Eddie Murphy's lifetime of service to Douglas to be honoured

Eddie Murphy’s half-century of service will be celebrated at a special event at Douglas GAA Club on Friday night (8pm).

A list of accolades and achievements put together by club stalwart Barry O’Donoghue underlines the depth of commitment shown by Eddie since he first received his coaching badge in 1973.

He first refereed at the age of 19, at a time when refs weren’t paid, and was on the Munster referees’ panel in the 1980s before going on to hold an assessor role.

From 1991-2023, he was employed by Douglas as a full-time coach, visiting the five schools in the area and mentoring them to Sciath na Scol success while he was secretary of the club on two occasions and held the posts of chairperson and secretary of the under-age club.

In 2007, Eddie was central to the founding of Douglas Ladies’ Football Club and chaired it for three years, while he guided Cork to All-Ireland LGFA U14 and U16 titles and well as taking the Limerick ladies to a league title in 2016.

Most recently, he was appointed secretary of the Seandún divisional board but his magic touch with Douglas teams has never waned – he has had involvement in more than a hundred title wins, including last winter’s JBFC victory.

Douglas’s Brendan Larkin, who, as Bord na nÓg secretary, first presented Eddie with a cup as a 13-year-old, feels the impact he has had cannot be overstated.

“We were being encouraged by the GAA to have greater liaison between the schools and the club,” he says.

“We took it a step further and made Eddie a full-time coach and it was the best thing we ever did. We had unprecedented success as a consequence, it was unreal.

“He did fabulous work, both with the boys and the girls. The schools started doing well in Sciath na Scol and we benefited enormously from all that.

“He had such a great way with the kids – he was able to name every one of them by their Christian name. He was absolutely fabulous with them.”

Over time, as those youngsters became adults, they continued to flourish thanks to Eddie’s tutelage.

“We won the intermediate football in 1997, the intermediate hurling in 2000 and premier intermediate hurling in 2009,” Larkin says, “and every one of those players would have come up the line with Eddie.

“Eddie won his first county coaching Douglas in 1982, with the U12s. The same year, we won the county U16 and he was the coach of that team as well.

“Many, many more followed over the years, right up to last year, when he was coach of the team that won the county junior B football championship.

“Eoin Cadogan and Eoin Cotter won All-Ireland senior football medals with Cork in 2010, they came up the ranks with him.

“Ronan McCarthy, Alan Cadogan and Shane Kingston, anyone from Douglas who played for Cork – they can trace it all back to Eddie.”

Eoin Cadogan is one of those who enjoyed the benefits of Eddie’s input from the very start.

“I went to primary school in Monkstown, which wouldn’t have been a hotspot of hurling, to be honest,” he says.

“Because I had played in the street leagues and, knowing the work that Eddie had done in St Columba’s and the other local schools, my parents used to take my to the indoor hurling at lunchtime.

“You’d have the wooden hurleys with the rubber bas and then you were walled in with the cushioning, too. Those games were like All-Ireland finals to us and that was down to Eddie.

He had a brilliant way of getting the best out of you while making it competitive but also enjoyable.”

While Eddie’s teams have been successful, that was almost a by-product of the main aims.

“Modern-day coaching has become extremely serious,” Cadogan says.

“Everybody wants to develop the next All-Ireland winner or the next county-title winner within their club.

“Eddie never gave the impression that it was important to him or anybody else about winning but it was hugely important to him that, one, you’d leave after enjoying the session and, two, you’d develop and get better.

“I remember going to the Community Games in Mosney. First of all, I think there was a knack pulled in terms of my address – under Eddie’s watch, it was changed from Ballyorban, Monkstown to Ballyorban, Douglas! – and I remember being inside in the showers afterwards, crying after a fella slapped me across the hand when I went to catch a ball.

“Eddie came in and, once he was happy enough that there was nothing hurt, he said, 'You’ll protect your hand the next time.'

“He was very good at getting the message across but also being very caring.”

Cadogan has gone on to become a coach himself and, like many others, has looked to incorporate Eddie’s methods.
“I’m only in the coaching game a couple of years and I see the time, energy and commitment needed for it,” he says.

“Eddie’s done that for 50 years and he’s put an abundance of players through his hands, all with the focus of making them better. The attributes that he has, you can see how important is to carry those with you – his demeanour, his body-language, his ability to communicate with players.

“I’m 38 this year and he first did that with me when I was six, seven years of age. He has the same sort of energy levels and levels of interest and understanding of how to get the best out of players. That’s a credit to him.”