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Three Part Article
Tadhgie Lyne - Prince of Forwards

FIFTY years ago in 1955 Tadhgie Lyne helped power Kerry to one of their most memorable ever All-Ireland victories over the indestructible Dublin team in a final that is still spoken about to the present day as one of the most unforgettable football finals ever.

Tadghie gave one of the greatest ever displays that day and some of his point kicking was equal to and some say even surpassed anything that was ever seen in Croke Park. Maurice Fitzgerald in 1997 was for me reminiscent of that exhibition.

For me the very mention of his name evokes a multitude of memories. Growing up in Killarney of the 50s, he was my first real life sporting hero and I can still see him in my mind¹s eye ¬ superbly fit, tall and rangy, dark hair slicked back kicking points from all distances and angles.
One fleeting glance at the goal posts was all he needed before kicking what
seemed like a radar controlled high arching point, which was his trade
mark.

It was a beautifully natural skill that had been perfected over many hours of practice in Fitzgerald Stadium and his father¹s garage in High Street.
What an honour it was to be requested to act as ball boy and return the one ball available to the great man as he practised the skills that would propel him to three senior All-Ireland medals (1953-55-59), Kerry¹s top scorer for three years and a host of other honours.

The all round sportsman, Tadhgie Lyne won an All-Ireland basketball medal with Kerry in 1957, but he was also a star at pitch and putt, snooker, billiards and athletics and represented Munster and Ireland in football.
A quiet, shy person, he rarely, if ever, gave interviews, and while he had been in deteriorating health for some time his death at his home on Killarney Road, Castleisland on May 31, 2002 came as a great shock to his family and huge circle of friends and admirers. He was 69 years old. However, on one occasion Tadhgie acquiesced to an interview request, so I found myself in Tadhgie¹s home conducting an interview for my Terrace Talk show, an interview that is now, in retrospect, a vital documentation in the history of Kerry football.

I say this because to the best of my knowledge it is the only available question and answer discussion on record with one of Kerry’s greatest ever footballers, the man so fittingly hailed as The Prince of Forwards.
He was born in Sunnyhill, Killarney, one of three boys and two girls. His mother was Nellie Flynn from Firies and came from a family of seven girls and two boys while his father Jerome was a Kilgarvan man and as Tadhgie recalled, "played a bit of hurling".

He attended school at the Presentation Monastery and St Brendan¹s Colleges
where his early football powers were soon noticed, but he did not get in
the Kerry minor side of his year but he did help The Sem to win two Dunloe Cups and a Munster Championship.

His boyhood friends in the Killarney of the 1930s and 40s included Mickey ”Doc” O’Donoghue, Dan O¹Keeffe, Murt O¹Shea, Bill Landers, and John O'Connor, and it was his great friend Murt O¹Shea who influenced him to join Dr Crokes to whom he gave great service until he transferred to Castleisland Desmonds in 1960, following his marriage to Mary who hailed from that town.

While he was to go on to become one of the greatest forwards in the game Tadhgie began his career in defence and he explained why 1955 was not his fondest memory and the influence Dr Eamon O¹Sullivan had on him. "I started playing with the Killarney minors at left half back, it was okay but I loved the forwards and my favourite position was left half forward. Eamon was a great trainer and Paul Russell was with him for the 1955 final.

If you were overweight you got a gruelling, Paudie Sheehy and I were always well up in the sprints and we could take it easy for the heavy training. We were staying in St Brendan's College that year and before the Cavan semi-final a gang of us decided we would go back to Puck Fair for the night.

About fourteen of us went back in a lorry and the following day we got a fierce gruelling. Eamon was all about sprinting because "get the ball first" was his motto.
"We all had our own little half acre on the field to mind and we were left with that and if you roamed from your own square he would give out to you.

”Don’t worry about the man next door, there¹s someone minding him and if you keep to your own half-acre we will keep on winning¹ was Dr Eamon’s motto. "I was at my peak in 1955, I scored the first point, getting the ball from the late John Dowling. It was great just to beat Dublin alone, however my fondest memory is the first All-Ireland I won in 1953 against Armagh. I was all nerves at the start and wanted to come off but Eamon told Colm Kennelly and Donie Murphy to play the ball to me and I got a few catches and I settled down. Bill McCorry missed the penalty, I don’t remember much more, but that was my favourite memory."

The one characteristic that separated Tadhgie from the greats of his era was his magnificent distinctive style of kicking, how can one describe it. It was like Maurice Fitzgerald, Pat Spillane and Mickey Sheehy all rolled into one and in his interview he revealed his fascinating secret. In the interview he talks about his father¹s garage, situated at the top of High Street, Killarney where Andy O Sullivan¹s carpet and furniture store now operates, so I put it to him, how did he become so accurate.

