Tony Whyte - An appreciation

It was indeed appropriate that hundreds of people attended the removal and funeral of Tony Whyte, Thomastown, Ballydangan. In accordance with his wishes he reposed in the museum of the Clann na nGael Clubhouse at Johnstown, a facility to which he gave hours of his time in recent decades. Indeed, Tony was a perfectionist in everything he did, whether it was on the work scene in the health care area for decades or the Clann na nGael and Roscommon GAA scene.

While I had heard of the football exploits of Tony as a teenager, I did not know him personally until the late seventies when he donned the role of trainer-coach of the Roscommon senior panel. He was helpful to me and my media colleagues in that role. In the interviews I carried out with him in those years he displayed a thorough knowledge of the GAA scene nationally as well as the local scene generally.

On the work front in the late seventies he had taken on the post of manager at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe. In that role, he carried out his duties with fairness and tact. He always invited the Herald to presentations or other functions in the hospital. I generally was delegated to attend, being resident in South Roscommon, and he was always grateful for the coverage given.

Subsequently, when he became proprietor of the Garbally View Nursing Home in Ballinasloe and the Retreat Nursing Home in Athlone, I encountered him many times at funeral removals in South Roscommon. He told me once, around the turn of the nineties, that he really thought the heading given by the then editor of the Herald, the late Liam Molloy, to a Clann Na nGael Connacht Club title repeat win as "classy". The headline was "Classy Clann Cling To Connacht Crown".

On the death of my good luncheon friend in the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon, the late Very Rev. Denis Killian, PP, Knockcroghery, St John's and Rahara, I penned a short tribute in the Herald. I referred to the fact that at the launch of Tony's comprehensive history of the Clann na nGael GAA Club in 1984, Fr Killian immediately began to read the publication on its purchase at the launch. Tony contacted me a few years later to obtain a copy of the tribute for the Clann museum, and I was delighted to oblige. Incidentally, the late Fr Killian was a proud Drum man and an avid Clann follower.

In recent decades, some extended family members were residents of the Retreat Nursing Home in Athlone, and, if I bumped into Tony in the corridors there, we always had a chat. He loved his native parish of Drum, Clonown, Cornafulla and Bealnamullia. He was a proud Roscommon man who did much to promote Gaelic games generally in his native parish. He also delighted in the achievements of his family and felt the loss of his wife Teresa and two of his five sons greatly.

In recent years, he donned the role of chairperson of the County Roscommon Executive Committee of Pieta House. Other South Roscommon GAA activists on that committee include my good friend Paddy Kenny, Barrymore, Kiltoom and Frankie Flynn, Taughmaconnell, an individual long synonymous with the Padraig Pearses GAA Club. Paddy was telling me in recent days how committed Tony was to the role of chairperson. Paddy also commented on Tony's decisive manner and his ability to listen to the views of others before arriving at a decision.

Clann na nGael has now lost one of its most able activists as a player, administrator and historian since the mid-fifties. To the immediate and extended Whyte family members and all his Clann na nGael colleagues I extended my deepest sympathy.