The Late Mick Murphy Another fine gael to pass to his eternal reward was Mick Murphy from Dunlavin. Mick was a fine footballer an first came to prominence with the Wicklow Minor team of 1948. That was the best and most successful Minor team to represent Wicklow up to that time. They beat Carlow in the first round of the Championship 1-2 to 0-3; beat Laois 3-4 to 0-4 in the second round and beat Offaly 2-1 to 0-2 in the semi-final. However, a first appearance in a Leinster final was not to be. After objections and counter-objections the semi-final was refixed and Offaly came out on top at the second attempt. Among some of Mick's colleagues on that team were Chris Timmins, Fr. Dick Kelly, Charley Nolan and Johnny Kenny, Baltinglass; former Wicklow team manager Tom McGualey, Joe Carroll, Charley Vixe and Joe Furlong of St. Pat's, Tom White, Kilcoole, and Dermot Kavanagh, Rathnew. Mick moved on to a Dunlavin Junior team of 1949 that powered their way to the county final with wins over Kiltegan and Ballymanus but lost to Greystones. His day of glory came in 1956 when Dunlavin beat Knockananna in a very low scoring final 0-3 to 0-0. He value to the club is underlined by one sentence in Jimmy Whittle's book 'Sons of St Nicholas'- most likely a quote from the 'Wicklow People' of the day. It read "Star of the last line of the Dunlavin defence was Mick Murphy, who saved his lines time and again as T. Keogh and P. Tyrrell sent shots on target. The two Knockananna players mentioned were Tom Keogh and Pat Tyrrell, both county Senior players and the fact that no ball, high or low got past Mick that day says it all. Our sympathy to his bereaved wife and family. Courtesy of the Wicklow People 6th February 2008 Tweet

Most Read Stories