SEÁN MURPHY RIP
Seán, who was the Club’s oldest member and who celebrated his 98th birthday just over two months ago (14th Dec 2019), passed away peacefully on this Tuesday evening at Tralee Community Hospital. His good friend, Tadgh McMahon scripted a beautiful piece about Seán’s involvement in the Club which appears in pages 197/198 of our Centenary Book and we reprint that item now.
Seán was born in Carlow Town on 14th December 1921 and after completing his studies at the local CBS joined the Civil Service and worked in the Dept. of Agriculture. His first appointment was in Cork City where he spent six months and then he moved to Clonakilty where he spent ten years.
He played Hurling and Football with Clon during the 1940s winning three SF Co. Championships and six West Cork Hurling Leagues. Playing with him at midfield in the Football teams was Tom Moriarty (a winner of two All Ireland medals with Kerry in 1953 and 1955). Tom was also Treasurer of the Stacks Club for a period.
Seán’s next move was to Kerry where he was introduced by Con Moriarty of Greenview Terrace to Jackie Price of Castlecountess who had a huge interest in greyhounds. From this introduction a lifetime of involvement with greyhounds followed. Jackie’s son, Jerry, and Seán formed a partnership that became very successful in greyhound sport. Seán believed that ‘good breeding was worth a ton of feeding’. They bred from the best and single out ‘Fraoc’ as the best greyhound they had over the years.
The late Kevin Barry introduced Seán to the Club and before long he was a hurling and footballer selector and subsequently acted as Vice Chairman during Dan O’Connor’s term as Chairman. These were very lean years and Seán remembered the disappointment of the defeat in the hurling final of 1968. He was a selector with that team and recalled standing next to the umpire as Christy McQuinn took the infamous seventy. He had no doubt that the ball sailed over the bar.
Our hurlers were reaching finals but the Club had no permanent home. Seán was a member of the delegation who approached the Tralee Urban Council seeking to purchase land at Connolly Park and with the assistance of Paddy Scanlon, Town Engineer, were successful in acquiring the land where we are now based.
Seán attributed the success which the Stacks footballers had in the ‘Second Golden Era’ (1973-1994) to the Juvenile development started by Michael Hayes in Tralee CBS and fostered by the club in subsequent years. He also gave much credit to Dr. Jim Brosnan who was responsible for setting up Bórd Na nÓg with Chariman, Fr. Linnane, and Secretary, Declan Horgan.
In addition to his other positions Seán, with Dan Ryan, represented the Club as Delegate to the Co. Board, a position which he took very seriously and was respected for his knowledge and dedication to the rules of the Association.
When the Club needed to organise the ‘Ciste na Banban’ pools Seán was again to the fore. He could be found in the home of his good friend Johnny Reidy and was always anxious to acknowledge the courtesy and welcome he always got from the Reidy family.
Séan was a Trustee of Austin Stacks GAA club until the time of his death – his signature appears on every document associated with the Club developments in Connolly Park right up to the recent purchase of floodlights on the Nuns Field – charting a life time of service to his beloved Austin Stacks for which we will be eternally grateful to him.
Seán was in such robust good health, for a man of his age, that everyone was hoping he would reach to grand old century towards the end of next year – but it was not to be.
Funeral details: Reposing at the Gleasure Funeral Home, Tralee this Friday Feb 21st from 4pm to 6pm. Followed by removal to Our Lady & St. Brendan’s Church, Tralee. Requiem mass will take place on Saturday at 11am. Burial in Askea, Carlow after 12pm mass on Sunday. Austin Stacks GAA Club will provide a guard of honour from the Funeral home on Friday evening and after the mass on Saturday.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dillis
Sean on the occasion of his 98th birthday on Dec 14th, 2019.