Within the interval of transition from the Nineteen Fifties into the early tv age, Dublin hurlers left a modest indentation on the nationwide consciousness. Sixty-one years in the past, they received the Leinster senior title in Kilkenny, beating Wexford, who had been reigning All-Eire champions.
hile they’d go on to lose the All-Eire remaining to Tipperary by only a level, a defining second of missed alternative for Dublin hurling, a minimum of the Leinster title meant they savoured the sensation of profitable a championship. They’d a tangible reward, however no wonderful daybreak was breaking. It is likely one of the moments relived in a current autobiography of Jimmy Grey, now 92, the goalkeeper on that group.
The subsequent provincial success can 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 remaining, he was neutralised by Noel Drumgoole, who held Doyle scoreless. Dublin received 7-5 to 4-8 earlier than a crowd of round 40,000.
Grey remembers an episode on the bus journey house. They ate in Carlow and had been shifting by 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 associates and former Dublin gamers. Prior had been centre-back and captain on the Dublin group crushed by Cork within the 1952 All-Eire remaining. Though closing time had handed, they claimed to know an area pub proprietor and felt they may persuade her to serve a drink to rejoice the victory.
Grey says a lot of the Dublin gamers didn’t drink and lots of had work the subsequent day and simply wished to get house. In his e-book, he recounts the second. “Once they knocked on the door, the proprietor peeped out and mentioned she couldn’t allow them to in as there was a brand new guard on the town and all of the pubs had been beneath surveillance. ‘Really,’ she mentioned, ‘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 they’d received the Leinster remaining they usually simply wished one pint to rejoice. 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 mentioned to the guard, ‘ what, guard, I’d like to f**ok 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 might additionally drink for Eire.”
Jimmy Grey, Br Seán Donohoe, Jim Gavin and Br Kevin Crowley. Photograph: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Jimmy Grey has had a outstanding life by any measure. A son of Longford mother and father, he was on the Dublin soccer squad that misplaced the 1955 All-Eire remaining 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 sport in 1968. He carried away loads of regrets. Within the 1959 Leinster remaining, 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.
“Wanting 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 received one. For various causes, we misplaced Norman Allen, Tony Younger and Kevin Heffernan. They’d have made a large distinction in 1960 and ’61.”
He was one thing of a GAA polymath. In 1969, he refereed the Leinster hurling remaining 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 largest 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 greatest remembered for his position in getting Heffernan in to handle the struggling soccer group. By then, he thought-about Heffernan a pal, though somebody who all the time stored a sure distance. They met first on a bus after each had performed an under-16 faculties 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 unbiased committee that offered suggestions which might remodel the way in which Dublin ran its affairs. The report included the appointment of the primary full-time county officers within the early Nineteen 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 scenario 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 remaining at Croke Park. Photograph: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
He shaped a committee of non-board members, many younger folks, 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, grew to become the CEO, and Donal Hickey, who grew to become Improvement Officer as a result of 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 quite a lot of reward for the appointment of Kevin Heffernan as Dublin supervisor in 1973, however I really feel my largest contribution to the GAA has been the entire 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 supply at first, declaring himself dedicated to St Vincent’s. The occasions are charted in Grey’s e-book. “Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin was the GAA correspondent of the Night Press. He rang me someday and enquired how progress was going with the appointment of a brand new administration group. I advised him that I used to be doing the whole lot 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 mentioned I had nothing to do with it. I received’t quote what Kevin mentioned 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 received their first All-Eire of that period.
Final yr, Grey’s membership, primarily based on St Mobhi Highway, reached a primary Dublin senior hurling remaining towards Kilmacud Crokes in Parnell Park. On the identical Saturday night time, a number of of the surviving members of the ’61 group 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 remaining, 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 received the sport. We had a poor begin, however we had an exquisite second half and quite a lot of neutrals would say that we had been the higher group on the day regardless that Tipperary had been sizzling favourites,” Grey recollects in his e-book. “Tipperary got some extent when it was nicely, nicely huge. 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 nicely again within the hope of constructing contact with the umpire.
