Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh RIP

[Ballydonoghoor]

So sad - bitter sweet, the clichés will be true, many of them born of him -  ni bheidh a leithead aris ann, etc!

And don't the GAA get the odd thing right - what a flick, I wonder if it is 'open source', i.e. free to reuse?

[hurlingman]

Posted elsewhere but will again.

You sometimes forget he was actually from Kerry.

I reread his book during Covid and it's remarkable how much he had seen in the GAA over his lifetime. Going back as far as the 1930s.

[horsebox77]

A gentleman to his fingertips.

[thehermit]

God be good you Michael:

and Brian Dooher is down injured. And while he is, I'll tell ye a little story. I was in Times Square in New York last week, and I was missing the Championship back home. So I approached a newsstand and I said 'I suppose you wouldn't have the Kerryman would you?' To which the Egyptian man behind the counter replied 'do you want the North Kerry edition or the South Kerry edition?'. He had both, so I bought both. And Dooher is back on his feet...

[thehermit]

Almost 14 years since he's last AI broadcast, Cork v Down.

Hard to believe.

You'd miss the minor finals on before too commentated by another beautiful speaking Kerryman.

All good things as the bard mused ...

[taibhse]

It is said that ‘excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way’ and in his own way, Micheál O Muircheartaigh was the first GAA sports-caster to enthusiastically and unabashedly bring his own style to sports broadcasting to the airwaves. But to be a successful part of the sports media it takes more than just a deep voice and good annunciation skills. Micheál brought a vast knowledge, a sportsman’s passion and dignified gravitas to every assignment.

As a commentator, he has had the opportunity to call some of GAA's most famous moments. To those of us lucky enough to be in tune with his vocabulary, his speaking style was simple and dignified. He judiciously inserted mischief in a unique mix of English/Irish dialect, rendered in variations of volume and length depending on the situation, in a way that left a lasting impact upon listeners. His distinct dulcet voice, sometimes slow with a measured trademark cadence, trotted and galloped through games, independent of the equality of the protagonists. He kept listeners invigorated and drove the youth of the countryside into haggarts and fields in the aftermath of cliff-hangers, to re-create the battles his com-mentaries had provide and to imagine and to dream for themselves.

He elevated the achievements and popularised nicknames of some famed characters such as Tim ‘Tiger’ Lyons, Phil ‘Gunner’ Brady, Denis ‘Toots’ Kelleher, Mickey ‘Rattler’ Byrne, Liam ‘Chunky’ O’Brien, Des ‘Snitchy’ Ferguson, Oliver ‘Hopper’ McGrath, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston, ‘The man with the cap' –Peter McDermott and a plethora of ‘Citeógs’.

In spite of being a 24 carat Kerry man and immersed in a great deal of our sporting successes, he was never a ‘homer’ and could never be accused of bias. He will take his rightful place among Kerry’s most loved sons and this country's most accomplished individuals ever in sports broadcasting.

I measc laochra Chiarraí i bpárthas na ngrást go raibh sé. Codladh sámh Micheál agus ar dheis Dé go raibh do h-anam dilis.

[royalkerryfan]

A wonderful man,

The voice of the Summer and the voice of the GAA.

Rip Micháel, A gentleman.

[veteran]

In my time, in our part of the world, the the two best sports commentators were Micheal O Muircheartaigh and Bill McLaren. Very likely they never met but there is an uncanny resemblance in the characteristics they exhibited. Michael was distinctively Kerry/Irish. Bill was distinctively Scottish. Both clearly loved and had an intimate knowledge of their chosen sport. Because of this love and intimate knowledge, they effortlessly and objectively reported on what they saw in their peculiarly mellifluous accents with colourful , descriptive phrases readily dripping from their tongues. No prepared sound bites. No boring , irrelevant statistics. No mid Atlantic voice inflections . And if a reprimand was needed it was delivered gently.

Because these boys were so good one is tempted to commit the ultimate calumny. Listening to them beat being there!

Rest In peace Michael and Bill.

All is not lost. I feel Brian Tyers is a worthy successor to our faithful departed. Belongs to the same genre. Again , exhibiting a love and deep knowledge of football and hurling. I am not remotely close to being a fluent Irish speaker. Yet, I can understand and easily follow Brian’s commentaries with his Cork/Kerry cadences.

