Rathmolyon's Marathon man
December 31, 1998
Royal County talks to Seamus Murray about the possibility of Rathmolyon going the full distance in 1999.
Although it was more by accident than design that Seamus Murray became enthusiastic about the ancient game, the Rathmolyon clubman is a great advocate of hurling. He puts tremendous time and effort into nurturing underage talent in Rathmolyon and is one of the most instantly recognisable public faces of the club.
It's a far cry from times gone by when Mayo native Seamus knew all there was to know about the loneliness of the long distance runner but precious little about the small ball game. However, once hurling got into the county councillor's system, it was there to stay!
"I just love the game," Seamus says. "It really is the most skilful game in the world. Because of my political career, I don't have the time I'd like to put into the game but I'd go to any hurling match anywhere in the county, especially at underage."
Don't be misled by that statement into thinking that Seamus is one of these 'bandwagoners' who talks about what he'd like to do while actually contributing nothing. To the contrary, he's a doer. Despite his aforementioned time constraints, he contributes immensely to hurling in Rathmolyon and in the Royal County at large.
The Seamus Murray story is a very interesting one.
Seamus has been resident in the parish of Rathmolyon for the past 32 years, since he was fifteen. Hard to believe but he never actually played either football or hurling in his life. Instead, he played a lot of handball and was heavily involved in athletics. More specifically, long distance running. His specialty: The marathon.
Winner of Meath senior medals in athletics with both Na Fianna in Enfield and Fr. Murphy's of Athboy, Seamus ran a total of thirty marathons. He represented Ireland on numerous occasions in this discipline.
Seamus ran marathons in Dublin (eight times), London, Belfast, Portugal, Italy, Moscow and Brussels among other places . . . some exotic, some almost exotic.
He represented Ireland in both Portugal and Italy. In the Portugal Marathon of 1989, Seamus finished fifth and (with his Irish colleagues coming in fourth and seventh) the three-man Irish team came first!
Seamus ran his first marathon at the national championships in Timahoe, Co. Laois in 1981; his last was Belfast a decade later. His career ended prematurely. He reflects: "In the last mile of that marathon in Portugal, I was knocked down and received an injury. That was the end of me running competitively. However, I had never ran Belfast or London so I went in for them. They were within a fortnight of each other. I did London in 2:52:28 and Belfast fourteen seconds faster. I just wanted to be able to say I ran both of those."
Seamus' achievements in the marathon discipline are even more incredible when one learns that he was asthmatic in his early life! Indeed, it was largely due to this affliction that he never played any gaelic games. Instead, he only became interested in the national code when his own sons began to play with Rathmolyon at juvenile level.
"It was in 1985 that I first got involved in the juvenile part of the club," he recalls. "Martin Smith and John Gorry were coaching the team and my son Jonathon was playing. My wife brought me to one of the games and I've been hooked ever since. Hurling is a huge part of my life now."
Although he didn't have any qualifications as such, Seamus worked alongside Mike Cole's father, Michael, within the juvenile section for years. When Michael died in 1991, the Rathmolyon juveniles were left without a leader, so Seamus stepped in. He took a course in juvenile hurling and has been coaching in Rathmolyon ever since. Last year, he worked in tandem with John Gorry.
At juvenile grades, Rathmolyon start at U11 and also field teams at U13, U15, U16, U17, minor and U21 levels. Seamus is involved with all these teams as coach/selector. Interestingly, it is at U11 that they have achieved most success, winning the championships of 1991 (with Seamus' youngest son Raymond on the team) and 1996 as well as a B title in '97 and a ground hurling championship last year.
Seamus is also involved with the club at senior level. He is, among other things, Chairman of the development committee and also does first aid for the senior team. He served as PRO in 1991 and was appointed Treasurer for 1992.
When Rathmolyon won their first ever county SHC in 1993 (having won the intermediate in '75), Seamus was doing first aid. He was involved in a similar capacity with the Meath county team which won the All-Ireland B title that same year.
"It was when Martin Smith became Chairman of the club that we adopted a policy of bringing more minors and U21s onto the senior team [for the O'Growney Cup final of 1993] and we reaped the rewards of that," Seamus notes, "We have a very strong youth policy here and a lot of young fellas on the senior team have come up through the underage ranks. Of the team that played senior in '98, my sons Kenneth and John, Aaron Ryan (still a minor), Steven and John Ennis and Gary and Niall Cole are all products of our juvenile system. Eamonn Regan is another . . . he didn't hurl at all until four years ago and is now one of the best young hurlers in the club."
Since 1992, Rathmolyon have reached the semi-final stage of the SHC every year. They were successful in 1993 and '96 and were beaten in the final by Kilmessan in 1997. In '98, they lost to Trim in the semi-final.
All in all, the club has done extremely well considering that it is boxed in by such hurling bastions as Trim, Kilmessan, Baconstown, Boardsmill, Longwood etc. "We pick from a three-mile radius, although we have started to bring in some juveniles from Summerhill. Mr. Brennan from Dangan School has done a lot of work with them and they're coming here to play with the club. The school's input has been very important," Seamus says.
As well as senior, Rathmolyon also field junior and junior C teams . . . catering for a total of sixty adult hurlers! 1998 was the first year the club catered for the junior Cs. "We felt that we had a lot of players on the fringes of the junior team who deserved a game. They did really well in their first year, reaching the championship semi-final."
The long-term future of Rathmolyon appears to be in safe hands. "We have a lot of talented young hurlers coming through," Seamus Murray opines. "We even have U11s in their second year at that age group who will still be eligible for another two years! We have a strong youth section and John Gorry has been instrumental in coaching those players. We're up there competing with the likes of Kilmessan and Trim at underage which is where we want to be."
And what about the seniors? "I think they could have done a lot better in 1998. We had to play the semi-final without five for the first team who had booked their holidays for the week after the last round match. But the semi-final was fixed for six days after that game so we had to go in with a below strength team. Still, the players who played did themselves proud and we only lost by seven points. Indeed, if we had one or two more scoring forwards on the day, we might have reached the final. We were very proud of them."
Next year could be a different story. "What happened in '98 was unfortunate," says Seamus. "Hopefully the players will have learned from it. They have to know that when it comes to September/October, it's championship time.
"If I got a good price on Rathmolyon for '99, I would back them without a doubt. We have a lot of quality. 1998 was a difficult year. We were in an advanced stage of developing our pitch and we were using a temporary pitch with no proper facilities. We spent close to £40,000 on a huge development and expect to be back training 'at home' in spring. That should give the players a real lift. Hopefully, they'll reach the county final; that's always a great achievement for any team at any level."
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