Within the interval of transition from the Fifties into the early tv age, Dublin hurlers left a modest indentation on the nationwide consciousness. Sixty-one years in the past, they gained the Leinster senior title in Kilkenny, beating Wexford, who had been reigning All-Eire champions.
hile they might go on to lose the All-Eire closing to Tipperary by only a level, a defining second of missed alternative for Dublin hurling, not less than the Leinster title meant they savoured the sensation of profitable a championship. That they had a tangible reward, however no superb daybreak was breaking. It is among the moments relived in a current autobiography of Jimmy Grey, now 92, the goalkeeper on that workforce.
The subsequent provincial success could be in 2013 when Grey had the pleasure of presenting the cup to profitable captain Johnny McCaffrey.
Jimmy Grey was 31 in 1961 when Wexford got here to play Dublin in Nowlan Park for the Bob O’Keeffe Cup, having disposed of Kilkenny within the semi-final. The Wexford full-forward Andy Doyle had scored 4 of their six targets, however within the closing, he was neutralised by Noel Drumgoole, who held Doyle scoreless. Dublin gained 7-5 to 4-8 earlier than a crowd of round 40,000.
Grey remembers an episode on the bus journey dwelling. They ate in Carlow and had been shifting by means of Castledermot round 11 that night time when two of the followers on board prevailed upon the bus driver to cease for a drink. Jim Prior and Ned Dunphy had been mates and former Dublin gamers. Prior had been centre-back and captain on the Dublin workforce crushed by Cork within the 1952 All-Eire closing. Though closing time had handed, they claimed to know a neighborhood pub proprietor and felt they might persuade her to serve a drink to have a good time the victory.
Grey says a lot of the Dublin gamers didn’t drink and lots of had work the subsequent day and simply needed to get dwelling. In his guide, he recounts the second. “Once they knocked on the door, the proprietor peeped out and stated she couldn’t allow them to in as there was a brand new guard on the town and all of the pubs had been below surveillance. ‘Really,’ she stated, ‘he’s up there on the bridge trying down at us now. If you wish to go and ask him, that’s okay with me.’
“So the 2 boys acquired the Bob O’Keeffe Cup and went as much as discuss to the guard. They defined that that they had gained the Leinster closing and so they simply needed one pint to have a good time. The guard was having none of it and, regardless of many requests, he didn’t change his thoughts. When the lads knew that there was no level in persevering with the argument, Ned stated to the guard, ‘You realize what, guard, I’d like to f**okay you over that bridge … into the river!’ Once they got here again to the bus, they had been very uncomplimentary of each guard within the nation. They had been two nice characters. Jim was a Tipperary man, however regardless of many requests to return and play for Tipp, he remained loyal to Dublin, not like many others. He may additionally drink for Eire.”
Jimmy Grey, Br Seán Donohoe, Jim Gavin and Br Kevin Crowley. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Jimmy Grey has had a outstanding life by any measure. A son of Longford dad and mom, he was on the Dublin soccer squad that misplaced the 1955 All-Eire closing to Kerry, a loss that had a profound and propulsive impact on Kevin Heffernan. Grey stopped taking part in soccer a few years later and have become the Dublin hurling ’keeper till the age of 37, retiring reluctantly from the inter-county recreation in 1968. He carried away loads of regrets. Within the 1959 Leinster closing, Dublin had been inside seconds of victory when Seán Clohosey struck the profitable objective for Kilkenny. Two years later, they made amends when defeating Wexford.
“Trying again on the 1959 to ’63 period, I remorse that we didn’t win an All-Eire,” he says. “We had been in 4 Leinster finals in my time — 1959, ’61, ’63 and ’64. And we solely gained one. For various causes, we misplaced Norman Allen, Tony Younger and Kevin Heffernan. They might have made an enormous distinction in 1960 and ’61.”
He was one thing of a GAA polymath. In 1969, he refereed the Leinster hurling closing between Offaly and Kilkenny. By then, he had been a founding member of Na Fianna, and over his life, he has seen it flower into one of many greatest golf equipment within the nation. Grey’s initiative as Dublin County Board chairman helped many golf equipment thrive from modest beginnings.
His 11 years within the chair are finest remembered for his function in getting Heffernan in to handle the struggling soccer workforce. By then, he thought of Heffernan a buddy, though somebody who all the time saved a sure distance. They met first on a bus after each had performed an under-16 colleges match on reverse sides. Grey determined to start out a dialog and Heffernan’s first response was to supply him a cigarette.