“Lar acquired despatched off afterward. Tom Ryan pulled on a ball and hit ‘Snitchy’ Ferguson accidentally. Lar wasn’t impressed and clattered Tom … each acquired despatched off. Noel Drumgoole would keep watch over Lar throughout the sport and can be continuously saying, ‘Shut up, Lar!’ I might write one other e-book about Lar if I might solely keep in mind half of the tales. We might have received that sport, however we didn’t actually consider it. Tipperary had been an incredible group on the time and we in all probability had an inferiority advanced moving into to that sport.”
When Dublin final received the All-Eire hurling title in 1938, Jim Byrne was the one native on the group. By the point Grey made it onto the Dublin hurling group, there have been a handful of gamers from outdoors the county nonetheless concerned. However by the point of the ’61 All-Eire, solely full-forward Paddy Croke, a Tipp man, was from outdoors Dublin from the beginning group. Croke scored three targets within the ’61 Leinster remaining.
“I keep in mind getting back from a Leinster Council assembly about 2 o’clock within the morning one time,” says Grey. “I used to be happening the Lengthy Mile Highway, no one out, and I noticed this determine strolling in the midst of the street with about 5 greyhounds behind him. Paddy! A very good hurler, an excellent hurler.”
Eight of the beginning 15 that performed within the All-Eire hurling remaining in ’61 have handed on. With 5 factors from the candy hanging Achille Boothman and a strong efficiency in the midst of the sphere by Des Foley (one of the best midfield man after Lory Meagher within the opinion of long-standing Kilkenny secretary Paddy Grace, as advised to Grey), Dublin led by two factors with 12 minutes to go, having trailed at half-time. However Tipp weathered the storm.
“The match studies had been very complimentary and mentioned that Dublin hurling had a brilliant future. We’re nonetheless ready for the massive day to return … after we win the Liam MacCarthy Cup,” says Grey. Over 60 years have handed with out Dublin reaching one other remaining, the closest they got here in current instances being the semi-final losses in 2011 and ’13.
Despite the fact that hurling stays the sport he cherishes most, Grey’s position 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 position of CEO. However the rebirth of Dublin befell throughout his time as chairman, his arms all around the county’s soccer renaissance.
Modernising Dublin met with some resistance from Heffernan when Grey urged that income 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 just a few leaks right here and there. We made just a few bob within the Nationwide League afterward, and I mentioned to Kevin that we should 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 might get a 3rd one but!’
Jimmy Grey together with his Leinster SHC profitable medal from 1961. Photograph: Steve Humphreys
“He was afraid that the gamers would possibly get too smooth 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 right now urged that for his group. He was an incredible choose 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 vary,” says Grey. “What we did up to now 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 folks went into it. Peter Quinn, Pat Fanning, an excellent president, Liam Mulvihill, he was very quiet, however he was an excellent Director Normal.”
Born in 1929, Grey’s life story is enjoyably conveyed and covers a mess, delving into a few of the characters whose lives intersected together with his personal. They embody Mick Leahy, a group 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 harm.
Jimmy Grey dedicates the e-book to his spouse Gretta, a local of Bannow in Wexford. They married within the late Nineteen Fifties and had their honeymoon interrupted when he acquired a name to report back to Kilkenny on a Sunday for a Walsh Cup remaining. When he advised Jimmy Nolan, the group mentor, of his whereabouts in deepest west Kerry, Nolan brushed it off saying, ‘Certain, it’s solely up the street’. They drove again for the match together with his spouse’s blessing. His appreciation of the help she supplied him over the many years leaps off the web page.
He has lined loads in his time, however he’d be the primary to say that he couldn’t have finished it alone. His autobiography, titled Below The Bluest Sky, is a fascinating private memoir. Additionally it is a tribute to all these individuals who helped him alongside the way in which and enriched an exquisite life.