"Every evening when the garage closed I would hang two footballs off the rafters with ropes about three inches from the ground and hit them with my left and right legs trapping them as they swung back. I would do that for about an hour every night until I perfected my style. I would have the follow through to precision, it is the follow through that that makes the kick. If you don¹t follow through, the ball can go anywhere, so that’s how I did it. I also practised putting spin on the ball to the left or right, this is very difficult to do but you get used to it after lots of practise and I
used it a lot in my career," the great Tadhgie Lyne revealed.

We continue our story of one of Kerry's greatest ever footballers, Tadhgie Lyne, dubbed 'The Prince Of Forwards', these are transcripts taken from the one and only interview given by Tadhgie at his home in Castleisland for my Radio Kerry Terrace talk programme before his death in 2002, and it's in honour of his majestic display fifty years ago this year as Kerry beat Dublin in that historic final of 1955.

On Sunday September 11th 1955 before a record semi final attendance of 71,504 Kerry met Cavan in a re play, on the same day Dublin took on Mayo also in a re play, three weeks before this Kerry had been extremely fortunate to draw with the Northern side and it was in this game that Tadhgie Lyne scored the goal which he remembers as maybe not the greatest but certainly the most important he had ever got for Kerry and few will argue with his choice because it was instrumental in Kerry winning the title that year, he recalls that magic moment

' Peter o Donoghue was a deadly kicker of points and he had Cavan ahead with five minutes left and they were all over us, then Johnny Culloty crossed a high ball, I got to it first and sent it to the net, we were a point ahead against the run of play, Keyes scored for them to draw the match. We won the re- play easily, and Johnny scored a goal in that game when I centred the ball for him, those two matches brought us on a ton and we were flying for the final against Dublin. Yes I was in great form that year and in the Munster final against Cork in Killarney Paudie Sheehy and I scored nine points between us, we won by two points. I loved playing against Cork, Paddy o Driscoll and Denis Bernard were the two men who used to be looking after me, you knew you were going to get it hard, you took it and gave back the very same, o Driscoll was one of the best men I ever marked I would have to say'.

Of course the Dr. Croke man knew the Fitzgerald Stadium like the back of his hand and I put it to him that playing at home was a great advantage to him and he fully agreed with this assertion. 'I knew every blade of grass in Killarney and in the 1953 Munster final I had my best game ever against Cork, I kicked six points that day, I knew the pitch like the back of my hand, Tom Ash and Sean Kelly got the two goals, I remember there was seventeen special trains to Killarney for the day. Jas Murphy was captain, and John Cronin, Jim Brosnan, Marcus o Neill Ned Roche and Jackie Lyne were also on that side'.

So once again the question of how he perfected his magnificent kicking with both left and right legs came up in the interview and he revealed another aspect of his secret, I had as a garsun seen him kicking points from the corner flag while training on his own in the Stadium, now this was forty years before and I have never yet seen any footballer do like wise with such ease and regularity in all the intervening years. In fact in the All Ireland semi final in 1958 in torrential rain against Derry, which Kerry, lost I can vividly recall Tadhgie racing up the wing on a typical solo run on the Cusack stand side and from the corner flag dropping the rain sodden old pig skin football with his left leg right on top of the Derry cross bar at the canal end, it rebounded into play, this image remains etched in the memory. His answer to my query confirmed that my memories of those far off long summer evenings were nor figments of my youthful imagination.

' It was all down to practise, I did it with my right leg and with my left leg, I would start on the 21, kicking frees and off my hands, I would then work all the way out to the 50, first in the centre and then to the left and right of the posts, standing about 40 yards out I would pick a spot on the crossbar, the bit with the dab of paint in the middle and try to pin point that with my kick, you would get more accurate all the time, a few young fellows would then kick the ball back out to me again. Yes I would also practise from the corner flag and perfected this kick also'. Don't forget that the Killarney man was Kerry's top scorer in '55, '56, and '59, while his total for Kerry in 1955 was 5-42, (57 points), in 14 games, and average of 4,07 points per game, fantastic kicking in any man's language.

Following such a long and distinguished playing career one fairly obvious question for the Kerry legend was, any regrets as he looked back on his career, and I certainly did not expect the answered I got, in fact he left me slightly stunned as he revealed something previously unknown about himself. ' There is one thing I often wonder about , shortly after the 1953 final three fellows called to the garage in High Street, they were scouts from Glasgow Celtic and they asked me if I would go to the club for a six months trial, I discussed it with my father, however he was against it and he refused to let me go, of course I will forever wonder how it would have worked out for me'.

At the height of his greatness Tadghie was chosen three years in a row, 1954'55'56 for the Irish team which played the combined Universities, he captained them in 1956, this was the equivalent of to-days All Stars, and among the galaxy of idols lining out with him were celebrated names such as, Jack Mangan, Bill Casey, Nace o Dowd, Brian Morgan, Art o Hagan, Stephen White, Jim Crowley, Dessie Ferguson, Aidan Brady, Paddy Prendergast Paddy o Brien, Tom Langan, and the great Iggy Jones. He was also a regular on the Munster team during his golden era of the fifties.

