A true legend of the club he loved so well

FOR every Dundalk fan Jim Murphy’s books on the club’s history were their bible.

His first book, “The History of Dundalk FC - The First Hundred Years”, published in 2003 was, without a shadow of doubt, the most comprehensive history of any sporting club in the country, and deserved much greater recognition nationally than it was given.

The sheer volume of detail contained in the 485 page hard back book, is astonishing, and the result of pain staking research conducted over many years.

Much of that research was undertaken in Dundalk library during days spent trawling through old newspaper files, for that was the only means by which Jim could obtain the detail, including results, teams and scorers of every match Dundalk played since the first coverage in a local paper of Association Football was published when Dundalk played Institution 2nd X1 on December 8th, 1892.

For Jim it was a labour of love for he was captivated by the spell that Dundalk cast on his life when his father introduced him to what he called “the dribbling code” in the Forties, bringing him to Oriel Park and pointing out Joey Donnelly with an awe that only made sense to him in later life.

The infectious enthusiasm that Jim’s father held for the club took hold on Jim’s remaining life, for he was a life long supporter, a former club director, and rightly widely acknowledged as the club’s historian for almost two decades.

His second book, published in 2013, was not as comprehensive in terms of detail, but nonetheless it was another quite outstanding book, which was appropriately named after the rallying chant of supporters that has reverberated round Oriel Park and especially in recent years in every ground in the country, ‘C’mon the Town”.

It was, as Jim said himself a ‘miscellany” of photographs, statistics, memorabilia, profiles and stories to celebrate one of the country’s most successful clubs, covering the first 88 years of its League of Ireland history.

The foreward to that book was written by a Louthman, and a great sportsman, the late Jimmy Magee who concluded his contribution by saying “men like Jim Murphy deserve a reward of their own for their

love of Irish football”.

Many Dundalk fans would concur with Jimmy’s view, including myself, for Jim had such an insatiable appetite for any material, old photographs, programmes or articles pertaining to Dundalk that was never satisfied and this some would say obsession drove him to extraordinary lengths in search of such items.

Only recently I unearthed a batch of old black and white negatives taken by the late Kevin McArdle in the pre digital age at matches he worked at over many seasons for the ‘Argus’ and while they needed considerable work to unearth a worth while picture, Jim was delighted to get them to add to his remarkable archive.

Jim was fortunate to have the support of his family his beloved late wife Aine, his family, especially Seamus who was art director for his last book, and a host of others whom Jim was able to call on for their help in completing his books.

While his love of Dundalk FC in attending games, helping the club whenever he could, and playing a major role in the marvellous “One Team - One Dream” exhibition that embellishes the County Museum, he was, above all else an outstanding Dundalk man.

This was evident in his work for one of the finest firms, P.J. Carrolls ever to be established in the town, and apart from his work in management, he found time to record the history of cigarette making in Dundalk with another fine publication and play an active role in a number of organisations, like Dundalk Maytime Festival.

His death on Saturday has deprived the town and Dundalk FC of a towering figure, and all, especially his family, will rejoice in the knowledge that he lived to see and to record the best days in the club’s history in the last years under Stephen Kenny and Vinnie Perth, for as he often said himself over a pint in the lounge named after his great friend Enda McGuill “we were all living the dream”.

Typically the last time we talked at the last game of the season, a memorable performance against Linfield, a club with whom he established close links during his research, he was asking about an old picture in my possession.

I never got the picture to him, but we’ ll miss this man and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the club he loved so well.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.