John Arnold: Born 100 years ago tomorrow, Con Murphy... a giant of GAA
Still in St Colman’s College in Fermoy, David John Barry, Chairman of our local club, used drive to the Wednesday night gatherings in Midleton Courthouse. I’d walk over the road to Ballinwillin Bridge and David John would pick me up and drop me home after the meetings.
I liked the administrative side of the Association, dealing with fixtures, objections, referees’ reports and the like. At that time many GAA clubs in Cork, indeed in Munster as well, bought supplies of hurleys from the hurley factory in Cork.
A company called Ciste na Banban was initially set up in the early 1960s. Ciste promoted a form of GAA ‘Pools’ which was a money-making scheme for clubs. People paid 6d or 1/- per week to a collector in the local GAA club. Depending on the results of different hurling and football games, one could win prize money. David John was the ‘Pools’ collector in our area.
Con Murphy was very involved with Ciste na Banban, and in 1967 the Ciste set up a hurley-making factory in Kilbarry on the Northside of Cork City - I think it was a Mr Christie who was the factory manager. Though the factory closed 25 years ago, Cork GAA still owns the land and it’s hoped the sale of Kilbarry will help clear off the Pairc Ui Chaoimh debt.
David John and myself were collecting a dozen hurleys at the factory and that’s when I first made my acquaintance with Con.
He knew David John well because another Bride Rovers player, well known to David John, was a teammate of Con’s on the Cork All Ireland winning team of 1946 - amazingly, another Con Murphy!
So, on that Cork team were Con from Valley Rovers and Con from Bride Rovers.
As an avid GAA reader, I’d known of Con’s playing and refereeing careers and how, after he retired from hurling he devoted himself full time (despite holding down a Health Board job!) to the promotion and enhancement of the GAA.
I attended my first All-Ireland in that year of ’72 and Con was still Cork GAA Secretary then. As President of the GAA, I was thrilled to see him present the MacCarthy Cup to Ray Cummins, Martin O’Doherty and Charlie McCarthy - a great three years for Con and for Cork.
During his term leading his beloved Association, Con also saw his dream of a new ‘home’ for Cork GAA come true, with the opening of the ‘original’ Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
As a GAA officer and administrator, what I really admired about Con was his clarity of opinion and the way he stuck to his principles. I absolutely detest those who blow hot and cold -they have principles but will ditch or change them if it suits or just to go with the flow. Con was never like that. He loved the GAA and what it stood for and the force for good it was in Irish society.
In his opinion - and in mine too - the function of the GAA was and still is crystal clear. Davin, Cusack and Croke and the other founding fathers saw the need to show that hurling and Gaelic games are our games, racy of the soil, and our role in building on their foundations has absolutely nothing to do with other sports.
Con never flinched or drew back from his absolute allegiance to our games. When Rule 42 met its end at Congress in 2005, he and other former GAA Presidents were treated badly, but Con never lashed out with a resentful response.
Elected Chairman of the Cork County Board in 1985, our club was both honoured and humbled to have him officially open our Club Grounds, Pairc na Bride, in 1985. Stretching back to the 1950s, Con was a great advocate of grounds purchase. Just as Michael Cusack wanted ‘a club in every parish’, Con Murphy worked towards his aim of ‘a playing pitch in every club’.
He helped literally hundreds of GAA clubs to purchase and develop pitches and facilities all over the country. These remain a permanent reminder of Ireland’s greatest ever sports administrator.
It was during the last 25 years of his long life that I came to really know Con. I met him regularly at Board meetings and other functions and admired his wisdom and knowledge on every aspect of the GAA.
Our club won a Minor County League Title in 1992 and it changed the fortunes of Bride Rovers. It was Con who oversaw the inception in 1991 of the separate Cork Minor Board, which catered for under 18 players. The importance of loyalty was paramount to him.
Valley Rovers was his club - first and last. There are plenty examples of good hurlers and footballers being ‘poached’ by bigger clubs in the 1940s and ’50s, but Con could never contemplate leaving his roots.
Even when living in the Bishopstown area of Cork city, he remained a life-long Valley Rovers man.
Con and his uncle, Sean McCarthy, both reached the highest office in the GAA - a singular honour for their club and the South East Division.
To this day, where GAA people gather anywhere and discuss the 138 years of the Association’s history, the name ‘Con’ evokes pride and feelings of gratitude. His wife and family shared a husband and father with the membership of the Gaelic Athletic Association for so many years.
Yes, we all miss him, but as his family and the Gaels of Carrigdhoun gather tomorrow, they will be happy in the knowledge that such a man, ‘a Giant on My Shoulder’, was such a positive influence on generations of Gaels.
We can all smile and truly marvel at how one man could accomplish so much for the GAA in a voluntary capacity.
I know his people and friends in Carrigdhoun will pay him a proper and fitting tribute exactly a century after he was born in Toureen.
App?
