Hurling Pioneers Ned Power, Fr Tommy Maher & Dessie Ferguson, Gomanstown 1970

It’s strange that more has not been published on the pioneering work that was carried out by a small few in the Gormanston training camps from 1965 until the late 1970s.

These camps were set up at the instigation of the GAA president and they were essentially the first attempts at developing coaching in the organisation.

The only proviso, however, was that the word “coach” or “coaching” was not not to be used under any circumstances. This would be too much of a commercial approach and would not be tolerated by the more traditional elements within the organisation – both players and administrators. Furthermore, there were many GAA members who actually believed that hurlers were born and not made.

This, quite frankly, sounds crazy in today’s context where coaches are employed professionally at club level, often getting a couple of hundred euros per session in a bizarre sort-of grey market.

The men of the Gormanston camps had to use the preferred term “training” to describe the revolutionary work that they did.  In the beginning (after the initial footballing camp), there were three: Fr Tommy Maher of Kilkenny, Donie Nealon of Tipperary and Dessie Ferguson of Dublin.  They were joined in the second year by two more including my father Ned Power.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

Heroes of the Past

After a highly entertaining County Final yesterday, there was a special event organised by the Waterford County Board in honour of the 1959 All-Ireland winning senior team.

As it was the 50th anniversary of that last AI crown, there were VIP invitations to all the surviving team members and/or partners or representatives.  In addition, there were also the captains of the county-winning teams from the last 25 years.  These included such luminaries as Fergal Hartley (who was actually still in action for Ballygunner on the day), Ken McGrath and, representing Tallow’s famous 2-in-a-row from ’84 and ’85, Kieran Ryan and Mick Beecher respectively.

I was fortunate enough to be there along with my mother and it was great to meet some of the Waterford legends whom I had not met before, as well as some of the sons-of and daughters-of.  Strangely enough, this was the first time that I had met people “like me”, so it felt rather like a strange and very nice sort-of support group where there were conversations about what it was like being “sons-of” and “daughters-of”, hurling books and Waterford Crystal trophies – soon to be pure collectors’ items.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

The day of the big final is fast approaching. Lismore, who have had their share of success in this competition over the last few decades, are up against another illustrious hurling club in the form of  Ballygunner.

There will be no shortage of inter-county stars on display. Dan Shanahan and his younger brother Maurice (who

Maurice Shanahan with the ball for Lismore

is in flying form this weather, by all accounts) should be playing for Lismore, while for those who miss watching Paul O’Flynn drive the likes of Cork and Kilkenny mad by racking up the points for Waterford, it will be an opportunity to see how he fares out with Ballygunner, who beat a much-fancied Mount Sion team on their way to the final.

As a marker of the 50th anniversary of the last Waterford senior All-Ireland win, there is to be a special reception for survivors or representatives. The 1959 final took place exactly 50 years and 1 week ago from the date of this final. Let’s hope that the current team make another small step and claim the cup in 2010.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

It’s always heartening to see someone still living and working to the best of their ability in their eighties.  This is the case with Sean Og O Ceallachain who is the co-author (along with Owen McCann) of a book that has just been launched entitled “The Liam MacCarthy Cup”.

It’s basically a reference hurling book that charts the games that were played out since 1923 where the MacCarthy Cup was the prize.  Among the finals highlighted are the Thunder and Lightning final of 1939 – played in a deluge while a real war erupted elsewhere in Europe – and the stunning smash-and-grab win by Offaly in 1994, when they scored 2-5 in the last 6 minutes to make the most unlikely of comebacks.

Amongst the photographs, there is one of my father lining out for Waterford in the 1959 All-Ireland; the last time a hurling final was replayed and which was played (precisely to the day and date last Sunday) 50 years ago in an October that was also unseasonably warm.

Sean & Owen describe this final as a “sporting game” where a composed display from Waterford  saw the Noreside neighbours (who were also bogeymen back then) off.  The authors also refer to both sets of players congratulating one another whole-heartedly at the end.

In Waterford, the traditional view of Kilkenny is that of a side that has always relied more on its skill than its brawn – the opposite to what the traditional view of the Tipp sides of that era in particular – at least, that’s the distinct impression I get from talking to some of those men.

