Dermot Earley. Sportsman and army leader.

Dermot Earley was born in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on February 24, 1948, one of five children of Peadar Earley and his wife Catherine (Kitty) Byrne. The family later moved to Gorthaganny, Co Roscommon, where his father took up a teaching post.
He was educated at the local national school and later attended St. Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen. After completing his Leaving Cert in 1965 He joined the Irish Army as a cadet and was commissioned in 1967, rising through a distinguished career to the post of Chief of Staff. His first posting was as a platoon commander in the Recruit Training Depot at the Curragh and in 1969 he was appointed an Instructor at the Army School of Physical Culture.
Dermot Earley was widely regarded as one of the greatest GAA footballer never to win a senior All Ireland medal. He first came to prominence at 15 as a member of the Roscommon minor football team in 1963, launching  an inter-county career spanning 22 years. As in the Army, he was regarded as a born leader on the football pitch.

As a footballer he was equally brilliant at midfield or centre-forward. At age 17 he was promoted to the Roscommon senior side, and won the first of five Connacht championship medals in 1972. In between, he won an All-Ireland under-21 medal in 1966 when Roscommon beat Kildare in the final.
Twice an All-Stars awards winner, he won a National League medal (1979), an All-Ireland runners’ up medal (1980) and two Railway Cup medals. He retired from inter-county football in 1985. At the end of his last game for Roscommon, against Mayo, he was carried shoulder high from the field by members of the Mayo team.
He played club football with Michael Glaveys in Roscommon and was later actively involved with Sarsfields of Newbridge, Co Kildare, where he lived.
He also played rugby, and in 1974 lined out with an Army team against Wanderers in an IRFU centenary celebration match at Lansdowne Road.
After he retired as a player he managed the Roscommon and Kildare county teams. He commented on club games for local radio even after he became Chief of Staff.

Army career
He completed a specialist Diploma Course with distinction, in physical education at St Mary’s College Strawberry Hill Twickenham in 1970/71. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies London (2001) and holds a Master of Arts (Hons) in peace and development studies from the University of Limerick (1999). He had a variety of operational and administrative roles at Curragh Command, and completed the first Ranger course, which led to the establishment of special operations training and the formation of the Army Ranger Wing.
Following a period as assistant command adjutant at Curragh Command he was appointed school commandant of the ASPC. From 1983 to 1987 he was desk officer for overseas operations and later current operations in the chief-of-staff’s branch at Defence Forces headquarters.
He participated in overseas missions with the UN, including as a military observer in the Middle East and twice with Unifil, the UN mission to Lebanon. And from 1987 to 1991 he served as deputy military adviser to UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar.
He was involved in negotiating an end to the Angolan civil war. Afterwards, at a dinner in Lisbon with Angolan leaders and international statesmen, he made a “passionate speech” about what the future held for Angola. A Portuguese academic and student of the peace process handed him a piece of paper with his summary of Earley’s speech. It simply said: “You have it. Don’t f**k it up.”
While serving with the UN up to 1991 he was a member of negotiating teams dealing with the Iraqis and Kuwaitis, and was a key adviser during the setting up of the UN’s mission in Kuwait – Unikom. On return from his UN duties in 1991,  he became an instructor at the Military College, and in the mid-1990s he helped establish the UN Training School Ireland in the college.
On his promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1995 he commanded the 27th Infantry Battalion on the Border, and worked in conciliation and arbitration and public relations at the Curragh.
He became a Colonel in 2001 and was promoted to Major-General in February 2004. He became Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces in April, 2007, and was responsible for the deployment of Irish troops in Chad - considered the most difficult of foreign peace missions ever undertaken by Irish troops.
He became ill in 2009 and retired on June 13, 2010.

One son, Dermot  jnr,  also an Army officer, like his father has two All Stars. Daughter Noelle also played football for Kildare and won an All Star.

Dermot Earley died on June 23, 2010 at the Drogheda Memorial Hospital on the Curragh, Co Kildare. He was survived by his mother Kitty, his wife Mary, and six children: David, Dermot, Conor, Paula, Ann-Marie and Noelle.

