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Born In Kerry
Carl Jung, the celebrated psychiatrist and philosopher, believed we are profoundly influenced by the world in which we grew up. Jackie Lyne, famous footballer, thought so too.
When asked why Kerry won so many All-Irelands, he said: "With those mountains behind us and that ocean in front, we have to do something."
Synge had much the same belief: he was so enchanted by the skyscape and the seascape and the landscape of west Kerry that he said: "People are so moved by such surroundings that they must do something to express themselves."
Some people sought fulfillment by going to America. Others found pride in epic deeds at sea. Many sought to express themselves in Gaelic football. That is the world Micheál Moriarty inherited. Sport was all around him. Paddy Kennedy and Paddy Bawn Brosnan were ideal role models for young men.
The Dingle peninsula was racing country. There is a kind of racing there that is outside the usual rules. The Dingle meeting was the biggest in that world. Horses came there from our neighbouring island.
And of course Kerry was greyhound country. Micheál once owned a greyhound in partnership with Prince Edward. It got to the final of the English Derby and on radio we heard Micheál addressing his partner as Prionsa.
Then there was the sea: the Peninsula is like Cornwall - no matter where you are there, you can see the sea or hear it or smell it.
Micheál, like many of his generation, went to Saint Patrick's College in Dublin and qualified as a teacher, but he was destined for fame from early life. His love of sport and his love of language led him inevitably into journalism.
He began quietly by doing commentaries in the Gaelic language but his style was so distinctive that he was soon nationally famous as Micheál O Muircheartaigh. At times he wasn't content to give a players name only: he made him into a living person by telling you perhaps that he owned a greyhound running at Harold's Cross in the coming week.
If there were two players with the same surname on a team, he made sure that you knew which was which. All this may have seemed new to some people but it was natural to Micheál.
Ernest Hemingway used to say that enthusiasm isn't enough - but when it is wedded to expertise, it can go a very long way.
There is another aspect to Micheál that may surprise some people: he was more than an observer of games, he was very involved with the Kerry team in the 1970s. Some of the squad were living in Dublin and in his own quiet way he saw after training.
I was lucky in that period: it was then I began with 'The Evening Press' and so had a ringside view of the prolonged Dublin and Kerry duel - Micheál was in the ring itself.
He has a great passion for the old language. He grew up in a bilingual community but Irish is his first love. Once, when he was doing a running commentary of a National League final in English, this love broke out. The three Connolly brothers on the Galway hurling team were native speakers; about 10 minutes from the end, it was clear that the maroon and white were about to win and Micheál broke from English into Irish.
Gustave Flaubert said of a friend: "Monsieur is not a virtuous man - on the contrary, he is an enthusiast."
My neighbour and friend, Micheál O Muircheartaigh is both.
- Con Houlihan (Irish Independent)
3inarow08 (Kerry) - Posts: 2455 - 23/01/2009 10:36:30
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And it's worth noting that Con Houlihan, who is accreditted with that piece is equally as legendary, albeit a prince of the written and not spoken word.
Is it that ALL good things come from Kerry. Or is it just most...?
I jest.
3inarow2008 (Kerry) - Posts: 204 - 23/01/2009 12:58:37
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