In any case, it’s a hurling book worth checking out – a well-written series of accounts of the finals that serve as a reminder of so many great matches.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

I suppose I shouldn’t feel too upset.  After all, almost every year, Munster receives a hiding from Leinster in the Celtic League and we might as well get it over and done with now before the matches become too crucial.  Last season, for example, we dished out a hiding to them both home and away. We were smiling at the time, but it was only delaying the inevitable lashback which was bound to be even more painful than normal and, of course, it came just when Munster were looking like a shoo-in for their third European crown.

I didn’ t watch the match.  I don’t subscribe  to any of the sports-events hijack stations, Irish or foreign. I don’t agree with that crooked racket any more than the one that allows one company to hijack the right to make a replica jersey for 2c in China and then sell it on to the hapless fan for €70, all the while forcing him/her to advertise their product for free like a sandwich-board person.  Besides, it gives me a good excuse to go down to the pub.

So, roll on the return match in Thomond next April and let’s hope that the opportunity will be there for some more revenge in the European Cup.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

A title like Unlimited Heartbreak could just as easily apply to the story of Waterford hurling as it does to Limerick hurling. At least Limerick have won an All-Ireland within my lifetime.

In any case, I’m going to get a copy of that book and have a read.  An Fear Rua is certainly impressed with it, saying that “every county should have a book as good as this dedicated to its sporting history. Fans in other counties will envy Limerick… this book will scoop whatever awards are going this year for the best book on sports. It’s that good.”

High praise indeed. I only hope that that doesn’t set my expectations too high. It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas when the hurling books are being rolled out with such regularity.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

A further small excerpt from Conor Power’s forthcoming hurling book:

The Waterford News & Star’s report on July 31st looked forward with some relish to the September All-Ireland final and reflected the confident mood in Waterford as well as the choice of opponents:

“Equally certain is the fact that, given the choice of opponents for this year’s final, Waterford, to a man, would plump for Kilkenny. The disappointment of ’57 is still fresh in the memory of Waterford, and now they have a golden opportunity of reversing the decision of that fateful year. Defeating Kilkenny in the final would add extra lustre to the big gold medal with the harp in the centre.”

Well done! Ald R Jones Mayor of Waterford congratulates Ned Power

The front page carries a great photo of my dad – looking his most handsome, I think – shaking the hand of the Mayor of Waterford just after the Munster final against Cork. The mayor is looking very smooth in a fine suit and hat. My dad is obviously saying something to him; it looks like his thanking him for his kind wishes, but the mayor’s eyes are wide and looking straight into the camera lens. I don’t know what kind of person the mayor was, but in this shot he looks the epitome of the politician who has just found a great photo-opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Waterford team continued their preparations for the big final. Training in those days was a very different approach to the semi-professional style of preparation that teams engage in nowadays. Training at an official level consisted of preparing players physically for the match, but had nothing to do with honing their skills. For that, some of the players who were perfectionist in nature took it upon themselves to literally train themselves. Midfielder Philly Grimes was one of them and so was my father and the two would often engage in setting up end-of-match do-or-die scenarios, testing one another on their respective skills.

Training nights would normally take place in Waterford, or occasionally in the Fraher Field in Dungarvan. All members of the 1959 team speak of the special bonding that the team had. One important element of that bonding was that the men from the west of the county would usually travel together in a hackney car that was invariably driven by Mick Curley (who himself of course had been a goalkeeper on the Waterford panel on the 1948 All-Ireland winning team). Austin Flynn remembers how important a part those trips played in the bonding process:

‘Part of that process – although it might seem strange now – was the hackney driver. Fellas didn’t have cars at that time, so you had Mick Curley of Tallow bringing Ned and they’d be picking us up in Dungarvan going to training. So there was always a laugh and a joke and we felt very free with each other. Now, we thought that that was normal but it was years afterwards that somebody told me about other teams where people travelling in the same car weren’t on the same wavelength at all…’

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

Both Lismore and Ballygunner have book ed their places in the senior hurling final, which will take place in a few weeks’ time.

Lismore got past neighbours Ballyduff, who themselves got past near neighbours Tallow in the quarter final.  That, by all accounts, was a close match.  I’m glad to say that my own brother (and son of former Waterford All-Irleland goalkeeper Ned Power) managed to keep a clean sheet on the day, but victory was not to be theirs, so we’ll have to wait for next year.

Although Tallow have been competing at senior level since, they have not won a senior county title since 1985.  It’s extraordinary fact but that last victory was the second part of a unique 2-in-a-row.  Since then, no trophy at senior level.  Was it a case of the best talent to come along in a generation simply growing up or did the momentum that had been building up over the previous 25 years peter out?  Sport is strange and cruel.  Some days, nothing happens, other days, everything goes right.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

In another excerpt from the hurling book “My Father: a Hurling Revolutionary”, we get an insight into some of what it was like growing up in Dungarvan in the 1940s.