Sean Purcell grew up in Bishop Street, Tuam, Co Galway, and worked as a national school teacher in nearby Dunmore. Along with Frank Stockwell, Sean Purcell was one of the “Terrible Twins” of 1950s Gaelic football. He won an All Ireland colleges medal with the local cradle of football, St Jarleth’s, in 1947. In his career with Tuam Stars GAA Club, he won ten county championship titles.
He won an All-Ireland senior football medal with Galway in 1956 and captained the team which lost to Kerry in the 1959 final.
Sean Purcell won three Railway Cup interprovincial medals with Connacht, in 1951, 1957 and 1958, when he was captain. He is widely regarded as one of the game’s greatest centre-half forwards ever and was picked at centre-forward on the GAA ‘Team of the Millennium’ and the ‘Team of the Century’. He was awarded an honorary degree by NUI Galway.
After his retirement from football, he worked in his family’s newsagents shop in the Tuam and talked passionately of football with customers.
His wife, Rita, died in the mid 1990s. Sean Purcell died on August 27, 2005, aged 76, after a short illness, and was survived by his two sons and four daughters.

Micheal O Muircheartaigh. Unique commentary style.

Micheál O Muircheartaigh, Ireland’s best-known Gaelic games commentator, was born in 1930 in Dun Sion, near Dingle, Co. Kerry. He was educated in the Presentation Convent and the Christian Brothers School in Dingle, at Colaiste Iosagain in Baile Bhuirne, Co. Cork, and at UCD.

He worked as a primary and secondary school teacher and his broadcasting career began in 1949 during his days in St Pat’s teacher training college in Drumcondra when Radio Eireann was looking for someone to do commentaries in Irish.
His unique commentary style landed him with the job in RTÉ, where he has been ever since, and he has succeeded Micheal O’Hehir as the voice of Gaelic games.  A native Irish speaker, he has a huge interest in the promotion and development of the Irish language. One of his charms has always been the ease in which he moved from one language into the other – sometimes people barely noticed it.
Mícheál has also had a life-long interest in greyhound racing and regularly commentates on the sport on both radio and television. He once owned a greyhound in partnership with Prince Edward which got to the final of the English Derby.
He has also participated in a building project for the Niall Mellon Township Trust in South Africa.
Mícheál has published two best-selling books, From Dun Sion to Croke Park and From Borroloola to Mangerton Mountain.

He has been awarded an  Honorary Fellowship by the Institute of Technology, Tralee.

After turning 80 in August ,2010, he announced his retirement from the commentary box. The Cork v Down All Ireland final on Sunday, September 19, 2010, was his last commentary – except for the International Rules Series between Ireland and Australia in October.

Commentary sample

“Pat Fox out to the forty and grabs the sliotar. I blought a dog from his father last week. Fox turns and sprints for goal … the dog ran a great race last Tuesday in Limerick … Fox to the 21, fires a shot – it goes to the left and wide … and the dog lost as well.”

Michael O’Hehir was born in Glasnevin in Dublin on June 2, 1920. He was educated at St. Patrick’s National School in Drumcondra and O’Connell’s CBS. His father Jim came from Co Clare and trained the Clare hurlers to win the 1941 All-Ireland.  Michael, or Micheal as he was known to an earlier generation, began commentating as a schoolboy at the age of 18.

Michael O'Hehir: The voice of Irish sport.

He was given a five-minute microphone test during the first half of a GAA league match, and the director of broadcasting at Radio Eireann, Dr T.J. Kiernan, was so impressed with him that he allowed him to commentate on the whole of the second half. Two months later, on August 14, 1938, he made his first broadcast when he covered the All-Ireland football semi- final between Monaghan and Galway.

He became the voice of Irish sport for almost half a century, filling Irish homes with the distinct sound of his GAA hurling and football commentaries on Sunday afternoons in the 1940s and 50s as people gathered around the radio to listen to him. He covered virtually all major GAA matches from 1938 to 1985, when illness prevented him from covering his 100th All Ireland final.

He also commentated on horseracing. One of his most memorable commentaries was on the 1967 Aintree Grand National. That was the year of the horse Foinavon, when the 100/1 rank outsider emerged from the havoc of fallen horses and riders at one of the railway fences and went on to win the race. O’Hehir spotted every horse that came to grief at that fence, and immediately called Foinavon as he came away from the obstacle all on his own. That was his most outstanding performance in 25 years covering the Grand National for the BBC.
He was also racing correspondent for the Irish Independent from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.
He is also remembered for his commentary on the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Ireland in 1963, which showed him to be a man of unique talent. He was in the United States later that year when Kennedy was assassinated and was asked by RTE to cover the funeral. Without the resources available to others, he gave an emotional commentary lasting almost five hours. He described that commentary as the most demanding of his career. As a result of the Kennedy funeral commentary, he was offered and turned down a full-time job in American broadcasting.  He became head of sports programmes at RTE in 1961, a job he continued to do until 1972. He became manager of Leopardstown Racecourse in 1972, but left a year later to continue writing and broadcasting on a freelance basis.
He married Molly Owens in 1948 and they had three sons and two daughters. His autobiography, My Life and Times, was published in 1996.
Michael O’Hehir died Dublin on November 24, 1996.

