In January 2011, Ballybay Pearse Brothers clubman Jim O'Hanlon was inducted into the Monaghan GAA Hall of Fame. The honour represented due recognition for one of the club's all-time greats, a man who was part and parcel of the club's golden era in the '50s and '60s. Jim also enjoyed a ten-year senior intercounty career, when he was renowned as one of the most effective man-markers in the province.

For over a decade, Jim O'Hanlon was like the Equaliser … the Edward Woodward of Monaghan football. If you had a forward who was likely to cause your team trouble, then Jim was the man for the job. Strong, fearless and uncompromising, he knew how to get the job done. Jim became one of the most fearsome defenders in the Oriel County and, beyond the county confines, he also kept some of the game's greats - men like Frankie Donnelly from Tyrone and Cavan's Charlie Gallagher - as quiet as field mice. He was inducted into the Ballybay GAA Hall of Fame a few years ago and it was fitting that at the start of 2011, the Down native entered the Monaghan GAA Hall of Fame.
Things could have been a lot different for Jim O'Hanlon. He was born in Banbridge in County Down but, tragically, his mother passed away when he was only three years old. He came to live in Ballybay, where he was raised by his grandparents. Down's loss was Monaghan's gain and he went on to forge an extraordinary club and county career. Indeed, many observers are convinced that O'Hanlon would have been worthy of his place on the great Down team of the 'sixties. Who knows, had he remained in the Mourne County, O'Hanlon could have collected All-Ireland medals in 1960, '61 and '68 alongside the O'Neills, McCartans, Mussens and Dohertys of this world! But it was to Ballybay and Monaghan that his allegiances would pass and he remains a keen supporter of both teams today.
Jim first came to the fore in schools challenge matches organised by Fr. Cassidy. In 1956, as a 17-year-old, he had the distinction of captaining Ballybay to their first-ever county minor football championship. The following year, the already-outstanding defender captained the county minors from centre half. He had also broken into the club's senior side as a regular by now and he was one of the star turns as the Pearses beat Clontibret after a replay to win the 1957 county senior football championship. This was the first of four SFC medals that he would garner during the course of his playing days.
A senior league medal followed in '59 and Jim also made his senior intercounty debut. Monaghan got to the McKenna Cup final, losing narrowly to Down. In '59, Ballybay won another SFC, again beating fierce rivals Clontibret after a replay in the final.
The highlight of Jim O'Hanlon's club career came in 1962 when he captained Ballybay to senior championship glory - his third SFC medal in six years. He completed his collection with a fourth medal in 1969. Two years earlier, he had retired from intercounty fare, having terrorised the best forwards in the business for over ten seasons.
A teak tough defender who took no prisoners, Jim went about his football in a modest and unassuming manner. Today, he talks the same way - quietly and efficiently, reluctant to make too much of a fuss about himself. "I was more than invited to be brought into the Hall of Fame," he says. "It brought it all back to me but, to be straight with you, I don't like talking about myself at all."
Ballybay had won their first SFC in 1953(followed by a second in '54) and they also acquired Pearse Park around that time, which accelerated their arrival as a true force.
Over that remarkable period, Ballybay names that lit up the Monaghan football scene included the Ward brothers (Noel, Dessie and Finbar); the McKearneys (Paddy, Tom and Sean); the McNallys (Paddy and Thady); Phillip Duffy; Billy Morgan; Cathal McQuade; Eamonn McGahey; Matt Conlon; Dodo Murphy; Phillip Smyth; Francis Noel Duffy; Pa Duffy; Mickey Donoghue; Mick McCaughey; Jimmie Connolly; the Duffys (Mickey and Paddy); the McCabes (John and Mickey); the McEntees (Paddy, Mickey and Martin); the Lynchs (Peadar, Pat, Lorcan and Noel); Jim O'Hanlon; Paul Flynn; the McCarthys (Paul and Cathal); Liam Maguire and John Moen.
This was the team with which Jim collected his first county senior medal in '57: Thady McNally; Jim O'Hanlon, Liam Maguire, Francis Noel Duffy; Mickey Conlon, Pa Duffy, Dessie Ward; Mickey Donoghue, Dodo Murphy; Mick McCaughey, John Moen, Tom McKearney; F Ward, M Ward and Eamonn McGahey. Sub used: Philip Smith. Sadly, seven of that side have since passed away.
In '59, Jim and Ballybay also won the Gold Watch tournament in Monaghan Harps, which was a really big deal at the time. He collected a Hackett Cup in '67 and a McMahon Cup in Emyvale in the early '60s, when the final was abandoned after some Clontibret players who had been sent off refused to leave the field of play. Tournament football was massive during Jim's playing days and he won a suit length in a tournament in Omagh as well - probably the equivalent of winning a PS3 console today, or tickets for Oxygen!
Jim was a regular with the county team for ten years up until 1967 and he admits there was nowhere to hide once you crossed the white line and entered the heat of battle: "It was tough enough. The first year I played senior football would have been the hardest. If you didn't stand up for yourself, you'd be made a rag of. I had played hard and tough with the minors and I carried that through to the seniors.
"We had little success with the county team. We lost McKenna Cup finals to Down in 1959 and '60, and I remember - in their first game after they'd won the 1957 All-Ireland - we beat Louth in a challenge. Myself, John Tavey and Brendan Hamill were in the full-back line that day."
Jim continued to line out for the club into the early 'seventies and helped out with coaching and as a selector for a good few years after that, before drifting away from things. Regarding the modern game, he notes: "I watch a good bit of it on the television and I go up to see Ballybay a bit. I would have high hopes for Ballybay. They have a strong team coming through again and I think they'll be a force again for a number of years.
"Alongside Clontibret, Ballybay were the leading lights during my days and I suppose it's a regret that I didn't win a few more SFCs. There was no back door back then and we let a few slip away. We lost a semi-final in '58 and lost to Monaghan Harps with a weakened team in '60. Emigration was a real problem at the time, but I always stayed at home. I worked in the tannery for 27 years and then did some building and worked for MI Metals before delivering veg for Gerry McElroy.1963 was another won we could have won. If we'd taken our chances, we could have won seven as well as the two before I came along."
Jim's son Barry was a substitute on the last Ballybay team to win a county SFC and also surpassed his dad by winning a Ward Cup medal. His other son Keith collected numerous hurling medals with Ballybay under the guidance of Mick Feeney.
Reflecting on that great era of Monaghan football that he graced with such aplomb, the great Jim O'Hanlon concludes: "That time, if a back caught a ball and came thundering out of defence, it rose the crowd. You were let get on with it. Today, it would be a free in. They have taken the physicality out of the game. If you met a man who was in any way weak, you'd play on him, to be honest. You had to give as good as you got because you never knew where you'd get hit from next. There was fair craic when Drumhowan came up, and even 'Blayney after that.
"I used to get the job of marking the opposition's danger man. I remember one day in a replay against Tyrone, I was asked to mark Frankie Donnelly. Frankie was coming towards the end of his career but he had still scored 0-14 in the drawn game. I asked one of the selectors did he want me to play or Donnelly not to play. He told me just to keep his score down if I could. He got one point that day - from a free."
Sums Jim O'Hanlon up, really. Tweet

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