'I intend to live with cancer and not die of it'. That was his mantra - Cork great Ger Fitzgerald remembered

Ger Fitzgerald won’t be far from thoughts this weekend. At the age of 60, Cork’s two-time All-Ireland SHC winner passed away on St Patrick’s Day, 37 years to the day after he featured on a Midleton team managed by his father Paddy to All-Ireland glory. Paddy, himself an All-Ireland SHC winner, and Ger’s sister Gillian remember a son, a brother and a hurler.

MIDLETON MAN: Ger Fitzgerald celebrates with Conor Lehane and coach Ben O'Connor after their 2021 Cork Premier SHC final win over Glen Rovers at Páirc Ui Chaoimh. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

John Fogarty: How difficult have the last few months been for you as a family?

Paddy: Very, very tough. For my wife (Liz) and myself, Ger was our go-to man. If anything happened or something needed to be done in the house, Ger was there. Aw, he’s an awful loss.

Gillian: He was a tremendous brother, a great big brother. I miss him terribly. He was my best friend, really. If something happens, you just you want to go to the phone and ring him, or just to have the craic with him. And for mam and dad, us sisters, we do worry. It's very hard losing a son with their age.

JF: The amount of sympathies the family received and the tributes paid to Ger must have helped a little. He was well got in many ways.

Paddy: The whole GAA was very good to us, the Cork County Board. A lot of people came. That was a big comfort to us all, like.

Gillian: Some of his past opponents like Bobby Ryan from Tipp. Liam Fennelly, his opposite captain in ’92. The ’86 and ’90 All-Ireland teams too.

JF: Coming a couple of years after Teddy McCarthy’s passing, it was difficult for the Cork hurling fraternity as a whole.

Ger Fitzgerald and his dad at Croke Park.

Gillian: During covid, they used to meet a lot for coffees. Ger’s illness had just begun and he had to be careful with who he met but Teddy was going to be one of them. Those friendships kept him going.

JF: Ger’s wife Kathryn spoke beautifully in her eulogy about how positive he was despite the illness.

Gillian: Unbelievable dignity and grit and fight and, like, he would have had the attitude “I intend to live with cancer and not die of it.” That was his mantra. He just wanted to drive on and get on with it.

Paddy: He was managing the Midleton senior team during his sickness, like. That helped him a lot. Himself and Ben O’Connor got on superbly and then won a county together, which was great.

Gillian: When he was well enough to be involved during his illness, he forgot about it then. When they won the county in 2021, it was 30 years on from when he captained them to a county and Dad was manager. That was the icing on the cake. There were a lot of similarities in his and Dad’s hurling careers. Twenty years after you won your All-Ireland with Cork in ‘66, Ger won the first of his two.

Gillian Fitzgerald holding a picture of her brother Ger Fitzgerald holding the Munster Cup in 1992. The picture appeared in the Hogan Stand magazine. Picture Dan Linehan

Paddy: He was only two when I won that. And he started out as a goalkeeper in ’74 in an U14 county final. The goalie they had never turned up and I can still remember him beating on the front door for his gear. He was all high. And he played a great game and they won. He was 11. He won an East Cork junior championship as a minor. And Fr (Canon) O’Brien admitted to me later they slipped up not noticing him for the Cork minors. But he played U21 then. I remember there was a club game against St Catherine’s and they brought him out from goals. I said “what in the name of Jesus are they doing here” but he scored three goals. The next year, he was at full-forward for the seniors.

JF: Watching Ger in his playing days, he was quick enough for a big man.

Paddy: I say he got it from his mother’s side more than anything. He had good pace.

JF: Had you a different style to him? You were a wing-back in 1966.

Paddy: I started as a wing-forward myself and I never wanted to play there. Midfield or the half-backs was for me.

JF: You never got to beat Tipperary that year after they had been so dominant in your Cork career.

PLAYTIME: Paddy Fitzgerald, himself an All-Ireland SHC winner in 1966, plays with a young Ger

JF: The All-Irelands Ger won with Cork. What are your standout memories?

Gillian: The 1990 final was the first one I attended. I missed out on ’86 because I spent the match going around all the churches in East Cork with my mum lighting candles. I was 11 and we went to four or five of them. She wouldn't let me turn on the radio until she knew the match was over and that's how we found out they won in ’86.

