John Joe Brady has been honoured for his incredible long service to refereeing in Westmeath.

The veteran Milltownpass match official was presented with a special award by his club at their dinner dance last Saturday night after 60 consecutive years on the whistle, which may well be a national record. LGFA president Triona Murray also made a presentation to John Joe, while a letter from GAA president Jarlath Burns congratulating him on his remarkable longevity and service was also read out.

John Joe first took up the whistle as a 17-year-old in 1966. He holds the distinction of having played in and refereed every county final from U14 upwards. Indeed, he has refereed county finals in seven different decades.

"I wouldn't have stuck it this long if I didn't enjoy it. A lot of people look upon refereeing as a thankless task, but I never viewed it like that. People will give out about you, but there is great unity and cooperation between referees and clubs at the end of the day. I've never turned up for a game where there hasn't been someone there to help out with the umpiring or linesman duties," he says.

Like many of his peers, it was by chance that John Joe became a referee. Back in 1966, he was playing a minor match in Cusack Park for his native St. Mary's, Rochfortbridge. Immediately after the game, the late Paddy Flanagan, who was then county board secretary, called him into his office, handed him a whistle belonging to the late minor board chairman Owen Dalton, and asked him to referee a JFC match between Tubberclair and Streamstown in Ballynacargy later that afternoon.

And so began a long and illustrious refereeing career which is still going 60 years later.

John Joe's first big assignment was the 1971 SFC final between Athlone and Moate. Aged just 22 at the time, he had been married only eight days to Mary Whelehan from Milltownpass and was forced to cut short his honeymoon in the UK to return home for the big game!

His appointment to that final was particularly prestigious as the practice at the time had been to appoint referees from outside the county.

"The likes of Eamonn Moules and Jimmy Hatton from Wicklow had refereed finals in the preceding years, so it was nice to be able to break the mould," he remembers.

John Joe refereed his second SFC final in 1989 when Rosemount defeated Athlone. He has also taken charge of five IFC and four JFC football finals. Asked why he didn't follow fellow county man Paddy Collins into inter-county refereeing, the affable whistler replies: "I simply hadn't the time. As well as refereeing at local level, I was still playing football and hurling. I played football for St. Mary's and later with Milltownpass, and hurling with St. Brigid's. And then there was the small matter of rearing a young family! I refereed inter-county games at underage level, but never at senior."

John Joe did, however, get to experience refereeing at the highest level as an umpire with St. Loman's clubman Pat Casserly. For nine years, he travelled the length and breadth of the country with Pat and fellow umpires Tony Robinson, Tom Barden and Leo Irwin, during which time they handled some of the biggest games in the GAA.

"We did All-Ireland club, National League, All-Ireland U21, All-Ireland Colleges and Leinster finals. Pat refereed championship matches in every province and did two All-Ireland semi-finals as well," he remembers.

"The only one he missed out on was the All-Ireland senior final, which he should have got in 1998 when Galway played Kildare. There was a lot of politics involved unfortunately, and Pat walked away from refereeing after that. He never returned, but became a referee’s assessor after that.”

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