‘The bedroom was in Kilkenny, the kitchen in Waterford’

CHANGING TIMES

Shem Downey: “Every crow thinks their own little crows are the whitest, don’t they? Things are very different now – my first All-Ireland final, going up, we got a pair of socks, last year the boys got a new suit for going up to Dublin, then they also got a new suit for that night, and all new gear for the game itself. We were born in the wrong time. I remember when I was going to the CBS here, we were going to hurl Munster one day in the colleges, Leinster against Munster, and I asked my father for some money – “Didn’t I buy you a new top-coat recently?” he said. But he did give me money, eventually, a half-crown.’’

Diarmuid O’Flynn: “Was the CBS boarding that time?”

SD: “No, I cycled in and out, 10 miles each way; I bought a small pan loaf every evening coming down through the town and that was my lunch the next day.”

AF: “So you were educated by the Christian Brothers? By Jesus, you had a tough time then! They didn’t spare you.! But back then you had the likes of Jimmy Langton and all those, for Kilkenny, marvellous hurlers, and they weren’t big men.”

CAREERS

AF: “I left school in 1934, Mount Sion, but it was all football where I was living, in Stradbally. My father retired, he was a stationmaster, and I came back into Waterford city then, started working here. I was 22 at the time, 18 when I left Mount Sion, and I hadn’t seen a hurley in the meantime, four years out of it. There was a team in Kilmacthomas, a few miles out, and a fella rang me up, “Andy, I remember you going to school, you were fairly handy at the hurling. We’re playing a junior final in Dungarvan in a fortnight’s time, would you ever come in and play for us?”

“God Dave,” I said, “I didn’t see a hurley for four years!”

“What harm,” he said, “Aren’t you fit? Won’t you be able to run, with all that football training with Stradbally? I remember you, I think you’d be better than a lot of the fellas we have.”

“I don’t know,” I said, “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Look,” he said, “I’ll send you up two hurleys and a ball on the next train, and you can try it out, get someone to go out with you and hit a few balls.”

“And he did, but I couldn’t get anyone to go with me. I went out in the field beside the house myself and started taking a few belts, and Christ, wasn’t I getting used to it! I said to myself, if I can keep this up, I’ll play. He rang a few days after, “Well?”

“I’ll play!” I said, “I’m coming back.”

They put me centrefield on this fella, the best and hardest man they had. For the first 20 minutes or so, every ball that came up I got it, but jaysus I couldn’t get rid of it, I couldn’t hit it! He was a tough man, hit me a few awful belts, and after a while I said to myself, “Christ, what’s up with me, to take this from him?” From that moment something happened to me, I started to hit back, and not alone did I hurl him out of it, I hurled half their backline out of it as well, and everyone was saying, “Christ, where did this fella come from, and why isn’t he on the team for the All-Ireland final?”

This now was the middle of August, 1938, Waterford were in the All-Ireland final in September, but it was too near, they couldn’t put me on. But the whole county was talking about me, the brilliant display I gave in that game. Your man I was playing on was a tough man, but he wasn’t tough enough!”

DO’F: Maybe if they’d played you, they’d have won that All-Ireland, in 1938 (lost to Dublin, 2-5 to 1-6), but you did get on the team then in ‘39, I presume?

AF: “Oh I walked onto it, and I was never off it ‘til I finished, in 1951. I played a Railway Cup match with Munster in Croke Park, we won; I was 35 at that time, my family was arriving hot and fast, the money was being stretched, and I said to myself, “Who’s going to go short here, my wife or the GAA?” I walked off the field that day in Croke Park, St. Patrick’s Day, came home to my wife, and I said to her, “That’s it Nell girl, I’m finished, I’ll never catch a hurley again.” And I didn’t, not even with the club. I drew a line, I had enough done. Walked off the pitch in Croke Park with my last Railway Cup medal in my hand, and I never caught a hurley after.”

DO’F: What about yourself Shem, how did you start?