Paddy: She had Gerard in the church too when he was only two in ’66. She never came to a match even when I was playing. She came to one in Fermoy and in actual fact it was [Christy] Ring’s last match for Cork in 1963. It was a tournament game against Waterford, a fierce tough, nasty match. We had all played for all clubs earlier in the day and were all a bit cranky. There was an incident with Frankie Walsh nearly the sideline close to the crowd and she never went to a match after. There was a move to bring Ring back in 1966 but it never worked out. I remember 'The Rattler', Mick Byrne’s last game for Tipp against Cork in the 1960 league final. As Mick was going to strike the ball, Ring shouted at him as he would do and Mick missed it.

Gillian: 1990 was an unbelievable match to go to. You were probably more nervous than me?

Paddy: When you have someone playing, you’re bad. You’re scared they might not perform.

JF: And he was working in Aer Lingus in Dublin at the time.

Paddy: He used to fly down. His mother, she used to pick him up from the airport because I was away training teams. She’d take him over for training then bring him back for the first flight the next morning. He used to get the jump seat, the spare seat close to the pilot.

Gillian: He loved it. He actually loved what he was doing. I mean, he was lucky he had that flight.

Paddy: We lost another boy Pádraig to an accident in Naas in 1997. He was going to Dublin Airport one frosty morning. And there was a fella come across from the other side of the carriageway and hit him. I had to ring Ger that morning.

Gillian: Ger went over to identify him. They were great buddies. Ger was born in ’64, Pádraig in ’67. They were all steps and stairs but there was bit of a gap to me. Ger was great to all of us. Kathryn and his girls. He was the heart of our family in a way.

JF: When did you realise your father and brother weren’t half-bad at hurling?

Gillian: The All-Ireland club in ’87 and ’88. That was huge. That was massive. It was a natural part of growing up. One thing I always remember about Ger is any big match, Midleton or Cork, before he'd be collected or would leave for the game, he'd be out at the gable end of the shed, bating ball against the wall. Once I heard that sound, I knew it was nearly time for him to go.

JF: He was probably blessed before he left?

Gillian: The holy water would be thrown at him.

Paddy: He had medals in his pocket and everything. He’d always have had a hurley in his hands. We would spent our summers down in Garryvoe and we’d be hurling on the beach. I used to cycle him to the Páirc. We’d thrown the bike into the back of the car, park outside St Patrick’s Church and cycle down with him on the bar. You could throw the bike up anywhere and there was no problem. I remember we were playing Kinsale in the minor championship in the old Mardyke. He was seven or eight, I was a selector and he was following me up and down the sideline. Every movement I made, he made. He was proud when he won that first All-Ireland. No, he wouldn't be blowing his trumpet or anything like that.

Ger Fitzgerald, the Midleton great, with hurley in hand

JF: Were you a family for celebrations?

Gillian: We had some great days and night out together. Any excuse, Ger’s 50th, Dad’s 80th, my sisters’s 40ths, 50ths. We’d go to sports events everywhere. Ger was a Leeds fan too as it was kind of sad he wasn’t there to see them go back up to the Premier League. Every Christmas, we would have the Fitzgerald Family Day Out too.

JF: What is this week like for your family?

Gillian: It is particularly emotional for us in a way, isn't it, dad? It brings back a lot of memories of last year because we were in the final last year and all the craic we had in the banter that was going on. Ger was quite unwell last year, but he was still very much involved in the chats about the match and all. So we miss him for that. If he was here now, he’d be willing on the lads to do it for their family and clubs.

Paddy: Twenty years is a long time. In our time it was 12 and people were saying, “Jesus…”. For a county like Cork, it’s mad. We lost our way a bit. There were the strikes and all that.

JF: When Ger and Ben came together for Midleton, it seemed like some of that was being put in the past.

Paddy: Ger was with Gerald as a selector. Ben was brilliant for us. They got on very well, and it helped the strike thing too. After they won the county, Ben stayed here for a few nights after.

JF: What would Ger think of a first Cork-Tipperary All-Ireland final?

Gillian: I'm not sure. Ger and Teddy probably had a say in it....