Huge turnout as Rochestown remember Pat McAuliffe

A team from Rochestown was always guaranteed to win the Pat McAuliffe Memorial Trophy at St Francis College last Saturday - just the legendary broadcaster would have wanted it.

Pat, a familiar voice to many on RTÉ Sport - and a contributor to The Echo - died in April 2019. He was the driving force behind Rochestown GAA Club, inveigling many to don the black and amber and Declan Murphy, the current team manager, wanted to ensure that his memory lives on.

“We played a game in 2020,” he says, "it was the first year the Cork Masters team got going and we had a few lads on that team – James Twohig, Rob Stewart and Dave O’Leary – so we played that year but with various interruptions and Covid, it didn’t happen in the years that followed.

“I took over the team last year and this is the end of my second year. Pat’s somebody that I grew up knowing and I felt that if it wasn’t revived and reinvigorated, it could fade away.

“We held a game between two teams of club members, with two dedicated guys, Richard Murphy and Paul O'Sullivan as captains. We felt it was a great way to finish the year and everybody enjoyed it.”

The show of support on the day underlined the importance of the role Pat played in keeping the club going.

“It wouldn’t exist,” Declan says, “it’s not an exaggeration at all, in any way.

“The club wouldn’t be there now. Pat chanced his arm with so many fellas and it got them playing.

“I can remember, I was heading to a work meeting and I was walking across the footbridge by the college of commerce, Pat was walking the other way, coming out of the RTÉ studios.

“That was a Friday evening, about four o’clock and the following Tuesday night, I was back training with Rochestown, above in Douglas Hall!

“You were thinking, ‘If I don’t say yes, I don’t know how I’ll face this man again.’ You’d feel like you were letting him down otherwise and it was the same for so many guys.

"He had a great way of getting info from you. I can remember when I was an inter-county GAA linesman and Pat would come down to the dressing rooms in the old Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

"He'd say, 'Alright Murphy - come here to me, is it true such-and-such is out?' I'd say, 'I didn't know that news was out...' 

"Before I'd be able to say anything else, he'd wink at me, as if to say, 'That's our secret,' except it was a secret between him, me and the rest of the country when he'd go on air!"

Another famous piece of Pat audio signalled the start of proceedings on Saturday, as Declan outlines.

“At the start, I gathered the two teams outside the dressing rooms and I played a little bit of audio, Pat commentating on the Munster club football final between Clonmel Commercials and Nemo Rangers in 2015.

“I had that on the Bluetooth speaker and said, ‘For those of you who don’t know Pat, this is who he was.’

“Then we formed a guard of honour between the two teams and Pat's brother Matthew brought the cup out between them.

“It said so much about Pat that so many past players who played for Rochestown under Pat – Kieran McGarry, John Foy, Declan Carroll, Aidan Carroll – all came up. Markie Sull [Mark O’Sullivan] came in in the evening as he was playing a match with College Corinthians in the afternoon."

While Richie's Rebels defeated Sully's All-Stars, the day finished in a fitting fashion.

“Pat played with Cork Hibernians, Cork Media, Rochestown and whoever else,” Declan says, “and he never, ever missed a penalty kick in his life.

“It was something like more than 80 penalties and he scored all of them. I said to the referee near the end that we were going to finish with a penalty shootout.

“Dave Barry came up and did a little ‘panenka’ over our keeper, Brendan my uncle took one and scored, everyone got involved. Matthew spoke very eloquently and we presented the trophy.”

 Afterwards, everybody repaired to St Columba’s Hall, 'the tinny shed', in Douglas, where stories of Pat continued long into the night.

“We had our awards night and my uncle Weeshie, who would have soldiered with the club, was inducted into the Hall of Fame," Declan says.

“It was a great night and a very fitting way to finish the day.”