The Heffernan appointment had huge ramifications for the GAA normally, however Grey was additionally instrumental in establishing an impartial committee that offered suggestions which might rework the best way Dublin ran its affairs. The report included the appointment of the primary full-time county officers within the early Seventies. Later Grey spent three years as Leinster Council chairman and three years as Dublin hurling supervisor.
“Soccer was the principle curiosity of the sporting public, significantly English soccer, and as a consequence, curiosity in Gaelic video games was very low,” he says of the time he took over as Dublin chairman. “Attendance at video games was very poor. The monetary state of affairs was not wholesome, with a deficit of roughly £70,000, and little prospect of doing something about it.”
Jimmy Grey with Dublin captain Johnny McCaffrey and the Bob O’Keeffe Cup after Dublin had defeated Galway within the 2013 Leinster SHC closing at Croke Park. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
He fashioned a committee of non-board members, many younger individuals, together with Paddy Costello, who labored with him within the Irish Sugar Firm. They took a yr to attract up a report. The 2 full-time officers appointed had been Jim King, who, in impact, turned the CEO, and Donal Hickey, who turned Improvement Officer because of the committee’s suggestions. Grey is grateful for the help proven by GAA president Pat Fanning on the time in serving to to fund the initiative.
“I get plenty of reward for the appointment of Kevin Heffernan as Dublin supervisor in 1973, however I really feel my greatest contribution to the GAA has been the whole reorganisation of the Dublin County Board I helped result in,” states Grey in his autobiography, which he collaborated on with former Dublin hurling supervisor Michael O’Grady.
Heffernan refused the job provide at first, declaring himself dedicated to St Vincent’s. The occasions are charted in Grey’s guide. “Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin was the GAA correspondent of the Night Press. He rang me sooner or later and enquired how progress was going with the appointment of a brand new administration workforce. I informed him that I used to be doing all the things doable to get Kevin Heffernan to take over. The next Wednesday’s Night Press headline was that Kevin Heffernan was to take over the Dublin job as supervisor.
“The next morning, Kevin rang me and his actual phrases had been, ‘The place did they get you from?’ I stated I had nothing to do with it. I gained’t quote what Kevin stated subsequent, however he added, ‘I suppose I can’t again down now! Anyway, thanks, I respect being requested!’”
The deficit of £70,000 that existed in 1969 was cleared in ’74, the yr Dublin gained their first All-Eire of that period.
Final yr, Grey’s membership, based mostly on St Mobhi Street, reached a primary Dublin senior hurling closing in opposition to Kilmacud Crokes in Parnell Park. On the identical Saturday night time, a number of of the surviving members of the ’61 workforce had been paraded for the group to mark the sixtieth anniversary. Grey says that the group had solely met as soon as within the intervening years.
Solely a short while earlier than the county closing, Des ‘Snitchy’ Ferguson, a part of the full-back line that protected a slight-framed and nimble-footed Grey, died. Earlier than him, the full-back and captain Drumgoole, who would later be a founding member of Na Piarsaigh in Limerick and a Limerick county hurling supervisor, and the formidable left corner-back Lar Foley, had handed on. All the full-back line and the 2 wing-backs, Liam Ferguson and Shay Lynch, had been from St Vincent’s.
“We actually ought to have gained the sport. We had a poor begin, however we had a beautiful second half and plenty of neutrals would say that we had been the higher workforce on the day despite the fact that Tipperary had been sizzling favourites,” Grey recollects in his guide. “Tipperary got a degree when it was properly, properly vast. The umpire was a Down man and I challenged him however to no avail. Lar Foley and myself would rotate the puck-outs, and Lar took the subsequent puck-out … and introduced the hurley properly again within the hope of creating contact with the umpire.
“Lar acquired despatched off in a while. Tom Ryan pulled on a ball and hit ‘Snitchy’ Ferguson by chance. Lar wasn’t impressed and clattered Tom … each acquired despatched off. Noel Drumgoole would control Lar through the recreation and could be always saying, ‘Shut up, Lar!’ I may write one other guide about Lar if I may solely bear in mind half of the tales. We may have gained that recreation, however we didn’t actually consider it. Tipperary had been a terrific workforce on the time and we most likely had an inferiority complicated stepping into to that recreation.”
