MICHAEL KELLY:MICHAEL KELLY, who has died aged 82, was the oldest surviving captain of a Kilkenny All-Ireland-winning senior hurling team. He led the county to a famous victory in 1957 when Kilkenny defeated Waterford by a single point – which he scored.
The match, played on Sunday, September 1st, 1957, was, according to The Irish Timesreport: "one of the best hurling exhibitions seen in a final since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association in the 1880s and the spectators roared themselves hoarse, as the lead changed, and each side in turn pulled down what appeared to be winning scores".
The report noted that: “Outstanding hurler on the field in the second half was the Kilkenny captain, Mick Kelly”.
Despite being knocked to the ground while in possession of the ball, he managed to score a point “when on his knee”. The teams were still level with just three minutes remaining. Then, in a move that has entered the annals of hurling folklore, Kelly, who was 70 yards out on the Cusack Stand side, scored the winning point “so sweetly hit that it sailed dead straight high over Roche’s [the Waterford goalkeeper’s] reach”. The full-time result was Kilkenny 4-10 (22 points); Waterford 3-12 (21 points).
Kelly also earned a place in GAA history that day for a rather more unusual reason – leading a team of 16 men around Croke Park in the pre-match parade.
The GAA had given unprecedented permission to the Rank Organisation to shoot scenes for a feature film titled Rooney, and the "extra man" was British actor John Gregson in the unlikely role of a fictitious Dublin dustman and star hurler. The film, which also starred Irish actors Barry Fitzgerald and Noel Purcell, used actual footage of the game and was released in cinemas in 1958. Kelly and the other players from Kilkenny and Waterford received £5 each from the producers for their co-operation.
One of 11 children, Michael Kelly was born in 1929 in the townland of Killarney, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. After attending the local national school he was sent, as a boarder, to St Francis College, run by the Capuchin Friars at Rochestown in Cork. He left at 16 and returned to live near the village of Bennettsbridge where he combined farming with a job in Mosse’s flour milling company.
In the 1950s and 1960s he hurled with the Bennettsbridge club – then regarded as one of the best in Ireland – where he won seven county senior championship medals. He played with the Kilkenny senior county team between 1953 and 1960 and served as captain twice – in 1957 and 1960 – and also won a Railway Cup medal with Leinster in 1954. He retained a lifelong passion for the game, becoming chairman and a selector with his club and mentoring generations of young players.
A popular and affable man, he was, like many hurlers, modest about his achievements and epitomised the amateur status of the national game. He recalled how he had travelled by train to Dublin the night before the 1957 final “after a day harvesting corn”.
Diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, he battled on to follow Kilkenny's progress through the 2011 championship and was in Croke Park in September to see the team reclaim the title from Tipperary. Appropriately, the Liam McCarthy Cup was placed beside his coffin at Requiem Mass last Saturday and the congregation sang the Kilkenny hurling song, The Rose of Mooncoin.
A mourner remarked that “you could nearly hear the clinking of All-Ireland medals” among the throng of former hurling stars – including Paddy Buggy, Brian Cody, Eddie Keher and Jim Treacy – who came to pay their respects.
He is survived by his wife Josie; daughters Marian, Ann, Ethel and Helena; son Gerard; brothers Tony, Gerard and Frank; sisters Breda, Kathleen, Angela and Margaret; grandchildren; extended family; and a wide circle of friends.
Michael Kelly: born September 24th, 1929; died, October 26th, 2011