The hanging-out place and the meeting place for children in Dungarvan at that time was ‘Quann’s’. This was a large field that belonged to a family named Quann and which was situated on the coast on a vacant site which is now rather fittingly occupied by a sports centre. This was where youngsters spent their time and this was where the budding GAA star would hit his first sliotar.

‘We spent a lot of time there,’ says Seán. ‘We made our own sliotar. I’ve forgotten how it was made but we had to make one – this was during the war, you see. We used to play ‘score and three’, where one person went into goal and then when you scored three goals, you got a chance to go in.’

If a child wasn’t at home, then he was to be found at Quann’s. Where is so-and-so? He’s down at Quann’s. Let’s all go down to Quann’s. Are you coming to Quann’s?

My father’s best friend growing up in Dungarvan was a boy called Patsy Burke. He was also good friends with Patsy’s brother Michael, but my father and Patsy were bosom buddies, spending much of their youth playing ball of one sort or another at Quann’s, Dad being the most keen on sports. My mother often quotes Patsy Burke as an adult saying to my Dad: ‘Jesus, Power, it’s no good going for a walk with you because as soon as you see any kind of a ball, you’re off after it!’ The Burkes had a grocery shop and through this connection, my father was fortunate enough to have a rare supply line of occasional goodies, which, according to Eileen, he was always prepared to share with his siblings when he got home.

Just where my father’s love of sport came from, I’m not so sure. There is simply no history of any of my father’s ancestors or relatives being interested in sport. Although Seán was keen on hurling for a time in his youth, he never pursued it and in any case, he did not have the 24-hour passion that my father seemed to have for sport from early childhood. Whether it was kicking a ball against the door of the family home with both feet, keeping it going for hours or walloping a makeshift emergency-ration sliotar with Patsy Burke or Matty Fitzgerald down at Quann’s (which, apparently, was also an excellent venue for developing your skills at keeping the ball low, because if you hit it too high, you lost your ball to the Atlantic Ocean), his interest in sport was as single-minded as it was unique amongst the members of his extended family.

Seán remembers his obsession with sport extending to listening to the results of the soccer matches on the radio: ‘To me, it didn’t make any sense at all because the name of the guy who had the ball was all that was mentioned in the commentary… Nobody said anything else at all! It was boring – the complete opposite to Micheál Ó Hehir. And he’d listen intently to this because he loved all sport.’

A lot of his love of hurling was nurtured and developed while at secondary school. At the CBS, Brother Murray had a very positive effect on him, both from the educational point of view as well as the hurling one. In any case, my father seems to have always been a conscientious pupil – his academic discipline and prowess seemingly a reflection of his white-shirted neatness and organisation at home – from primary through secondary school. One schoolmate from primary school and secondary school was Davy Hourigan: ‘There were about 36 or 37 of them in that class,’ he says, ‘and about half of them went onto secondary school and it ended up being nine going on to complete the Leaving Cert.

‘Ned was a great fella in school. He had great life in him – he was a pleasant, bubbly type of guy. He was a very good student, very diligent and he was one who meant to get on. We had a good hurling team in the Christian Brothers and he was a good hurler. Of course, we only knew him as an outfield hurler then when he used to play in the half-forward line.’

Davy also pointed out to me that although our new Republic was aspiring to offer free education for all its citizens, a proper education was still the preserve of the better off except where the Christian Brothers stepped in to provide education that was as close as possible to free. One pound per term, according to Davy, was all that was asked by way of a fee (a very modest amount even in those times) and ‘they didn’t ask for it again if they didn’t get it.’

My Dad never forgot the education that he received from the Christian Brothers and the powerful spiritual and sporting training that he also received from them. I believe that these years had a profound and positive influence on the paths he chose in later life. He acknowledged a lot of this in a piece that he wrote in the Dungarvan Leader in April 1996 in which he lamented the disappearance of the Christian Brothers from Irish life:

This saddens me because I’m a Christian Brothers’ product and retain many happy memories of the Brothers of my native Dungarvan, a school which was among the first to be established and from which the order was forced to withdraw a few short years ago. They dominated the educational scene down through those intervening years, such a significant period of our history and their influence on our careers was incalculable… I never forget the Brothers. Whatever I am or whatever I have achieved is due mainly, after my parents, to the wholesome Catholic Irish influence of the Brothers.