Frank Stockwell: One of the "Terrible Twins" of Galway football.

GAA football star Frank Stockwell and his fellow Galway team-mate, Sean Purcell, became known as “The Terrible Twins” for their prowess in the forward line. They were both born in Tuam, in December, 1928, within ten days of each other, and they remained lifelong close friends. Such was their understanding on the pitch that GAA writer John D Hickey colourfully described Frank Stockwell as “a diviner of his neighbour’s intentions”.
Together, they inspired Galway’s 2-13 to 3-7 victory over Cork in the 1956 All-Ireland final, and they combined for many other major triumphs. At club level they were the leaders of the Tuam Stars team which went unbeaten in the Galway Senior Football Championship from 1954 to 1960.
Stockwell is also fondly remembered for the match-winning goal, from a well-timed cross from Purcell, in the 1957 National League final against Kerry at Croke Park.
For all their successes on the football fields, and their enduring fame, it remained a fascinating aspect of the lives of Sean Purcell and Frank Stockwell that in their childhood in the mid-Thirties they were first taught how to play football by a nun, Sister Fursey Morris, at Presentation Convent NS, Tuam, and then by the Christian Brothers.
“The Terrible Twins” first played together on the Galway senior football team in the 1948 Connacht Championship. Stockwell retired in 1960 and turned to working as a mentor and played a key advisory role in Galway’s three All-Ireland victories in a row in 1964-65-66 and in the 1981 National League successs. Purcell continued playing until 1962.
Frank Stockwell has a unique place in the GAA’s Hall of Fame, his two goals and five points (all from play) in Galway’s 1956 All- Ireland win was the highest score by an individual in a 60-minute All-Ireland football final.
His working life was spent running the family painting and decorating business.
Frank Stockwell was born on December 7, 1928, and died aged 80, on March 9, 2009. He was predeceased by his wife Pauline in November 2000 and was survived by daughters Fidelis and Marilyn and his son, Francis. Sean Purcell died in August 2005.

Vincent O'Brien. Meticullous attention to detail.

Vincent O’Brien was regarded as the greatest Irish racehorse trainer of all time and arguably the greatest trainer in the world. When his former stable jockey, Lester Piggott, was invited to locate O’Brien in racing history, he replied simply: “Of course Vincent was the greatest — look at the figures.”
He was born on Good Friday, 1917, in Churchtown, Co. Cork. His father Dan, a farmer, bred horses part-time and was a permit holder. Vincent started training horses in 1943 following his father’s death. His career spanned an era in which racing changed from being merely a sporting pastime to a multi-million-pound industry, and it was a change in which this Irish trainer played no small part in association with Robert Sangster and John Magnier.
In his early days as a jump trainer, O’Brien habitually joined battle with the bookmakers. He needed to gamble simply to make the money to keep going. Later, successful coups helped to finance expansion.
His first big winners came in 1944 when Good Days won the Irish Cesarewitch and Drybob dead-heated for the Irish Cambridgeshire. Turning to the jumps, in 1948 Cottage Rake won the first of three victories in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Both horse and jockey, Aubrey Brabazon, had songs written about them. Triple titles soon became a speciality of O’Brien: Hatton’s Grace (which hew bought for 18 guineas) won three Champion Hurdles in a row and then he won the Aintree Grand National with three different horses – Early Mist, Royal Tan and Quare Times,between 1953 and 1955.
When he turned his attention to the flat at the age of 41, he went on to take 27 Irish Classics, three Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphes and 16 English Classics, including six Epsom Derbies. In 1951, he set up at Ballydoyle, near Cashel, a Georgian house with 320 acres of parkland which he gradually turned into a top-class training establishment.

Ballymoss

In 1957 he trained Ballymoss to be placed in the Epsom Derby and win the English St Leger. The horse went on to land the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1958. Also in 1958 O’Brien saddled the mare Gladness to win the Ascot Gold Cup.
In 1960, the Irish Turf Club suspended O’Brien’s training licence for 18 months over a failed dope test on that year’s Irish Derby winner Chamour. It threatened to break up the entire Ballydoyle operation. Popular support never wavered for the trainer, though, amid a general belief that an injustice had been done.
O’Brien eventually got his licence back after almost a year and in 1961 he started a libel case which ended when the Turf Club settled outside the High Court, apologising and paying all costs.

