By N.E. Pierce

Early in 1951, at the age of 10, I started secondary school at the O.B.I. Christian Brothers, boarding, on the Malahide Road at Marino.

Most of the Brothers favoured GAA, hurling and football and coached and encouraged boys to play the games. In the summer holidays some of us boys, unfortunately, stayed in the school, about seven or eight of us, and the Brothers would take us to Croke Park for the games.

Sometimes we would get in on the sidelines free of charge, I think, first to the 1952 Football Final, Cavan and Meath and the replay.

On Hill 16, with other boys, we saw some of the match, but with the tension, excitement and crushing, boys would be separated by a few yards at the end of the match. That did not deter me from coming to The Hill on and off for forty years.

I saw all the great players and have great memories of the 1956 hurling match between Wexford and Cork, with the master, Christy Ring. When Wexford won, Mick O’Donnell and Bobby Rackard lifted Christy Ring up on their shoulders, acknowledging his great hurling skills.

How about that!

The broadcaster Michael O’Hehir had names for some of the players, Paddy “Hands” O’Brien, (Meath), “The Man with the Cap” Peter McDermott; Seán Purcell, Frankie Stockwell – “The Tuam Star Twins”.
Mayo would bring home Dr. Padraig Carney from America to play in the big games.

For one hurling league final in Croke Park, between Kilkenny and Limerick, some of us on the Hill noticed that Kilkenny had sixteen men in the prematch parade. We wondered what was going on, and it transpired that English film actor, John Gregson, was playing the part of Dublin binman, in the film, Rooney.
Rooney was picked to play in the hurling final. Des Ferguson, “Snitchy”, was a dual player for Dublin and he had been putting him through his paces – trying to master the skills – in an empty Croke Park during the previous week. All so that he would look the part for the film.

As it happens, Rooney scored the winning point. It was well done in the film, with some Dublin actors featuring including Noel Purcell, Ed Byrne et al.

As well as Hawkes there were young men and women with wicker baskets, selling fruit and chocolate, winding their way through the crowd. Some would run across the playing field at half-time, to the cheers of the Hill, probably to top up their wares.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own