Long life Brian.

[onlykerry]

He painted pictures when he spoke - wonderful commentator who was easy on the ear and entertaining in his delivery. He described what was going on with style and with a voice that was lyrical but at the same time conveyed the excitement of the occasion.

Every budding commentator should study the man, far too many of the current crop are convinced they are the entertainment and not the game on the pitch.

Rest easy.

[Ballydonoghoor]

Jun 25, 2024 12:57:40 GMT taibhse said:

It is said that ‘excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way’ and in his own way, Micheál O Muircheartaigh was the first GAA sports-caster to enthusiastically and unabashedly bring his own style to sports broadcasting to the airwaves. But to be a successful part of the sports media it takes more than just a deep voice and good annunciation skills. Micheál brought a vast knowledge, a sportsman’s passion and dignified gravitas to every assignment.

As a commentator, he has had the opportunity to call some of GAA's most famous moments. To those of us lucky enough to be in tune with his vocabulary, his speaking style was simple and dignified. He judiciously inserted mischief in a unique mix of English/Irish dialect, rendered in variations of volume and length depending on the situation, in a way that left a lasting impact upon listeners. His distinct dulcet voice, sometimes slow with a measured trademark cadence, trotted and galloped through games, independent of the equality of the protagonists. He kept listeners invigorated and drove the youth of the countryside into haggarts and fields in the aftermath of cliff-hangers, to re-create the battles his com-mentaries had provide and to imagine and to dream for themselves.

He elevated the achievements and popularised nicknames of some famed characters such as Tim ‘Tiger’ Lyons, Phil ‘Gunner’ Brady, Denis ‘Toots’ Kelleher, Mickey ‘Rattler’ Byrne, Liam ‘Chunky’ O’Brien, Des ‘Snitchy’ Ferguson, Oliver ‘Hopper’ McGrath, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston, ‘The man with the cap' –Peter McDermott and a plethora of ‘Citeógs’.

In spite of being a 24 carat Kerry man and immersed in a great deal of our sporting successes, he was never a ‘homer’ and could never be accused of bias. He will take his rightful place among Kerry’s most loved sons and this country's most accomplished individuals ever in sports broadcasting.

I measc laochra Chiarraí i bpárthas na ngrást go raibh sé. Codladh sámh Micheál agus ar dheis Dé go raibh do h-anam dilis.

Fair dues taibhse and he sure brought it out in you, - BTW in his sandwich video he says, 'an slí anois le é sin a dhéanamh' which Google says 'now is the way to do that.'  Am I feeling the power of an Gaeilge here or is the sub-titling suspect?  i.e. Gaeilge hits spots other 'codes' can't, that God power particle!  And please have beagánín pity for someone who didn't appreciate it until it got a bit late!

[Ard Mhacha]

Sad to hear. A legend. Could make the most boring of matches sound like the greatest there ever was.

RIP.

[Ard Mhacha]

Jun 25, 2024 12:47:25 GMT thehermit said:

Almost 14 years since he's last AI broadcast, Cork v Down.

Hard to believe.

You'd miss the minor finals on before too commentated by another beautiful speaking Kerryman.

All good things as the bard mused ...

Sunday matches on the radio hasn’t been the same without Michéal on the radio, and the minor finals haven’t been the same without Michéal O’Se’s commentary.

[mike70]

Had the pleasure of meeting him a few times, a gentleman, words can’t do him justice, go n-éirí leat i síocháin.

[horsebox77]

Lovely piece penned by Dara O'Cinneidè online on the Examiner page

[thehermit]

Dara's the man for a time like this.

As Fr Looney wrote about another Kerry legend, God be good to you Michael you King in a kingdom of kings

[diego]

Jun 25, 2024 19:06:41 GMT Ard Mhacha said:

Jun 25, 2024 12:47:25 GMT thehermit said:

Almost 14 years since he's last AI broadcast, Cork v Down.

Hard to believe.

You'd miss the minor finals on before too commentated by another beautiful speaking Kerryman.

All good things as the bard mused ...