When Dublin final gained the All-Eire hurling title in 1938, Jim Byrne was the one native on the workforce. By the point Grey made it onto the Dublin hurling workforce, there have been a handful of gamers from exterior the county nonetheless concerned. However by the point of the ’61 All-Eire, solely full-forward Paddy Croke, a Tipp man, was from exterior Dublin from the beginning workforce. Croke scored three targets within the ’61 Leinster closing.
“I bear in mind getting back from a Leinster Council assembly about 2 o’clock within the morning one time,” says Grey. “I used to be taking place the Lengthy Mile Street, no one out, and I noticed this determine strolling in the course of the highway with about 5 greyhounds behind him. Paddy! A great hurler, an excellent hurler.”
Eight of the beginning 15 that performed within the All-Eire hurling closing in ’61 have handed on. With 5 factors from the candy putting Achille Boothman and a strong efficiency in the course of the sector by Des Foley (one of the best midfield man after Lory Meagher within the opinion of long-standing Kilkenny secretary Paddy Grace, as informed to Grey), Dublin led by two factors with 12 minutes to go, having trailed at half-time. However Tipp weathered the storm.
“The match experiences had been very complimentary and stated that Dublin hurling had a brilliant future. We’re nonetheless ready for the large day to come back … after we win the Liam MacCarthy Cup,” says Grey. Over 60 years have handed with out Dublin reaching one other closing, the closest they got here in current instances being the semi-final losses in 2011 and ’13.
Although hurling stays the sport he cherishes most, Grey’s function within the revitalisation of Dublin soccer is extensively acknowledged. His affect in administration runs proper to the current day, having been a mentor to John Costello, encouraging him to pursue the function of CEO. However the rebirth of Dublin befell throughout his time as chairman, his fingers all around the county’s soccer renaissance.
Modernising Dublin met with some resistance from Heffernan when Grey instructed that earnings from the Nationwide League would possibly go in the direction of much-needed restore work on the dressing rooms in Parnell Park. “The constructing was forged iron with a couple of leaks right here and there. We made a couple of bob within the Nationwide League in a while, and I stated to Kevin that we must always construct new dressing rooms in Parnell Park and his response was, ‘You’ll not, we acquired two All-Irelands out of those which might be there, and we could get a 3rd one but!’
Jimmy Grey along with his Leinster SHC profitable medal from 1961. Picture: Steve Humphreys
“He was afraid that the gamers would possibly get too delicate if the services had been upgraded. After coaching, the one meals the gamers acquired was a bottle of milk and some biscuits. Think about if a supervisor at this time instructed that for his workforce. He was a terrific decide of a participant and he knew the kind of participant he wanted for every place.”
The transfer to an open draw within the Leinster Soccer Championship befell throughout his time as Leinster Council chairman amid fears that it would depart the council bankrupt, particularly when Dublin and Meath had been drawn within the first spherical in 1991. However the reform gods had been smiling down on them. The four-game epic wanted to determine the winner offered a monetary windfall; the promotional worth was incalculable.
“The factor is, Irish establishments are reluctant to alter,” says Grey. “What we did previously has been profitable, so why change it [often being the prevailing attitude]? It’s a greater organisation now, a hell of loads higher than it was. Some nice individuals went into it. Peter Quinn, Pat Fanning, an excellent president, Liam Mulvihill, he was very quiet, however he was an excellent Director Common.”
Born in 1929, Grey’s life story is enjoyably conveyed and covers a mess, delving into a number of the characters whose lives intersected along with his personal. They embody Mick Leahy, a workforce mentor in 1961 with the Dublin hurlers, who, as a boy, attended the match in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday. Leahy missed out on the 1938 All-Eire attributable to damage.
Jimmy Grey dedicates the guide to his spouse Gretta, a local of Bannow in Wexford. They married within the late Fifties and had their honeymoon interrupted when he acquired a name to report back to Kilkenny on a Sunday for a Walsh Cup closing. When he informed Jimmy Nolan, the workforce mentor, of his whereabouts in deepest west Kerry, Nolan brushed it off saying, ‘Positive, it’s solely up the highway’. They drove again for the match along with his spouse’s blessing. His appreciation of the help she supplied him over the many years leaps off the web page.
He has coated loads in his time, however he’d be the primary to say that he couldn’t have executed it alone. His autobiography, titled Underneath The Bluest Sky, is an interesting private memoir. It’s also a tribute to all these individuals who helped him alongside the best way and enriched a beautiful life.
