It was a bright day and it seemed as if Castleisland, Co Kerry, had donned its finery to celebrate the life and times of a favourite son.
The recent Con Houlihan seminar and folk school, held at the local rugby club, heard tributes and anecdotes about the gifted journalist who died last summer. He is best remembered for his sporting and literary columns in the now defunct Evening Press . His final column, on Olympic star, Katie Taylor, was published in the Sunday World on the day after he died in St James's Hospital, Dublin.
For more than two decades, from the 1970s to the 1990s, Con was arguably Ireland’s best known and best loved sports columnist because of his unique writing style. His column was a fascinating journey through the sporting event covered, peppered with references that could vary from the work of a great literary figure to a day in the bog or meadow in his native Kerry.
A memorable column dealt with the famous goal Kerry’s Mikey Sheehy scored at the expense of Dublin’s Paddy Cullen in one of the great All-Ireland finals involving the two teams in the 1970s.
Con wrote: “Mikey Sheehy was running up to take a kick and suddenly Paddy dashed back towards his goal like a woman who smells a cake burning . . . Paddy crashed into the outside of the net and lay against it like a fireman who had returned to find his station ablaze”.
It was one of the many memories of Con’s writing life recalled at the Castleisland gathering. He grew up, as he said himself, in the hill country above the town which now commemorates him with a bronze statue. Busts of Con are to be found in the south Dublin hostelries, The Goat and the Dropping Well, courtesy of his friend, Charlie Chawke.
There was more than just talk at the gathering. Songs were sung, leading to the kind of atmosphere he would have relished.
Mayor of Kerry Terry O'Brien welcomed those present and Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan performed the official opening. Local councillor Bobby O'Connell chaired the proceedings and the speakers included sports columnist Billy Keane, compiler of the Ireland and Northern Ireland annual hotel industry survey Aiden Murphy, editor of the Irish Runner Frank Greally and this writer.
Deenihan and Greally were particularly close to Con over many years. So was head of the organising committee Donal P Murphy, a native of Knocknagoshel, in Kerry, a favourite place of Con’s.
Keane is son of the late John B Keane, who was first published as a young writer by Con in the Taxpayers' News , which he edited in Castleisland decades ago.
Keane referred to his own travails as a sports columnist, recalling how he was once chased with a fatwa because of something he wrote.
“You are being chased by a fat wan!” said his incredulous mother, when he told her the story. Con would have understood.
Apart from appreciating John B’s talent, Con also encouraged another north Kerry literary luminary, Brendan Kennelly, who sent him an early book of his poetry. “You are making all the right mistakes,” replied Con, in his one-sentence letter. Kennelly still recalls that brief note with relish and the boost it gave him at the time.
Con worked as a teacher after graduating from UCC, where a strong influence was Daniel Corkery, author of The Hidden Ireland . He later took up journalism.
After the Taxpayers' News , he wrote a political column for The Kerryman . There were no sacred cows. His strong opposition to paramilitary violence led to a death threat.
He challenged the legend that Éamon de Valera’s son, Vivion, was armed when Fianna Fáil entered the Dáil to take power in 1932. “We are told he carried a revolver but that is most unlikely, as a revolver would be obvious in his pocket,” wrote Con. “He probably had a banana or a round of black pudding for lunch.”
He was equally fearless, provocative and entertaining in the Evening Press , securing a huge national readership.
The flowing hair, hand gesture to the face, and distinctive Kerry accent were Con’s hallmarks during those years when he was a familiar sight around Dublin and at home in Castleisland, where he enjoyed a drink in what he called the town’s Latin quarter. Those of us privileged to have known him will never forget him.
It is hoped that the Castleisland gathering will be an annual event.