Sunday matches on the radio hasn’t been the same without Michéal on the radio, and the minor finals haven’t been the same without Michéal O’Se’s commentary.

Absolutely. The minor final could be played now without most of the country knowing it since it got taken out of Croke Park. I think Micheál Ó Sé can be still heard on RnaG or on TG4 during Listowel Races and the like.

[paudief]

Darragh Ó Sé: Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh was interested in everyone and had no ego

I got to know him first in the early 1990s when he was still training country players who were working in Dublin - he never had a bad word to say about anyone

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and his grandchildren leading the St Patrick's Day parade in Parnell Square, Dublin. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Darragh Ó Sé
Wed Jun 26 2024 - 06:00

Down around our homeplace, we knew Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh two ways. One was the way everybody else knew him – the voice of the GAA, the voice of sport really. The other was one of the Moriartys in Dún Síon, back in Dingle. His brother Paddy Moriarty was the head of the ESB. Another brother Ignatius ran the farm. They were a well-known family in west Kerry.

But nobody was better known than Micheál. I saw him in small gatherings and I saw him in massive crowds and everywhere he went, people wanted to talk to him. He had time for everyone and he had a word for everyone. He was interested in everybody and wanted to know who they were and who they knew and where they were from.

I was lucky enough to get to know him over the years, first when I was in the ESB and working in Dublin back in the early 1990s. We always spoke Irish to each other, so there was that nice bit of a connection anyway. But it was when I went to some of the training sessions he used run for country players living in Dublin that I got to know him best.

They were usually in UCD but we went to other places too, when they’d have us. Micheál’s training would have been fairly traditional, now. He’d send us off doing laps and then gather us in for sit-ups and press-ups and the like. We’d be half-dreading it but half-dictating it ourselves at the same time.

We were in St Pat’s in Drumcondra one night when he told us to do 30 press-ups. Anthony Gleeson was playing full back for Kerry at the time and he was never short of a line. “Thirty?” he said. “How about we do 20 good ones instead?” That would be the kind of thing that Micheál would smile at and leave us work away ourselves.

He wouldn’t be able to help himself if he saw someone do something special in training. Kevin O’Neill from Mayo was part of the training group as well and I remember one night he scored a brilliant point from a tight angle on the endline. “And that is why he’s an All Star,” said Micheál, as if he was sitting above in the Hogan Stand commentating.

Micheál saw the world 10 times over. He travelled everywhere and it wouldn’t matter if he was sitting beside a president or some young fellah who was out for the day with his parents, he would sit and chat away and listen to their story. He had no ego at all about him but he knew that he was well known. And that it meant something to people to get talking to him.

We were away with him several times on International Rules trips and we’d be coming off the pitch after a training session and you’d see supporters gathered, waiting on him. The best footballers in Ireland would be passing by but it was Micheál who was the rock star. He was a pure gentleman about it too – he’d stand for pictures all day and it wouldn’t be hard work for him to do it.

He was funny, in his own way. He would never, ever say a bad word about anybody. But he’d leave you in no doubt what he thought either.

I remember being in his company one time and one of the fellahs with us was giving out about an acquaintance. And he was lambasting this lad, with the sort of rough and ready language you’d never hear coming out of Micheál’s mouth in a million years. When he was finished, Micheál just smiled. “Yes, you know him, yes.”

Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh with former president, Mary McAleese, and her husband, Martin. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

He used come into the dressingroom before and after matches. Even though we were coming towards the end of that tradition of letting the media in, Micheál was still welcome. He was never considered a threat to anybody. He would come in and check in on fellahs and make sure he had the team right and so on.

There was one time he came into the dressingroom early in the league that came after we won the All-Ireland in 1997. The league still had a few games before Christmas at the time so I’d say you’re talking about mid-November or so. We hadn’t been shy about celebrating the All-Ireland and we were struggling at just the wrong time – the league was going through one of its restructuring years and we were in danger of starting the following season in Division Two.

We lost to Sligo and Offaly, and even though it was only the league, and even though we were All-Ireland champions, getting relegated after winning the league the previous year wouldn’t go down well. We’d be the first Kerry team to do it, as far as anybody knew.

