Fallon's Town Talk: Murray and Tully take their place in county's sporting pantheon

In the space of a few extraordinary hours on Saturday afternoon Darragh Murray and Fiona Tully catapulted themselves into the pantheon of the county’s highest sporting achievers.

Murray had already followed in the footsteps of his fellow parishioner Jack Carty by becoming a mainstay of the Connacht rugby team while also playing Gaelic football for St. Brigid’s and Roscommon at underage level.

Last Saturday Murray once again emulated Carty by playing for Ireland in the Six Nations. A Roscommon rugby player making his Six Nations debut against Scotland in the Aviva Stadium would be remarkable enough, but what happened following the Brideswell native’s introduction for Tadhg Beirne early in the second-half was the stuff of dreams.

Within 10 minutes of his introduction Murray, who has never scored a try for Connacht, burst over for the try which secured a bonus point for Ireland and swung momentum back in their favour in the type of exhilarating try-fest that has been the hallmark of what has been, arguably, the most exciting Six Nations championship ever.

Ireland’s 43-21 victory meant that Murray was part of a Triple Crown-winning performance in his first Six Nations outing. Triple Crowns don’t have the same cachet as they had back in the day.

I could probably still reel off the teams that won the then-mythical trophy in the 1980s when the triumphs of 1982 and 1985 were among the foremost Irish sporting achievements of that decade. Now a young Roscommon man has evoked the exploits of legends such as Ollie Campbell, Ciaran Fitzgerald and Moss Keane back in the day.

Hopefully, this is just the start, albeit a memorable one, for Murray and will be the launch-pad for his bid to make the Irish squad for the 2027 World Cup.

As the young rugby international was making headlines in the Aviva, a few miles away at Croke Park, at around the same time, Fiona Tully was reaching the apex of her handball career to date as she powered to victory in the oneills.com 2026 All-Ireland 4-Wall Senior Singles Championship in Croke Park.

The Tully family will always be synonymous with Kilbride although Fiona plays her handball with St. Coman’s. It was apt that Fiona, who lives in Roscommon Town, enjoyed her greatest victory to date on the weekend of the month’s mind Mass of her mentor, the great Michael Naughton.

Fiona has already promised and achieved so much in her handball career. She won the Roscommon Herald/Supervalu Overall Sports Star award while still a teenager for her feats at underage handball.

The story of a sporting prodigy who doesn’t go on to fulfil their potential in the adult ranks is as old as sport itself. Thankfully, Fiona has built on her underage success to excel at senior level.

Tully defeated the reigning World 4-Wall champion, Ciana Ní Churraoin from Galway, to become the first Roscommon woman to win the All-Ireland 40 x 20 Senior Open Singles title.

As with Darragh Murray, Roscommon sports fans will hope Fiona’s victory on Saturday is the springboard for continued success in the future.

Fiona’s feats were deservedly recognised at the Roscommon-Donegal national football league match on Sunday. Luckily, her introduction came during the lull between the two apocalyptic deluges of hailstones which fell at the start of each half of the match.

The day had a sense of symmetry as a Roscommon GAA star who is continuing her ascent to the top of her sport was recognised at the same match as were four of the county’s footballing heroes of the 21st century.

Donie Smith, Niall Daly and Ciarain Murtagh richly merited the accolades bestowed on them since they announced their retirements before the start of this season. On Monday of last week, David Murray confirmed that he too was leaving the stage on which he had performed his such distinction.

On Sunday, all four received the acclaim of the crowd in Hyde Park along with presentations from the county board. The deeds of these musketeers will live on in the county’s GAA lore.

The current generation of Roscommon footballers provided the best possible tribute to the departing stars by surging to a stirring victory over Donegal. As was the case when Donegal supporters came in their droves to cheer on their team in the All-Ireland group stages match against Mayo last summer, they were most welcome and jovial visitors to Roscommon Town. However, they did experience much different weather on this occasion.

The thrilling win guarantees the footballers’ place in Division One for next year and was a fitting finale to a weekend that was among the best Roscommon sport has enjoyed in this decade.