To understand the son, look to the father

Step into the entrance hall at Stackstown Golf Club in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, turn to your right, and on the wall across from the ‘Harrington Room’, an impressive homage to Pádraig’s career achievements, hangs a giant frame.

Within it are the photographs of each of the club’s captains since its formation in 1976. Thumb just one place to the right of the first mug shot and you come upon the face of Pádraig’s dad, Paddy, the 1977 captain. He was in his mid-40s when the picture was taken, only a few years older than Pádraig is now. Save for a little greying around the temples, there is everything of one in the other. The avuncular pose is familiar, so too the powerful upper body, though it’s the jutting Harrington jawline that is pure Pádraig. It’s true what they say; to understand the son, you must look to the father.

Paddy was a native of Castletownbere in west Cork and early in life developed a love for Gaelic football. He excelled at it and it was in this arena that the earliest sign of the acute work ethic that he would pass down to his five sons can be traced.