We were in Tullamore after losing to Offaly and Micheál came into the dressingroom afterwards. He saw Páidí Ó Sé, who was our manager at the time. “You’re still breaking records, Páidí,” he said.

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh enjoying his first day of retirement at his home in Kilcock, Co Kildare. Photograph: Arthur Carron/Collins

It wasn’t until we were in the car on the way home that the penny dropped with Páidí. “Jesus,” he said. “He meant that we might go down! He’s a right smart so-and-so, isn’t he?” (He didn’t say so-and-so, for the record.) Páidí was like Bishop Brennan in Father Ted, finally realising that he’d been kicked in the arse. And by Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, of all people!

He was a gentleman, just a hugely popular person around the country and he’ll be missed by everyone.

Ar dheis dé go raibh a n-anam dílis. Ní bheidh a leithéad arís ann.

[kerryexile]

Great post Taibhse.

Micheál also dropped the surname completely if the player had a distinct first name like Ambrose in football or Joachim in hurling.

As in Darragh's article, he never offended anyone buy sometimes he could quench a flow of rubbish from someone with two or three innocuous words as he did on the Late Late Show once or twice.

When you consider he started commentating about 1950, he has been part of the GAA story for nearly three quarters of a century. Very few people knew the GAA without him and for that reason we have lost a landmark figure. He was an anchor in these turbulent times of Sky and GaaGo. For that reason it is absolutely true to say Ni Bheidh a Leitheid Ann Aris.

Slán a Mhichíl agus suaimhneas síoraí duit.

[Ballydonoghoor]

Yip classic by taibhse.

Gosh such a pity Michaels cortege wasn't publicised but maybe that's what people wanted and that is the priority. 20+ pages on Rip.ie, he was even more amazin than we thought and the proportion of them who knew him and benefitted through his charitable ways was astounding, if over 50+ years. I also heard a few good ones personally - apparently he was handy at poker. There is a great one told of that interview with moss Keane in portebello pub of a sat morning, I got it from a then flat mate of moss's so I'll have chapter and verse when I'm on my pc.

P.S. his funeral mass was amazing and especially at the very end, just so ordinary - it made such a statement that they are just an ordinary family - gosh it was so MOM, we can all learn so much from families like this, the stories were amazing, hopefully society learns and we go back to appreciating what is really important in life.  The condolences on rip.ie make it a strong candidate for book of the year, it says so much about us, and if we can only do more of it - I even saw a condolence from one Seamus Darby!

[An Ciarraíoch Taistealaíoch]

Just watched the documentary in RTÉ about him from 2006. Reckon I missed its initial airing.

Beautiful viewing.


I never spoke to the man but he always seemed to come across so well.

RIP Michael Moriarty.

As an aside, how many of you stopped a mainstay of the current team in it?
On the way to Croker after the breakfast.
Granted, he's easier to spot if you can recognise the parents...

[Ballydonoghoor]

Jul 3, 2024 22:56:01 GMT An Ciarraíoch Taistealaíoch said:

Just watched the documentary in RTÉ about him from 2006. Reckon I missed its initial airing.

Beautiful viewing.


I never spoke to the man but he always seemed to come across so well.

RIP Michael Moriarty.

As an aside, how many of you stopped a mainstay of the current team in it?
On the way to Croker after the breakfast.
Granted, he's easier to spot if you can recognise the parents...

Sorry .. can you rephrase?  Wouldn't ask only it sounds interesting!

[An Ciarraíoch Taistealaíoch]

Jul 4, 2024 12:38:49 GMT Ballydonoghoor said:

Jul 3, 2024 22:56:01 GMT An Ciarraíoch Taistealaíoch said:

Just watched the documentary in RTÉ about him from 2006. Reckon I missed its initial airing.

Beautiful viewing.


I never spoke to the man but he always seemed to come across so well.

RIP Michael Moriarty.

As an aside, how many of you stopped a mainstay of the current team in it?
On the way to Croker after the breakfast.
Granted, he's easier to spot if you can recognise the parents...

Sorry .. can you rephrase?  Wouldn't ask only it sounds interesting!

Apologies for the typo Bally, how many of you SPOTTED a current Kerry footballer in the documentary?
He was 7 or 8 at the time!