SD: “I played minor for the county in the All-Ireland final of ‘39, the day the war broke out. I don’t think Ring was playing minor that day, maybe he was playing senior. That was the day of the thunder and lightning final. I hurled then with my home parish, Conahy, for a few years, went on to a place called St Brendan’s playing senior, they were down in south Kilkenny, spent two years with them.

I was nearly as bad as the soccer lads now, because I transferred back, played with Tullaroan, and we won the county final in 1948. I played with them again in ‘49 but then the ‘Parish Rule’ came in, and I couldn’t play with them anymore, I could either come back to my home parish, which was Conahy, or the parish I was living in, which was Ballyragget – I played with Ballyragget, until 1955 I think it was. In between I hurled with the county, started with them in ‘46.”

THE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING FINAL

SD: “There was no thunder or lightning when we were playing, it was when the seniors were playing it started. It got so bad we didn’t see the match, our trainer brought us into the dressing-room, a man by the name of Danny O’Connell (famous name in Kilkenny hurling, trained Kilkenny to 12 senior titles) was the trainer of the senior team and he got us down on our knees to pray that nothing would happen to any of the players out on the field. It was that bad. The lighting was striking all round the place, the thunder was fierce.

I made the senior team then in 1946, my first All-Ireland final, I played on Christy Ring. I had been on the junior team, we played Limerick in Waterford in the semi-final, and that day fortnight was the final of the All-Ireland senior.

They picked the team, and I was on it, promoted from the junior team. I never played in the backline, always played in the middle of the field or in the forwards, but they picked me at centre-back, upon Christy Ring. I held him for 29 minutes without a score, but he got a goal in the last minute before half-time.

It was a famous goal, and a good goal, but it didn’t happen the way he told it. He got the ball out in front of me, raced through, and all our full-back line went out, left the place open for him. Christy said afterwards that he saw an opening in the corner and struck for it, but that wasn’t how it happened. He threw the ball up in front of him and tapped it in, because he knew I was behind him. I might have hooked him, I might not, but he tapped it in front of him and it went off the goalkeeper’s shoulder.

They took me off him then at half-time and moved me to the middle of the field, and it was the best thing ever happened me, because if it hadn’t happened, if they had left me on Christy Ring, he’d have destroyed me. He scored a goal and four or five points off Dan Kennedy, and Dan had been at centre-back for Kilkenny for four or five years. But that’s what kept me on the county team, the fact that I was moved off Ring. The following year then we won the All-Ireland.”

THE 1947 FINAL, AND JACK LYNCH

DO’F: Wasn’t that the day that Jack Lynch won his sixth consecutive All-Ireland medal? He was there for the four-in-a-row in hurling from 1941-44, then won with the footballers in 1945, back again with the hurlers in 46?

SD: “Yes, he was there. He was a fair, straight, good hurler, a big strong man. I was playing on a man called DinJoe Buckley that day, the final score was Kilkenny 0-14, Cork 2-7.”

AF: “When we’d go up to Dublin for the Railway Cup finals on St. Patrick’s Day, all the pubs in Ireland were closed on that day, but Jack Lynch would always call me aside – he was only a barrister that time, working in Dublin – and he’d tell me, “Stay there now, don’t go anywhere.” He’d go home for his tea to his own house, then come back up in his car and pick me up, along with the Mackeys, Mick and John, and we’d head off for the Teachers’ Club, the Literary Club, the Liffey Rowing Club. He’d have made arrangements to bring in three or four along with himself, and I was always on that list.

We’d go in and drink pints ‘til three or four in the morning, then Jack would stand up, “It’s time for us to be going.” I’d always say to him, “Jack, before we go, you have to give us a couple of verses of The Banks.”

“Andrew,” he’d say – he always called me Andrew, never Andy – “I will.” I remember one time he jumped up on the table, a couple of glasses knocked to the floor, and he sang it out – The Banks. That would finish the night, he’d drive us back to Barry’s, but that also finished the drinking, there was no such thing as going out again the following night, or any night after, it was straight back to work.”

