County final day brought back great memories from past
Dear Sir,
I have often remarked in past comments how fate has a habit of throwing things together which combine to produce a certain irony in life’s vicissitudes.
Such an occasion for me was the Louth GAA SFC final when a combination of features had me reminiscing.
The Louth GAA Senior Final is always a special day in the annals of the county’s GAA calendar. It is the Blue Ribbon of Gaelic football in the county and the accolade every club wants on their CV.
Awaiting hurricane Ophelia’s impending arrival provided an ideal opportunity to read the excellently scripted and researched Programme from the final. The reproduction of the 1957 All Ireland Final Programme is another fabulous piece of ingenuity which is an endearing and forever keepsake of an occasion which may never again happen in my lifetime. This is a marvellous collectors item. The quality of the programme is also excellent and the printers are to be congratulated
The ironies I refer to are perhaps in the sentimental mode and reflective of occasions and times when the principal characters of the great event were children and very much part of my life when they were in their formative years.
Not for the first time do I mention the great Brian Phillips who departed this life far too early. His youngest son, Ronan “Smiley” Phillips, was the “Man Of The Moment” and fulfilled a prophecy which his father confided in me many years ago. Brian was one of the sharpest people I have ever known, he had a quick riposte to any jibe, was always a thinker and contributed greatly to the advancement of opening up the ‘closed’ rugby fraternity to include the wider working class into it’s ranks.
He was the ‘Pied Piper’ of his time with his three young sons & all the young boys and he would load his little “Bubbles” laundry van and transport them to every part of Leinster for youth rugby matches. Honours were abundant and Leinster medals at every level were won at every age group with records that can only ever be equalled but, never broken.
“Smiley’s” success brought a tear to my eye yesterday because my thoughts were of how proud his father Brian would have been of his success. His prophecy - “He will be the cleverest of them all” - came to pass with his cunning tactics and the respect he garnered from his squad of players, which confounded the opinion in some quarters, that he was too young for such an onerous task.
He attained the greatest honour as a coach in Louth GAA Football. Another link to those heady days of the 90’s and prominently involved was “Smiley’s” assistant, Donal Nugent. Whilst Keith Lynch was winning his fifth championship medal as a player with the “Blues” and another member of the 90’s “crew”. Also connected to this trio’s formative years, and involved in the proceedings on the day, was my own son, Anthony Briscoe, who refereed the County Minor Final.
This meant I had a small and insignificant part in the proceedings, when I assisted as an umpire, but meant that I was reconnected with the now “grown up” young men of the 90’s on a very auspicious day.
Lastly, the sight of a Termonfeckin native, Andy McDonnell, raising the Joe Ward Cup aloft, as Captain of the victors “The Blues”, was another very pleasing feature casting my mind back to his father and uncle on similar days in 1983 & 1984 with St Fechins.
I’m so proud of my involvement and friendship with these young men who have gone on to achieve such subsequent sporting and personal achievements in their lives. Yours, Seamie Briscoe.