Glorious O’Hehir legacy lives on
As Naas face hurling royalty Ballyhale today, a name forever linked with Croker’s biggest days will be represented
MICHAEL O’HEHIR made a famous plea over the airwaves from the Polo Grounds in New York, as the iconic 1947 All-Ireland football final between Cavan and Kerry came to a dramatic finale. ‘And if there’s anybody along the way there listening in, just give us five minutes more…’
His request was facilitated.
It’s just one unscripted line from a broadcaster who became the voice of Gaelic games for an entire generation and more. Someone who ‘held a nation spellbound’ as one of the most fitting tributes to his talent put it.
That famous quote is preserved for all to see in an eye-catching plaque as you enter the main entrance of Croke Park on the Hogan Stand side. It captures a legacy that is timeless and a career that encompassed 99 All-Ireland final broadcasts between 1938 and 1985 on RTÉ radio and television. And at times drifted beyond the sphere of sport or Gaelic games.
When he was in America on holidays in 1963, he was asked to fill in and follow up an event that shocked and then stopped the world – the assassination of John F Kennedy. The manner in which he stepped in to commentate for the live fivehour broadcast brought its own acclaim.
A racing commentator as well as a Gaelic games commentator, he memorably put his personal stamp on Foinavon’s famous victory in the 1967 Grand National.
And it’s a legacy that lives on too from father to son… to grandson.
The O’Hehir clan is stitched into the national sporting fabric. No more than his brother Tony, the sports bug and the media bug bit Peter early.
And has been passed down to the next generation of their own families.
In Peter’s case, to his own two sons. The eldest, Conor, is now 30. He represented Naas all the way up and lined out at Croke Park in a Kildare senior shirt. His talent with a small ball extends to being a scratch golfer who works in the RTÉ sports department now himself.
Then there’s 26-year-old Eoin. An accountant by trade. Part of the Naas senior hurling squad that became the first from Kildare to win an intermediate club All-Ireland at Croke Park last February. And is now back at the same venue this afternoon for what is another landmark moment for Naas, sharing the same stage as hurling royalty Ballyhale Shamrocks in a Leinster Club SHC semi-final.
It’s 35 years ago that Peter witnessed a packed stadium rising to acclaim his father. Deprived the milestone of commentating on his 100th All-Ireland by an untimely stroke, it was Peter who pushed him onto the field in a wheelchair to an impromptu ovation that reduced his father to a tearful thank-you.
No wonder then that this afternoon – walking in to Croke Park where that plaque hangs – will strike a chord for both Peter and Eoin. Here, they both talk about the line from the Polo Grounds in New York to Croke Park 75 year later.
Peter admits that heading into the stadium always strikes a chord. It carries a special resonance given his father’s association with the place and the GAA. Particularly so with Eoin part of the Naas squad and that reminder hanging for all to see.
‘It does. Not that I get to see it very often but Conor has worked in there a good bit over the years and Eoin has been doing stats for TV for Sky and for RTÉ from time to time. Every time he walks through the tunnel he sends me a picture of it.
‘I’m going to Croke Park since I was five or six. We were only living up the road. As a teenager, on a Sunday, I’d walk down Griffith Avenue to Parnell Park in the morning if there was a decent club match on. Go to Croke Park then of an afternoon. We would have all gone through the phase of keeping notes for my dad in the commentary box. I did it for a few years until the Dubs came on the scene in ’74 and I was too excitable – I had to be thrown out!
‘Between the Irish Press days and covering matches in there – my time in the commentary box – there would have been some memorable days.
‘National Anthem time is a bad time for me. It’s the one time on a big day when time stands still for a minute. And yeah, you starting thinking… That’s just me, I’m a softie.
‘Last year on the day of the AllIreland final, Eoin didn’t play but the run the lads had through the county and then the intermediate and on to win the All-Ireland was amazing. The best day I ever had up there.’
Emotional?
‘Very much so. When you’ve been surrounded by it for 60 years. The two lads had played there as kids.
Eoin played in a Cumann na mBunscol game, at half-time in the middle of a Railway Cup game, many years ago. Conor played there in a Leinster inter-county blitz at Croke Park when he was Under 14. They brought the U14 county panels in for the day.
‘Conor played for Kildare in there as well. It’s been ongoing…’
Eoin himself describes the emotion of that All-Ireland final day and Naas’ rise from the intermediate ranks to sharing a stage this afternoon with Kilkenny kingpins Ballyhale Shamrocks.
‘The journey has been unbelievable, to be part of it. It’s a special bunch of lads that we’ve had over the last few years. That day was up there with the best of them all. Dad being a Dub, he’s had the success with the footballers in recent years but he gets a real kick out of Naas hurling – he loves it.
‘Croke Park is a special place for any GAA person but with the second name, I’ve been lucky enough to be there for many All-Ireland finals, semi-finals, all sorts of big matches down the years. Then this year, getting the chance with Naas for us to be out there last February in the All-Ireland final against Kilmoyley was very special. And now to be going back, it’s another special one.’
LAST Thursday was actually the 26th anniversary of Michael O’Hehir’s passing. And yet he lives on, in so many ways. When Major winner Shane Lowry managed a hole in one at the signature island hole that is the 17th at the prestigious Players Championship last March, one creative spark dubbed Michael O’Hehir’s commentary over the footage, commentary of Seamus Darby scoring the winning goal for Offaly against Kerry in the 1982 All-Ireland.
‘It is nice of course,’ admits Peter. ‘Any time the voice or name is linked, he’d be proud himself to be linked with such things so many years on. The technology and the things people can do – not always for the better!