SD: “Changed times. I remember I scored two points in that 1947 final; for one, the ball was thrown in and I won it, sidestepped a lad and put it over the bar. Next one was in the second half, from the puckout, it landed short and I met it on the drop, put it over the bar.

Terry Leahy got the winning point, but he also got the equaliser, from a free. How that came about was that Billy Carroll was full-forward on Con Murphy, not doing very well, and Paddy Phelan, the selector, came down to me and said, “Shem, go in full-forward or we’re bet.” I went in full-forward, in and out, in and out; Con followed me out this time, a ball came, I rose it, I knew if I threw it up to hit it I’d either be blocked down or I’d drive it wide, so I went down on one knee – the referee blew the whistle, free in. I met Con several times afterwards, he’d always say to me, “I never fouled you!”

“I know you didn’t,” I’d say, “and if the referee had happened to be over to one side of us instead of straight in front, he’d have seen what happened. But he didn’t.” That was the levelling point, and Terry got the winner a few minutes after.”

DO’F: Did you know what you were doing when you went down on one knee, that you were probably going to get a free?

SD: “I did, I knew I’d probably drive it wide or I’d be hooked or blocked down or something, so I dropped, got the free, we got the equalising point. In 1948 then we were drawn against Leix (Laois) in the first round, and it was the very same team was picked as finished the All-Ireland final of 47, bar one — myself, I was a sub.

Ten minutes to go they were losing by five or six points and they came to me to go in, I told them, “If I wasn’t good enough for an hour, I’m not good enough for ten minutes.” And I didn’t go in. 1949 we met Leix again in the Leinster final, in Nowlan Park, they beat us by a point. They met Tipperary in the All-Ireland final but lost. In 1950, we were in the All-Ireland final again, against Tipperary, lost by a point. In ‘51, I was a sub, ‘52, I finished playing with the county, but I continued with my home club ‘til about 56.”

BORDER DISPUTE:

DO’F: Tullaroan had players from all over the county?

SD: “They did, but that was the way it was in Kilkenny at the time, no ‘Parish Rule’. We played the county final in 1947 before the All-Ireland final, on August 17, the county team went in to train the following evening, to play the All-Ireland final on September 1, which meant only a fortnight of training. Now they’re going in in November of one year to get ready for September of the following year! And there were 13 county men playing in that county final between Tullaroan and Eire Óg.

DO’F: What made you pick Tullaroan?

SD: “I didn’t, they came to me.”

DO’F: An offer of a big job, I’m sure, loads of cash involved in the transfer?

SD: “Yeah! I had my own business at the time, in Ballyragget. But they came to me, there was Stephen Marney, myself, a few others – about five, I’d say, outside of Tullaroan. But that was the same in Carrickshock or Mooncoin or Eire Óg at the time.”

AF: “When I came to live in Ferrybank, the Waterford/Kilkenny boundary went straight through my house. I still have the Ordnance Survey map at home that shows that. There was a Kilkenny man at the time, I forget his name, and he told me, “Andy, you should be playing with Kilkenny, you sleep in Kilkenny and it’s where you sleep that decides. I’ve checked it out with the corporation and the bedroom of your house is in Kilkenny – that’s who you should play with.”

Then Waterford got involved. “No,” they said, “It’s where you eat that decides, and your kitchen is in Waterford.” The county boards got into an argument over it anyway, Waterford brought it to the Munster council, and they couldn’t decide, Kilkenny brought it to the Leinster council and they couldn’t decide, so they brought it to Croke Park. Croke Park got a barrister involved in it, and he said, the man lives where he pays his ground rent and his rates; I was paying those to Waterford, so Waterford it was. They built a new estate out beyond me eventually, they got a bit of land from Kilkenny to extend the boundary, just beyond the church in Ferrybank, so it no longer passes through my house.”

ALL-IRELAND TICKETS

DO’F: Are you going to the All-Ireland final?

AF: “I will if I can get a ticket. They know I want to go, but I’m no good to go down and start begging for a ticket; if they want to give me a ticket, I’ll go, if they don’t, I’ll stay at home.”