50th anniversary: Frantic search for Jimmy Barry-Murphy's jersey before 1973 All-Ireland football final

The Cork team that beat Galway in the 1973 All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park. Back (left-right): Denis Long, Ray Cummins, Jimmy Barry-Murphy, John Coleman, Dave McCarthy, Declan Barron, Ned Kirby, Denis Coughlan. Front: Jim Barrett, Con Hartnett, Kevin Jer O'Sullivan, Billy Morgan (captain), Frank Cogan, Brian Murphy, Humphrey Kelleher.
While Cork have won seven All-Ireland senior football titles, only three of those were achieved in the famous red and white jerseys.
In 1890 and 1911, the club teams Midleton (black and white) and Lees (red and black) won representing Cork and it took until 1945 for the Sam Maguire Cup to be lifted by a Cork captain – the legendary Tadhgo Crowley – clad in what have become the traditional colours.
Since then, Cork have claimed four more All-Irelands and in two of those the county wore the reverse of the kit, white shirts with red trim.
The first of those was the 1973 win over Galway, with this Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of that feat. Jimmy Barry-Murphy scored 2-1 in the 3-17 to 2-13 win, but on the morning of the match there was strife at the Cork hotel as the jersey the teenager was due to wear could not be found.
As reported by the great GAA writer John D Hickey after the match, retrieving it was something of an ordeal.
“There was near panic in the Dublin headquarters of the Cork team, who defeated Galway in the All-Ireland senior football championship final at Croke Park, around 12 noon on Sunday, when it was realised that the no. 13 jersey to be worn by Jimmy Barry-Murphy could not be found.
“After a thorough search had failed to unearth the missing jersey, someone remembered that one of the Cork singlets had been loaned for an All-Ireland display in a window of Messrs Clery’s store in O’Connell St, Dublin.
“Cork selector Paddy Driscoll, a member of association’s management committee, immediately got on the ‘hot line’ to Director General Seán Ó Síocháin to request that he put a rescue operation in train.
“The Director General at once requisitioned the services of Gerry Brown, a former member of the Garda Síochána, who accompanied by a uniformed garda, sped to Clery’s, where they were joined by a squad car.
“The SOS party’s difficulty was to attract the attention of the store’s security officer but they succeeded in quicker time than seemed possible. Entry, however, did not end their problems as the jersey was still locked in the window, the keys to which, not unnaturally, were not familiar to the security man.

“After a process of trial and error the correct key was found and the ‘unlucky’ jersey which was to turn out so lucky – Barry-Murphy scored two goals – was rescued and brought post-haste to the Skylon Hotel to the great relief of Cork officials.
“When the Sam Maguire Cup and other articles in the display were being removed from the store window on Saturday, the Cork jersey was overlooked and was still on view to the public on Saturday evening and on Sunday forenoon.”
Thankfully, the episode didn’t affect the team. Speaking for the soon-to-be-released book, Cork Football: Game of My Life, published by Hero Books, Cork’s centre-back John Coleman recalled the events of the day.
“I had been at the 1957 final with my father,” he said.
“Toots Kelleher from Millstreet was playing that day and he got injured – my father and himself would have been great friends so we went over to check on him. I can remember being inside in the dressing room afterwards and Toots togged out next to a pillar. Every time I went to Croke Park after that, I sat in the same place as Toots.
“In 1973, I was third or fourth into the dressing room and here was this fella sitting in my spot with his arms folded. It was Dermot O’Brien, captain of the Louth team that had beaten Cork in 1957 – ‘I came in to with ye luck because we robbed ye in ‘57 and ye deserve to go all the way this time,’ he said.
“Galway had beaten Offaly in their semi-final and Liam Sammon was dynamite. Our coach Donie O’Donovan said to me, ‘Whatever about playing your own game, you have to make sure that your man doesn’t keep your man out of it.’ For the week before it, we were making sure that whoever was on the 40 wasn’t getting any ball.
“I was fairly disappointed with my own performance, especially as I had to come off injured. We were over in Leopardstown the following day at the reception for the two teams and a replay of the match was being shown.
“I was only half-watching it but, a couple of minutes after I had gone off, Sammon got a ball and sent it over the bar and Micheál O’Hehir said, ‘His first score of the game.’ That made my weekend, because I hadn’t thought about that! It was only then that it struck me.”