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The Legacy of Kerry Cycling
The Story of Mick Murphy

The fifties were golden years for Kerry cycling, Gene Mangan burst on the scene in 1955 winning the Ras, and the following year Paudi Fitzgerald was first man home. Without their great team mates of course nothing would have been achieved, and men like Jackie o Connor, Paddy O'Callaghan, Johnny Switzer, Jimmy Leahy, Gerald Landers, Paddy Moriarty, Dan Aherne, and others, were the heroes of that era. Team manager Liam Brick was a great driving force behind these great Kerry teams and Mick Murphy was obsessed with becoming a Kerry rider as he watch the Ras passing through the county during those early days.

The sports mad youngster tried boxing, running, football, but especial he loved taking part in grass track racing around Kerry and he tells stories of cycling huge distances to take part in sports on his common bike and then cycling home over distances of 40, 50, and 60 miles. The year was 1956 and he was prepraring to devote all in his efforts to cycle in the Ras, the obsession was growing stronger and stronger, and it's evident talking to the South Kerry man that it was a burning obsession.

Mick's first official race was the 25 mile Team Trial Championship of Kerry and he finished well down the field, he rode that day on a bike borrowed from Jimmy Leahy. However he was learning fast and in 1957 he had his first big win when he jumped the field to win the 50 mile championship of Kerry. With great humour he recalled, "going through Farranfore a horse bolted, spilled all the tanks of milk, the road was awash with milk, I took my chance, attacked on the left hand side on the grass margin, if I hit anything I was gone, I was away like a bullet and never caught."

The savage training regime continued, and Mick O'Dwyer can recall seeing Murphy heading off to cycle the ring of Kerry most days of the week, however things were not going well at home, "I was unmanageable" he admits and eventually his parents had enough and he was thrown out. "On Easter Sunday 1958 I took my bits and pieces, my few rags and headed for Banteer. I knew they had a great cycling track there and Dr. Pat o Callaghan the Olympian began his career there."

Now the single mindedness of this extraordinary man becomes very evident, he set up his home in a wooded area near Mallow race course, bales of hay were his shelter, a barn owl and a goat that he stole in Kilgarvan were his only company. He had made a sling out of potatoes sacks and cycled to his lair with the Kilgarvan goat over his shoulders.

H e worked as a Spailpin with the local farmers and trained by night on Nadd mountain. He would eventually give up work completely and retreated to his dug out for rest and training, however his obsession with gym work grew stronger and recalls setting up his own gym in his wooded lair.
"The farmers would tie the cows to half hundred weights in the fields and in the night I took the weights and with these and crow bars, and 56 pound weights and two 28 pound weights I took from a shop in the village and socks filled with sand I had my own gym. My diet consisted of grated carrot's, raw eggs, turnips, spuds, honey, juice I extracted from the stems of nettles, goats milk and cows blood, I was determined to win the 1958 Ras.

Money was of course scarce, and Mick would leave his wood land lair by the Blackwater, cycle to Cork city and perform his circus tricks collecting a few bob, however, desperate for more funds which would help him enter the Ras he decided to approach the circus people who had helped him in the past.
"I heard the circus had passed through Cork and the West Of Ireland, and I went after it, I criss-crossed into Limerick, into Clare, well into the midlands and on to Galway but it had gone to Donegal so I cycled back through Kildare. The word went out that Murphy was cycling the race rout in reverse, Gene Mangan told you this on Terrace Talk two years ago. I was on the road for five days."

Murphy's last chance of getting on the Kerry team for the Ras depended on his performance in the two day Ras Mumham, however on the Saturday of the first stage he had cycled over 100 miles to reach Tralee, he was well down the field, but on the second 140 mile stage he was in devastating form and helped in Farranfore by Tom Brennan and Mick Murphy, (Castleisland), who gave him tea laced with brandy he won the stage." I was in the Ras, my dream was realised and all those years of savage training and hardship had created an animal that the Ras wouldn't be able to tame."

The Kerry team were the sensation of the Ras, Gene Mangan would go on and win a record four stages, Dan Ahern took the yellow jersey, on the opening day, winning the first stage and Mick despite a bad fall when he hit a bridge outside Wexford came in second. His epic ride to victory had begun and there would be more falls but much more serious.

He took the yellow jersey the second day. "I headed for the marble city, (Kilkenny), topping 30 miles an hour, and there was no catching me, McKenna was second at 58 seconds, with Mangan third. I got my new yellow jersey and I cycled seven miles into the country, I hadn't done weight training for four days, so I used some stones off a wall as weights, a lovely cow came over to me, I bled a vein with a penknife I kept in my sock, drained the blood into my water bottle and drank it, I would use a pair of spare laces as a spancel so the cow stayed still. I performed my "transfusion" three times during the Ras.

An occurrence during the third stage, 120 miles to Clonakilty was to create one of the great Irish legendary sports stories, Mick recalled to me in vivid detail the amazing story. "I was leading the King of the mountains and had the yellow jersey, we were coming into Glanmire and suddenly my free-wheel went, I couldn't pedal, I jumped off running along the road with my bike, no back up came, the bunch passed me, as they shouts rang out, UP, UP, UP, that's for attack, they knew I was in big trouble. My Ras was over. Then out a gap came a heard of cows followed by a farmer, he was pushing a bike with his left hand as they slowly crossed the road.

"I was a good jumper, I sprinted and landed clean on the bike and was gone up the road before the poor farmer knew ahat was happing. It was a big under geared bike, the handlebars were too high for the saddle, the yellow jersey was gone from me, and I was about three miles down, but I worked like a demon and after about eight miles on the common bike I had cut the gap and held the yellow jersey."

In my three hour recorded interview with Mick I pressed him on the story of the farmers bike because at that time and in the subsequent years every where his name was mentioned it was this story that dominated all, and in fact it must be safe to say that it has grown and embellished over the subsequent decades and is one of the greatest legends of Irish sport.
"Only for the farmers bike I definitely would not have won that Ras, we had just one back up car, they were attending to Gene Mangan at that time, and our team were very young, how could they expect children to be up there with me in a savage race like that. The team car came across the farmer, he had my bike , they caught up with me, gave me the spare bike and I rejoined the bunch and finished seventh. I lost no time, looking back now I wonder how I did it at all. I suppose I didn't know what I was doing but an Australian bloke wrote that night," instincts governed his reactions."

I met the great Gene Mangan in Dublin at the Kerry person of the year, (Denis Geaney), last week and put it to him, was all this true, and without a moments hesitation he answered, "yes it is," and pushing the great man further I asked and how would you describe Mick Murphy. He looked at me thoughtfully for a few moments and with a mischievous smile on his face he answered in one word "different."

Five stages of the Ras to go and the drama of Mick Murphy would grip the attention of the whole country as he would be involved in two horrific falls that would have hospitalised lesser man. We will return to the drama in two weeks as next week we must pay tribute to the man who many feel is responsible for An Gaeltaght reaching Croke Park. And he is neither a player or a selector.