Coolmore

O’Brien’s role was crucial in the syndicate - comprising himself, Magnier and English pools millionaire Robert Sangster – still known as the Coolemore Stud. “There was no better judge of a yearling, and he had an unrivalled knowledge of pedigrees,” wrote The Telegraph. “He also had great business acumen, and invested in Northern Dancer’s progeny at a time when the stallion was unproved.”
As a trainer, O’Brien was meticulous in his attention to detail: when his horses were travelling to the races, he would always have a spare trailer ready in case the original one broke down; similarly, he would often book a reserve jockey for a big race in case anything untoward happened to his first choice. When he thought that The Minstrel (winner of the 1977 Derby) would be upset by the noise of the Epsom crowd, he had cotton wool stuffed in the horse’s ears. He was the first trainer to install all-weather gallops.
In 1968, O’Brien went to Canada and purchesed a Ribot colt on behalf of  platinum magnate, Charles Engelhard. This was the great Nijinsky, who went on to make history in 1970, winning under Lester Piggott the Triple Crown (2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger); the horse also won the Irish Derby and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
O’Brien trained his sixth and final Epsom Derby winner, Golden Fleece, in 1982. He nearly attained a seventh two years later, when El Gran Senor was narrowly beaten in a sensational finish by Secreto — trained by his son, David O’Brien. In 1994 he retired. Ballydoyle was taken over by the Coolmore Stud, run by his son-in-law John Magnier.

O’Brien won 1,529 races and been champion Irish trainer 13 times. He had twice been British champion trainer on the flat, and twice over obstacles.

He married Jacqueline Wittenoom from Perth in Australia in 1951 and they had five children, David, Charles, Elizabeth, Sue and Jane. In his later years he spent most of the year in Australia. He was awarded honarary doctorates from the National University of Ireland and Ulster University. He died at his Irish home in Straffan, County Kildare on 1 June 2009.

Popularly known as ”The Gorgeous Gael”, Jack (Joe) Doyle was born into a working class family on August 31, 1913, in Cobh, Cork. Queenstown, as it was then known, was a tough town but Doyle learned early on how to look after himself. He was to become at one time or another a contender for the British Boxing Championship, a Hollywood actor and a popular tenor.

Jack Doyle: boxer, singer and actor.

His father, Joe Doyle, wanted to be a professional boxer, but injury put an early end to his career. Instead he transferred his ambitions to his young son.
Jack was said to be inspired by a book, How to Box, by World Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey. He joined the Irish Guards in Wales and at 6 foot 4, quickly excelled at boxing and was famed for his strong hooks that won him the British Army Championship. A remarkable record of 28 straight victories, 27 by knockout, brought him to the attention of promoter Dan Sullivan, who bought him out of the army. He turned pro and notched up ten victories on the trot, all inside two rounds.
In July 1933, at the age of 19, he missed out on the British Heavyweight title to the holder, Welshman Jack Petersen, before 85,000 people in the White City in London. He had done most of his warming up in a pub not far from the venue and within the opening seconds, knowing he was in trouble, decided to take the easy way out. He was disqualified for repeatedly punching low. In his comeback fight, he knocked out Frank Borrington within 83 seconds.
Shortly after, his singing voice was discovered by Dr. Vincent O’Brien, teacher to Count John McCormack. He was signed up by Decca Records and soon his tenor voice and handsome looks were selling out the London Palladium and the Royal in Dublin. He became a wealthy man by the standards of the day, reputedly earning the equivalent of £20,000 in some of his fights. But his love for the drink and generous nature soon started to take its toll on his pocket and his health.
He travelled to America in 1934 and carried on his high living of gambling, ladies and drink. His good looks, bad-boy image and ability to attract Hollywood divas and American heiresses brought him close to people’s hearts. He acted in two movies, McGlusky The Sea Rover (1934) and Navy Spy (1937).
While in the States he continued to box, taking on one Buddy Baer in August 1935. Like his fight against Jack Peterson, it is said that Doyle had consumed the best part of a bottle of brandy before the bell rang and was in no fit state to stand. He was knocked down in the first round. He returned to Ireland with this new girlfriend, the actress Movita Castaneda, having recently split from his wife, Judith Allan. Following a celebrity wedding in Dublin’ they toured both sides of the Irish Sea, selling out music halls and opera houses.
Around this time Jack fought his last professional fight, against a journeyman called Chris Cole in front of 23,000 in Dublin’s Dalymount Park. Arriving late for the bout after a stop at The Clarence Hotel for refreshments, the inebriated Doyle went down in the first. Movita had enough and returned to Hollywood where she married Marlon Brando.
Shortly after Doyle was jailed in Dublin for knocking out a Garda detective in a pub. He moved to England and his downward spiral into alcoholism and bankruptcy continued. In 1950 he tried a comeback as a wrestler but the magic was gone. He found his friends had vanished as fast as his money, spent in his own words on “slow horses and fast women”. He odd-jobbed for while but when he couldn’t afford the rent on his flat he took to sleeping at the homes of friends or in doorways. His only source of income during this time was a £25 allowance he received from Movita.
He was living on the streets of London when he was found dead on a footpath in December,1978, from cirrhosis of the liver. His body lay unclaimed in a London hospital until a delegation from Cobh brought his remains home to be buried. In spite of his wasted talent he got a hero’s funeral in Cork. He is remembered by thousands of Irish people at home and abroad as the first modern celebrity.

