barry’s Corner and you could look all the way down, it was breathtaking. The only other thing I can compare with it is Ringy’s funeral.
I won four more All-Irelands as a player and then one as trainer in 1990. They were all pleasing but the first one is always the most special, all the more so to win as captain.
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