Enright, Danny
January 31, 2004Secretary of the North Kerry Football board, Billy Enright, pays tribute to popular referee, Danny Enright, who was buried in Glin, Co Limerick.
THE sad and regrettable news of the death of the late Danny Enright RIP Donnard Crescent, Tarbert, created a huge cloud of sadness over the whole of North Kerry, the county and in his native West Limerick.
Danny, who had been fighting a terminal illness most bravely and admirably and he remained his usual cheerful self right up to the weekend prior to his death.
Indeed, his spirits were high right up to a few hours before he departed from our midst.
He was a great GAA Gael and so great was his love for the GAA that he was involved in all aspects of the association from his early youth, right up to his departing this life.
A native of Glin, Coo Limerick, he played football with passion for his club at all grades and has to his list of achievements many medals at every grade.
But his biggest sporting moment came in 1970 when he was privileged to captain Glin to win the County U21 championship title. He continued to play for his native senior team up until 1982 which had reasonably good success.
The highlight of those years were the numerous carnival finals that the club competed in. That same year, he tool the decision and transferred to his adopted Tarbert, where he was living and working in the local ESB in the late 1970's, early '80s before he decided to turn his energy to refereeing in 1986.
It was in this field that he excelled with great respect from players, officials, clubs and County Officers alike. He had, to his credit, refereed no fewer than five North Kerry Senior c'ship finals, the first in 1988, followed by 1991, 1992, 1993 and his last one in 2002.
He has also refereed numerous other important competitions in the District, namely U21, minor and junior finals.
In club administration, he became actively involved. He had served in many capacities with the Tarbert club, before becoming registrar, a position he had held right up to his death.
He was also Secretary of Shannon Rangers GAA Club and again a position of which he held up to his departure from us.
In 1996, he became Public Relations Officer for the North Kerry Football Board. This was again another great challenge for him and one that he handled most efficiently, considering the work load involved.
He continued as PRO for 1997 before taking a break in 1998, again to mainly concentrate on refereeing and particularly to devote more time to his involvement with Shannon Rangers Club.
So great was his love of refereeing that, despite his illness, Danny's last game as a referee came as late as only last September.
But despite officiating at every final of every county competition, his one ambition was to referee a County Senior football final.
Unfortunately, this never came to fruition.
In fact, he had refereed every round of the Senior County c'ship for many years right up to the semi-final stages, but the responsibility of handling a county final eluded this great man.
In recent weeks, despite his deteriorating health, Danny still continued to be very active. He was delighted to be in attendance at the Shannon Rangers underage victory medal presentation only three weeks ago, and of course being present at the North Kerry man of the match function was also something special to him.
Indeed, it was on that night that Weeshie Fogarty of Radio Kerry made special mention of him and his contribution to the GAA.
He was also a very witty person and could pencil together a rhyme or poem about any particular event or humourous happenings that had occurred in a very quick time.
In fact, he particularly took great joy in the publishing of one of these poems that he personally wrote for the programme of the North Kerry final of 2003, which was called "The Poor Referee".
Unfortunately, he was not feeling the best on the day of the final and did not make the game. Indeed, this must have been the first North Kerry final that he had ever missed and his absence had been particularly noticed, but he was delighted to be able to hear live coverage of it on Radio Kerry.
It was also more heartening when Weeshie Fog, Pat Sheehy and Joe Langan made the journey to Danny's house in Tarbert to visit him immediately after the final. This was indeed a very nice and welcome gesture to him.
Danny was a great family man, always putting his family first on all occasions, and he had worked as a shift worker in the ESB station in Tarbert for over 30 years, where he was highly respected by fellow workers and management.
He was indeed a man that slept, ate and thought endlessly about the GAA. This again was also evident in his workplace as GAA affairs were always the main topic of debate and also considering that his workmates, to mention a few, were ranking GAA personnel.
People such as County Board Chairman Sean Walsh and County Referees Administrator Joe Langan, along with several more workmates who were more often that not, got involved just to make a funny comment.
But being the man Danny was, he took it all in his stride and could take a joke as well as give one back.
He also had a great passion for greyhounds and, in particular, coursing. He was associated with the Glin Coursing Club, where he was a very active working member.
In fact, he actually attended the Abbeyfeale coursing over the Christmas period. Another few great working mates of his that would be seen regularly with Danny at such meetings were Din O'Brien, Garry Harnett, Timmy Horan and of course Timmy Hayes. But, unfortunately, Danny had been saddened recently on the sudden passing of his great friend Timmy Hayes.
Danny also kept a few coursing dogs, but had not great success with them. He was the main instigator in the organising of a charity benefit meeting at Tralee Greyhound Track just a few years ago to raise funds for the Tarbert Club and the Comprehensive School.
To be honest, Danny was a man who always loved mixing and talking to people and this was evident this last number of weeks, because he continued to be in the highest of spirits and very cheerful, despite the worries and illness that he had.
He pushed himself beyond all belief to try and get out and meet as many people as possible, but unfortunately his life was cut very short, and while we all had the pleasure of knowing him personally, all we can think about now is the great times and probably not too many great times for himself personally, that we had the pleasure of conversing with this very kind of man.
The popularity of Danny Enright was borne out by the enormous attendance both at his house and the removal and burial of his remains over the weekend.
While Danny is gone from our midst, we hope his spirit will remain with us. We will never forget him and will always remember this man with fondness and while his loss will create a big void in our lives, the enormous sense of loss will be felt more by his loving family who had cared for him so lovingly all thought his illness.
To his wife Anne, daughters Isabel, Carolann, Danielle, Patricia, son Donnacha, relatives and friends, we offer our sincerest heartfelt sympathy.
May the sod in Kilfergus Cemetery in his native Glin rest lightly on the gentle soul of the late Danny Enright, RIP.
Ar dheis De go raibh a Anam dilis.
The Poor Referee by Danny Enright
A great crowd had gathered and filled up the ground,
The game will begin with a crescendo of sound,
There are bright colours blazing, so lovely to see,
But the man dressed in black is the poor referee.
This man dressed in black, will be blamed for all wrong,
It is surely his fault if our stars not on song,
If our forwards are hopeless and miss every free,
There is none left to blame, but the poor referee.
The ball goes flying across the small square,
The ball is waved wide, the full-forward goes spare,
There's a hole in the net, which the umpire didn't see,
But the buck has to stop, with the poor referee.
A team takes the field, it is poorly prepared,
They were drinking all night, but last night no one cared,
They were bet and outclassed to the utmost degree,
But they'll say, "we'd have won with a better referee."
The names of all the stars will be tossed all about.
Some surprises get in, some famous left out,
But among those famed all-stars, you never will see,
That the man in the middle, the poor referee.
There's a queue formed above at the grand pearly gates,
Famed sportsmen line up but St Peter says "wait"
There's a saint coming towards me, he does the same job as me,
Take your place with the angels, you gallant referee.
The boos and the catcalls, can be most unkind
"Your mother's not married, you're thick and half blind"
Sure we're playing 16 men, that's plain to be seen,
"The other side had paid, you crocked referee.
Courtesy of the Kerryman, January, 2004 Tweet