Another pal in secondary school who completed the Leaving Certificate the same year as my father was Rory Wyley. When I caught up with Rory, he had already cycled 55 kilometres that day and had recently returned from a trip to South America with his cycling club companions, where he had suffered a fractured pelvis as a result of a fall from a bike. He told me that he used to sit beside Davy Hourigan for the inspiration that he offered in the field of maths. He also told me a lot about cycling. Oh, and that my father was a great sportsman in school and a conscientious student.

The Powers appear to have had a happy upbringing in Dungarvan, but if there was one place they liked being even better it was at their Auntie Bridie’s in Affane – a quiet townland between Cappoquin and Dungarvan. Their aunt was married but did not have any children of her own, so she lavished attention on her nephews and nieces from the town. Brendan described it as ‘an oasis’, where there would sometimes be as many as six of the Dungarvan gang accommodated under their aunt’s roof. My dad’s sister Mary loved going to Bridie’s and described the place as ‘wonderful’. On the evening they had to go back home from Affane, there would be a family rosary. Mary remembers trying to get through her prayers with a big lump in her throat from the heartbreak of leaving behind the haven of Auntie Bridie’s.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.

Brian Cody launched his own hurling book at the ploughing championships the other day.  I’m dying to read it myself.  It should make for a fascinating read.  Anyone with even a passing interest in GAA and hurling will want to buy it. I heard from someone who did queue up to get herself a signed copy but the queue was too long so she had to abandon her quest.

You talkin' to me, Morrisey?

The fascination that the public have with Cody is what makes him tick.  How does someone continue to motivate a team to keep achieving?  How does he motivate himself?  The technique involved and the hunger that drives him are, I think, the two principal things that we want to be party to.  His recent performance with Marty Morrisey was curious to say the least – a mask slipping or a bit of book-promoting devilment at the expense of one of our national broadcaster’s most eminent servants?

Waterford GAA and Waterford hurling have achieved nothing near the glory of our more illustrious Noreside neighbours.  When victory does occur for the Deise hurlers over Kilkenny in championship hurling, it is as rare as it is sweet.

On the occasion of the last time that Kilkenny lost an All-Ireland final to Waterford back in October 1959, the celebrating was intense. The day had been hot for the time of year, with temperatures of twenty-three degrees (global warming my backside?). At the post-match function at Malahide, the Deise men were in rare form.  A society columnist with the Evening Herald, was amongst the press corps at the Grand Hotel that night. In his ‘Going Places’ column, he captures the exuberance of the evening:

“‘Beating Kilkenny is worth two All-Irelands’, Matt Maloney said triumphantly. Matt is secretary of the most over-worked Waterford Reception Committee. That remark is not meant incivilly. It is only a statement of fact: 1938, 1948, 1957 and twice this year. ‘May I quote you?’ I asked. ‘In heavy type,’ said Matt…. Kilkenny has long been a Waterford bogey. And yesterday the bogey was well and truly laid. Hence the particularly intense jubilation… The London–Irish party to the number of 30 or so joined the Waterford revellers and in their good fortune. And squeezing the last sweet drops of reminiscence from a splendid day the entire party was listening raptly to a recording of the last, fateful 10 minutes of play. As if to intensify the rapture of it all they ran a colour film of the 1957 game. ‘You may think this is something,’ said Matt, ‘but it is nothing to what will happen in Waterford to-morrow. You should go down.’ And maybe I shall do just that very thing.”

It’s not hatred, of course, but simply healthy rivalry.  Here’s another example of it:  A couple of years ago, the Irish cricket team had performed some miracles in the world championships in the Caribbean by beating Pakistan, before exiting the competition.

Kilkenny in action?

A reporter from British sports television hijacking operators Sky was despatched to speak to some of the plain people of Ireland to see what they made of it all.  The Sky man asked one passer-by if he was now going to switch his allegiances to England now that Ireland were out of it.  The Irishman said no and that he “couldn’t do that”.  But why not? the Sky guy persisted.  “After all… we always support Ireland if our team are knocked out early.”

“Well, you know… 800 years and all that.”  said the man, who was a Waterford man it must be pointed out.

The satellite hack shook his head in disbelief and finally pleaded:  “Are there any circumstances in which you could see yourself supporting England?”

The Deise man paused for a moment and then said:  “Maybe if they were playing Kilkenny.”

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.