When the final whistle sounded in Croke Park to announce that the Tipperary Minor footballers had won the All-Ireland an Annacurra man wearing a selectors bib for the Premier County raced onto the field crying tears of joy. The tears belonged to Pat Murphy, now a resident of Cloughjordan, but an Annacurra native up until 2001 when he and his wife Noeleen decided to quit their small farm and invest in a convenience store in the Tipperary town.
When we reached Pat Murphy as the furore over Tipperary’s wonderful win was calming down he jokingly asked “I suppose you want to see what it was like for a Wicklow man to be in Croke Park in the third Sunday in September?” And in truth that is one of the reasons but more importantly we want to know about his journey as part of the management team to the pinnacle of under-age Gaelic football in Ireland. How he had got involved, what it meant to him and could he describe the feeling of running onto the hallowed turf having played a major role in the winning of the Tom Markham Cup.
“I don’t think it’s possible to describe the feeling to be honest with you,” begins Pat. “It’s a combination of things on the day. My father is dead now two years and in the week of the All-Ireland I was due to go somewhere one morning but I didn’t; I drove to Annacurra to go to his graveside. I just wanted to go to his grave in Coolafancy. And I went in there and paid my respects and when I was there I remembered when I was a child we used to go outside with my father and kick the ball around and he’d kick it out to me and I’d catch it and manage to get it back to him somehow and I remember him saying to me “You’ll have good days in Croke Park if you keep playing like that.” And then on Sunday morning of the match we had our ‘circle of truth’ where everyone can say what they want and I just said to the players “I’ve had bad days with Wicklow, I played Minor football and Senior hurling in Croke Park and they weren’t good days but today is going to be a good day for you.” I’m not afraid to say I shed a tear after the final whistle. It was that emotion, that high that you’ve won an All-Ireland having played at home as a child and a man and never having got anywhere. As a Wicklow man I felt unique, special, even though I know I’m not the only one but it’s a day I’ll take to my grave with me. It’s been a nice journey,” he said.
Pat is immensely proud of his Wicklow and Annacurra roots. He played Senior football with Annacurra, only giving up in 1998, a year before they won the Junior C championship he recalls jokingly. His coaching life began with Annacurra and he was selector on the Senior team. In the middle of all this he managed to play with St Martins and St Patricks in Wexford. His first adult game for Annacurra he remembers fondly was played in Knockananna against the Billies. When asked how he got on he remarked casually “well I survived so that’s the main thing.” But then a chance came to start a new life in Tipperary and it is a move he will never regret making. Pat is immensely proud of his Wicklow and Annacurra roots. He played Senior football with Annacurra, only giving up in 1998, a year before they won the Junior C championship he recalls jokingly. His coaching life began with Annacurra and he was selector on the Senior team. In the middle of all this he managed to play with St Martins and St Patricks in Wexford.
His first adult game for Annacurra he remembers fondly was played in Knockananna against the Billies. When asked how he got on he remarked casually “well I survived so that’s the main thing.” But then a chance came to start a new life in Tipperary and it is a move he will never regret making. “We were farming and we realised there was no real future so I bought a convenience store in Cloughjordon. How I got into the football down here is sort of ironic. This area is totally hurling and as I’m a bit passionate about the GAA I said to myself that it is easier to not be involved at all and to stay away from it. But then about five years ago an amalgamated team started here called Kilruane McDonaghs and John Cahill was a selector. One day he met me on the street and he didn’t really want to do it and he asked me would I do it. So not having been involved in the GAA for some time I nearly took his arm off. That year we got to the county semi-finals and Niall Kelly was a player who was also the Minor county selector and he was going in with John Evans in the Senior so he recommended me for the job as Minor selector and things just snowballed from there,” he said. This year is the third year of Pat’s involvement with the management team of David Power, Tadhg Duggan and Fergal McDonnell. In that time they have built up a strong team and the bond and respect the team have for each other was there for all to see as they beat a fancied Dublin side in Croke Park.
But what if anything can Wicklow learn from this great achievement by a county who, if we were to follow the ‘tradition’ argument, had no right to be togging out in Croke Park on the third Sunday in September. “Since my son was involved down here I’ve watched Tipp football very closely and there’s an awful lot of coaching going on down here. There is also a strong tradition. The Saturday of the All-Ireland weekend the team stayed in Ratoath and we called into Maynooth College where Fr Tom Marsh is buried. It was him that set up the Minor board in 1970 in Tipperary. Then if you stand in Croke Park and look across at the Hogan Stand, that’s called after a Tipperary man and his grand-nephew came into the dressing room before the match. There is a serious tradition down here. There’s a steel and it’s fabulous to be involved in it. In Wicklow you have to have focus and strength. I wouldn’t run down Wicklow because there are a lot of great people involved up there, a lot of dedication but there are also a lot of distractions. I believe Wicklow can get to this level. But you have to get into the schools. You have to compete better against soccer. Personally I believe that you can make a great soccer player from a Gaelic player but you can’t make a great Gaelic player from a soccer player so you have to get in there early, put a bit of steel into them. You’re going to lose some of them but you’ll keep a lot of them too. You have to increase their skills and abilities. But it’s not one or two days of intensive efforts, it doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. For the immediate future Pat believes that there are key goals that Wicklow must have to ensure that we too will one day enjoy the immense success that he has helped bring to Tipperary. “The All-Ireland was special because as a child you have the dreams of winning one but in Wicklow you have to give up those dreams when you reach the age of about 10. Reality kicks in. You have to set realistic goals and see where they snowball too. Wicklow have to get out of Division 4, they have to get their juveniles right and there is a lot of work going on but they are being aggressively targeted by other sports. There are some great people working in the GAA in Wicklow and in no way am I being critical of them. But you have to keep at it. You have to target the big population areas and take more players from there,” he advised.
And so as Pat Murphy’s GAA star in Tipperary if firmly on the rise would he ever dream of a future time when a vacancy might arise in his own county? “Ah, it would hardly be practical. I’m 50-years-old now but you never walk away from the GAA. Once it’s in the blood it’s in the blood,” he said. Everyone at Annacurra GAA club congratulates Pat on his role in Tipperary’s success and wish him all the best for the future.
*Many thanks to Wicklow People Sports Editor Brendan Lawrence for the article and for allowing us to use it. The article will appear in the Wicklow People so make sure to pick up your copy.