‘Certain times of the year, All-Ireland times or whatever, the old footage comes on. It’s strange because it comes on and people of a certain generation, their ears will prick and they’ll say, “Oh, there he is”. And yet 1985 was his last broadcast. It’s a long time ago.’
An avid golfer like his brother Conor – both of the scratch variety – Eoin got a kick out of the Lowry clip that did the rounds online.
‘I was born in April 1996 and Grandad died in November – so I was only around for six months when he was around. So seeing and hearing those clips is class.’
There has rarely been an ovation though to match the one offered to Michael O’Hehir on All-Ireland final day in 1987. A special series of events was planned to mark the centenary football final, including a parade of the 1947 Polo Grounds finalists. Nothing matched the reception and outpouring of emotion when Peter pushed his father onto the grass in a wheelchair.
Given his self-proclaimed ‘softie’ status, that must have really tugged at the heartstrings?
‘It did, especially as I was the one who pushed him onto the pitch. From my own selfish point of view, it was a case of put my head down and push.
‘But it was a big day for him in that, I felt at the time that after he had the stroke, he had worked and made a bit of progress. Had the dream that he was going to be back as good as new. And then the realisation probably came that it wasn’t going to happen. It was Liam Mulvihill (GAA director general) who asked him would he be willing and he said, “Why not?” That was a big step for him. There were floods of tears.’
Was there any anticipation of the reaction that he’d get from the crowd?
‘You would expect a certain level of respect from people but to have the whole crowd, whatever it was at the time, 70 something thousand, on their feet – it was crazy stuff.’
A quirk of fate saw the O’Hehirs end up settling in Naas.
‘We were living in an apartment in Killester, myself and Margaret,’ explains Peter. ‘Conor was gone a year old, we were wondering would it be big enough for all of us. We came down this direction for a drive one Sunday. Spotted a development. Before we’d seen a house Margaret said, “I think I like the look of this.”’
The sporting pedigree runs deep in the family, too, given Peter’s wife played representative basketball for Ireland.
More a self-confessed hurler on the ditch than a hurler himself, Peter soon found himself roped into a bit of coaching as the kids went through the ranks from nursery all the way up to adult hurling. Never did he imagine that journey would end up in an intermediate All-Ireland final at Croke Park last spring.
‘For these lads it’s been great, even from last year where we won a third county senior championship and went through Leinster. We had a great day when beating Tooreen in Ballinasloe, a big entourage travelled. With the footballers winning the double – as we’ve done again this year, although the footballers went out early to Kilmacud – there has been a great buzz around the town.
‘It ran through last summer, autumn and it lasted until February – all of a sudden there were blue and white flags all up and down the street. Everywhere you went in the town there were signs there was something happening.’
Taking on Ballyhale Shamrocks, a club just after making history with their own five in a row of Kilkenny titles, is a challenge that takes them to the next level.
‘From this time last year we were mooching away at intermediate level. Now we’re playing the best club team in the country in recent years – I know they were beaten in the final last year. I’d say there’s lads losing sleep over facing up to TJ and Fennelly and Joey Holden and so on.’
For anyone looking in, how do you explain the Naas success story?
Eoin puts together some of the pieces. ‘It’s been going on a number of years. It’s only now that people outside the club are seeing it. So many good people have been involved at underage. Starting all the way up from nursery. John Holmes gets mentioned a lot and rightly so, he started a lot of us out in the nursery and he’s still down there coaching kids.
‘The late Denis Hanley was involved in underage stuff as well, all the coaches we’ve had up along.
‘Then the last three years we’ve had Tom Mullally and Christy Kealy, they are two of the best I’ve ever played under. They’re top class. But it does go back a long way, the success we’re having now. The underage teams playing in Kilkenny, that helps massively.’
Peter recalls the time the club had entered the Kilkenny leagues and beat Ballyhale Shamrocks in an U16 Kilkenny Shield final back in October 2015. ‘It’s a small thing and will probably have no bearing on Sunday but it’s just a thing in their heads, sure we’ve played these lads before. Plus the fact they were in Croke Park last year so won’t be overawed.
‘As long as they perform and don’t freeze… it’s going to be a huge task obviously.’
Eoin says to be sharing a stage with the likes of TJ Reid is exactly where Naas want to be, the match live on TG4 too. Thumping Offaly champions Shinrone in their senior Leinster bow was another significant step.
‘You want to be playing against the best. The mood is good. The last day against Shinrone was massive for us. After coming up from intermediate, we had to win to feel that we were able for that step up. If we’d lost that, there would be people saying, “Jeez, what are they doing at senior?”. So to get that first win in senior championship was huge.
‘The competition for places is unbelievable. To me, there’s lads there who would get a game with a lot of teams in the country. It’s a serious standard, compared to where Naas hurling was many years ago.
‘The last one was a massive one. We’ll be going out there giving it 150 per cent.’
Peter’s job as long-time racing correspondent for the Irish Mirror means that Croke Park won’t be the only sporting event on his radar on Sunday, ready to hightail it from there ‘to be back at my desk at a reasonable hour to catch up on things.’
The line from the Polo Grounds to present day continues on in more ways than one. Just this week, a statue of 1947 All-Ireland winning Cavan captain John Joe O’Reilly was officially unveiled in the Market Square in Cavan Town.
Kerry great Mick O’Connell was at that, just as he was at the funeral of Michael O’Hehir in 1996, President Mary Robinson amongst the mourners. Five minutes more?
Seventy five years on, the O’Hehir name and spirit carries on down the generations.
He died when I was only six months, so hearing all his old clips is class