Honouring our greatest hero is important
The late, great Jamesie Murray, the legendary captain who led Roscommon to successive All-Ireland SFC titles in 1943 and 1944.
‘Is Rome worth one good man’s life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honour him.’ - Gladiator (2000)
The Romans were great for honouring their heroes. You can hardly swing a cat in Rome without hitting some monument to a fallen war hero or emperor.
Apparently, it was the ancient Greeks who first came up with the term, ‘hero’. They believed a hero was one who had done something so far and above the usual scope of achievement that he left an immortal memory behind him and was due worship on a level similar to the Gods.
This Sunday, in Knockcroghery, the President of the GAA, Jarlath Burns, will unveil a statue of the great Jimmy Murray. As it should be, we are honouring our greatest hero.
It will be a wonderful occasion. They have historical talks, a Mass of Remembrance and a 32 club parade led by the Artane Boys Band, among other things, in store.
I knew of Jimmy long before I knew him. His name was always uttered with a reverence usually reserved for a bishop or president.
Captain of the victorious Roscommon teams in 1943 and 1944, he also won six senior county titles with St Patrick’s (they amalgamated with St John’s/Rahara to form St Dominic’s in 1973). He was involved at administrative level with Roscommon and St. Dominic’s for years after retiring.
Even though he was advancing in years as I grew up in Dominics, he was still a very visible presence at matches and celebrations.
At underage level in Dominic’s, we had a few boisterous characters in the group and management usually found it hard to get us to settle down for a team talk. But occasionally, usually after a big win, the great man would arrive in.
‘Shhh, it’s Jamesie’. Silence would immediately fall over the room. You could hear a pin drop as we hung on his every word.
The first time he spoke to us was actually on the village green. There was an u10 game played there (against Drum/Clonown) annually as part of the Fair. Looking at the Green now, it’s hard to imagine we played full matches there. Jimmy said a few words to us afterwards. We were starstruck.
He always spoke with great conviction and positivity. He extolled the virtues of a simple game and challenged us to keep aiming higher.
Thinking back now, how blessed we were to have such a legend in our community growing up.
Speaking to a friend about this recently, he recounted how his favourite treat growing up was to nip into Murray’s shop in the village for a few penny sweets and hopefully get to chat with Jamesie about the football of the weekend.
When I was 18, I was over in his pub one night with my parents after we had won the Connacht Colleges final with St Jarlath’s. He brought out his his mini-replica Sam Maguire which All-Ireland winning captains get to keep. I was awestruck.
He told me he hoped I’d be the next man to bring Sam Maguire back to Roscommon. I wish I’d had as much confidence in myself as he showed in me.
That wait for Sam to come back to Ros goes on, although I think we are closer now than we have been in a long time.
Another great, treasured memory of Jamesie for many of us who played football together was the aftermath of us winning the county junior title in 2002. As is still the tradition, the bonfire was lit in the village. Jamesie, as he did for numerous victorious teams over the years, sang ‘Up St. Dominic’s, going through the names of all the players as he did.
Another thing I remember about that junior championship victory was that I almost felt embarrassed celebrating it. We looked at Jimmy, who had achieved so much in the club, and knew we should be aiming higher.
It felt more fitting of a celebration when we won the Intermediate title in 2007. Jamesie had passed away early that year but I feel he would have been delighted to see us get back up to senior where he felt we should always be.
In a lovely move, the club commissioned a new trophy, the Jimmy Murray Cup, to be awarded to the County Intermediate Championship winners annually. It was presented for the first time to his home club at our dinner dance a few months after winning the title.
Looking back at the time when Jamesie passed away in early 2007, his funeral was a massive event not just for our club but for all of Roscommon. Some of us as current players got the privilege of carrying the coffin on his final journey from the house to the church. That’s an honour I’ll never forget.
They’re just some of my memories of the great man. Older folk will have many more. This statue keeps those memories alive. Hopefully it inspires the next generation to aspire to be like him.
Has the next Roscommon man to lift Sam Maguire been born yet? I hope so, and I hope there’ll be a statue of him in years to come too.
Jamesie was a soldier of Roscommon, our hero. We’ll honour him.
Well that was a disappointing end to a great campaign for the men from Elphin.
It was a strange game and one that leaves them rueing many missed opportunities and some bad luck.
Crossmolina were on top in the first half and deserved their 5 point lead, 0-6 to 0-1. Elphin had defended fairly well but had shown no punch in attack, as illustrated by the scoreboard. They were much too passive in their movement of the ball and so the Mayo men found it easy to defend against them.
James Maheady kicked some sweet scores for Crossmolina in that first half and also forced a big turnover. This was probably enough to earn him man of the match plaudits which is remarkable to say given he barely touched the ball in the second half.
That’s because this was the veritable game of two halves. Elphin almost completely dominated the second half. Their defending went up another notch and was terrific. But the big change was in their attacking play.
Instead of slow, ponderous build ups and kickpasses that weren’t on, they started to take their men on all over the field and got instant rewards. Looking back, they’ll wonder why they didn’t throw the shackles off earlier.
The goal that effectively won the game though for Crossmolina was a real killer to concede for the Elphin men, especially as they were defending so well. After winning possession back they immediately gave it away and left an opposition forward all alone inside for an easy goal. In fairness to Niall Coggins, he did finish it well, but it was all of Elphin’s making.
Elphin huffed and puffed to get back into it but their shooting efficiency was never good enough to get back on level terms. They’ll be hugely disappointed as they’ll know they were easily good enough to have won this one.
I thought, once again, that Niall Higgins was terrific. Fintan Cregg, too, showed his class and leadership. John Finnerty was brought on towards the end of the first half and brought the spark they required.
They’ve plenty of other really good players too and I’d say there’s a good age profile throughout the panel, meaning they’re very well equipped to perform well at senior level over the next few years. I definitely don’t expect to see them back in Intermediate any time soon.
We’re down to eight teams left in the All-Ireland club championship race as the four provincial final pairings are now known. So here’s a stab at the best five. I’m giving Kilcoo top spot mainly off the back of them having the experience of winning it just a couple of years ago. After that it’s very hard to split the next few teams. Pearses obviously need to get the job done this weekend first but they have as much reason as any of them to feel confident at a tilt at ultimate honours.
1. Kilcoo (Down)
2. Pádraig Pearses (Roscommon)
3. Cuala (Dublin)
4. Dr Crokes (Kerry)
5. Errigal Ciarán (Tyrone)
