HUBERT MURPHY
REY hair, no hair, receding locks, jet black and youthful brown. The heads abounded amidst the packed St Mary’s Church, of GAA and soccer men, All-Ireland winners and All Stars, and men who rolled back the years for one moment in time - a moment to honour the great one.
As one glanced from seat to seat, memories flashed of former days, county greats, committee men and officials, all gathered for Paddy.
Paddy Clarke would have loved it, a meet and greet to beat any, what stories would have been told, what laughs and jokes told.
Paddy watched from above as they left, many walking with him on his final journey home. It’s hard to break up a great team.
Last Wednesday, the world said goodbye to a man who left an undeniable mark on it.
To coach teams to FAI Youths Cup wins and then SFC wins in five different counties, over different decades, will never be done again. Let’s hope Paddy put that as his final statistic.
Cooperhill was a place of immense pride and it was no different last week as some of the best GAA players of all time came to pay their respects.
They came too on Wednesday, where Fr David Bradley and Fr Phil Gaffney concelebrated his funeral mass.
By the nature of the man, much of the mass was planned by Paddy, with his ‘ greatest treasure’- his family.
‘As he’d say, he got a magnificent bounce of the ball when he met Annette in the Ballymascanlon Hotel,’ Fr David stated.
They went on to enjoy a wonderful life and when the family came along, the picture was complete.
Born in Hand Street, Paddy (72) went on to enjoy a sparkling and successful career on the sporting fields of this country.
‘ There was a tremendous humility about the man and he faced his big- gest challenge with planning, great dignity and good homour, assisted by those he wanted closest around him,’ Fr David added.
He spoke about Paddy’s love of coaching and passing on his experiences and how his ‘sharp mind’ picked up on so many things.
‘He was a great planner and enjoyed success with Louth and the International Rules, so much to be proud of, but he was always a humble, down to earth character.’
He loved his home and family and together they made a very good team, especially on family holidays when Paddy would get the detail right and they’d follow on.
He went to various parts of the world, from Rome to the Great Wall of China.
‘He treasured what he had in front of him all the time, a good lesson for us all,’ Fr David remarked.
His final journey was to Calvary on the shoulders of man he soldiered with down the years and whom he gave so many great memories.