A TV documentary Jack Doyle: A Legend Lost, was made by RTE in 2007.  A book accompanying the programme,  Jack Doyle: The Gorgeous Gael, ISBN 1843511231, was published in late 2007
A song about Jack Doyle The Contender, written by Jimmy McCarthy, has been performed by Finbar Wright, Christy Moore and Tommy Fleming among others.

The Contender
by Jimmy McCarthy

When I was young and I was in my day
I could steal what woman’s heart there was away
Sing and dance into the dawning
Blaze a trail until the morning
Long before I was the man you see today

And I was born beneath the star that promised all
I could have lived my life between Cork, Cobh and Youghal
But the wheel of fortune took me
From the highest point she shook me
By the bottle live by the bottle I shall fall

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the fall
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

And when I die I’ll die a drunk down on the street
He will count me out to ten in clear defeat
Wrap the Starry Plough around me
Let the piper’s air resound me
There I’ll rest until the lord of love I meet

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the brawl
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

Mick O'Connell: Football team of the Millennium.

Mick O’Connell was one of the great catch-and-kick GAA football players. He played in nine All-Ireland football finals winning four of them. Born on Valentia Island, County Kerry in 1937, he once said: “I was fortunate in that I had plenty of opportunity to train in a big field near our house. My father bought a football for us and we kicked the life out of it. Times were harsh in the ’40s and ‘50s. My family were fishing folk and my father supplemented his income by working the family’s small farm. In a way we were self-sufficient and had a decent life. The island was idyllic and a lovely place to grow up in.”

O’Connell played his club football with the local Young Islanders club. He won three Kerry County Championship medals with the South Kerry divisional side. He also played club football with Waterville.

O’Connell’s career began with the Kerry minors in 1955 and he quickly joined the senior team, making his debut in 1956. Two years later in 1958 he won the first of eight in-a-row Munster titles. However, Kerry suffered a shock defeat by Derry in the All-Ireland semi-final. In 1959 O’Connell was captain when Kerry won the National Football League.

He later guided his county to another Munster title, but  had to retire with a twisted knee in Kerry’s All-Ireland victory over Galway.  He collected the Sam Maguire Cup before a crowd of 80,000 people, headed for Kerry by train and then rowed his boat from the mainland to Valentia Island. He was back next morning working with a cable company on the island.

Following a second National League victory in 1961, he won his second All-Ireland medal in 1962 when Kerry defeated Roscommon in the final. A third National League victory quickly followed at the start of 1963. After two All-Ireland defeats by Galway in 1964 and 1965, Kerry surrendered their provincial crown to Cork in 1966 and 1967. O’Connell won a ninth Munster title in 1968, however, Kerry lost out to Down in the All-Ireland final. This defeat was followed by a great year of success in 1969 as O’Connell added a fourth National League medal to his collection and a third All-Ireland medal following a victory over Offaly.

In 1970 O’Connell entered the third decade of his inter-county football career, winning an 11th Munster title. A fourth All-Ireland medal quickly followed after a victory over Meath. O’Connell claimed two more National league medals, in 1971 and 1972, before winning his twelfth and final provincial medal in 1972. That year Offaly later defeated Kerry in O’Connell’s last All-Ireland final appearance. In spite of this loss he was still presented with an All-Star award. He retired from inter-county football in 1973.

Soon after his retirement, he O’Connell published his autobiography, ‘A Kerry Footballer’, in 1974. Ten years later in 1984 his reputation as one of the all-time greats was recognised when he was named in the midfield position on the ‘GAA’s “Football Team of the Century.” In 2000 he was also named on the GAA’s ‘Football Team of the Millennium.’

The great midfielder believes that area of the pitch he once dominated has now become into a morass of pushing and spoiling tactics and not surprisingly he is not an admirer of the modern game. He has said: “The game has changed completely as the influence of Australian football took over. It’s more like basketball than the old traditional catch-and-kick and its a throw-ball game. The skill is gone out of it for me. It’s win at any cost and I don’t like it. There were no coaches or the like in my day. I trained on my own and made sure I was physically fit for the game.”

Mick O’Connell is married to Rosaleen and they have three children.