He had no hesitation recalling his best game ever on the local scene when his exciting talents were first unveiled with the Dick Fitzgerald's team that won the county championship in 1951, Earlier that season in his favourite stomping ground, Fitzgerald Stadium he gave a memorable display against Iveragh scoring points from all angles, near and far. 'This was easily my best game at local level and everything I kicked seemed to go over, I was marked that day by a man who I recognised as a very good footballer, Joe Lennon of Renard, Dan Kavanagh was on that side as was Donal Prendeville, Teddy o Connor, Connie Riordan, Gerald Teahan and Marcus was in goal, we won 3-8 to 2-3 and beat Dingle in the final. I also played in the county hurling final two months later, Crotto beat us, Denis o Brien,' Murteen' , Ben Campion, Jackie Lyne, Joe Boyd, and Martin Cleary were on that team, yes I liked the bit of hurling'.

Continuing the story of the incomparable Tadhgie Lyne and quoting extracts from my Terrace talk interview with him I was intrigued to find out who were his boyhood heroes and the names of the men he admired and respected as opponents and when I put these questions to him he had no hesitation in answering, in fact Tadhgie’s memory of events stretching back in time was flawless and he could recall in detail most of his career without a moments hesitation.

‘ When I was young I would always go up to the field with Billy Myers on his bike and mind his boots for him, this was back in the thirties and forties, Jackie Lyne too was coming very strong at that time and then you had one of the best backs of all time suppose, Bill Casey. Bill would have made a great athlete, especially over the hurdles, he had a very long loping stride and was a great runner, Batt Garvey I thoroughly admired for his strength and Myers and Healy would have been the greatest full back line of all time I would say.

In my own time then you had great players like, Tom Long, John Dowling, Mick o Connell, Mick o Dwyer, Johnny Culloty, and Paudie Sheehy, God rest his soul. Outside of Kerry, Gerry o Reilly of Roscommon, Jim McKeever, Paddy o Brien, Kevin Heffernan, Mick Cahill from Tipperary and Mick Tubridy from Clare and my friend up in Tyrone Iggy Jones, for a small man he was brilliant. There was a little fellow over in Killarney and a great friend of mine Freddie Murphy from your own club Weeshie, he was a hard man to shake off and another fellow down in Cahesceiveen called the ‘Dasher’ o Connor also very hard to get away from.’


On the night the interview was broadcast the phone lines to Radio Kerry were jammed with callers anxious to pay tribute to one of Kerry’s greatest players, renowned author journalist, and Kerry football historian Own McCrohan from Valentia paid this fitting tribute. ‘Above all others Tradhgie was the man who coloured my youthful imagination, I feel privileged to have seen some of the best moments of his career with club and county. He had an incredible range of pure natural skills and his reading of the game was fabulous, his ball control was flawless, he had a superb deceptive turn of speed, a baffling side step and an intuitive instinct for being in the right place at the right time and his kicking with left or right was phenomenal, an impeccable sports man and in every facet of the game he lived up to my estimation of a hero’.


Dr. Jim Brosnan who played with Tadghie on the winning teams of 1953 and ‘55 described him as a marvellous kicker of the ball. ‘He was always unassuming and shy’, said Dr. Jim. when things got lively Tadghie would be right in the middle of it, he made scoring look very easy and seemed to be on target most of the time. Of course his greatest day was against Dublin in ‘55, he had a beautiful was of kicking the ball, he had a lovely swing. I remember we played in the St. Brendan’s Cup in new York in October 1959after winning the All Ireland. A few of the selectors were missing and the late Michael o Rourkeand myself were in charge, things were not going well for Kerry, we were going to move Tadghie, Michael said leave him where he is, he had just said it when a ball came in , Tadghie pounced on it and the ball was in the net. We won that game and it was nice to add a St. Brendan’s Cup Medal to the All Ireland and league, Yes I have great memories of Tadghie’.


Johnny Culloty won All Irelands with his fellow Killarney town man in 1955 and ‘59 and recalled his memories of his friend. If you got the ball that time forty five or fifty yards out there was no such thing as passing, it was a different game, you just looked after the ball when you got it in your own sector, Tadghies strong point was his scoring ability and he was always very fit, a great basketball player, hurler, and he was also a great billiards and snooker player, the bigger the occasion the better he was and with extra training he would come into his own’.


Basketball began in Killarney in October 1951 and the Crokes man became an instant hit helping Killarney Town to three county titles while his club side The United was one of the very first great Kerry basketball teams consisting of John C Cooper, Danno Keeffe, Murt and Sean o Shea, John Joe Sheehan, John O Shea, Liam Brosnan and Sean O Sullivan, forced to disband , they were practically unbeatable and Tadhgie was the star. He was also a regular on the Kerry side leading them to Munster and All Ireland Titles, in one game against Limerick he was top scorer with 15 points, Paddy Culligan, Tim Dorgan, Eddie Barry, and Jerome O Shea were his team mates during those great years of the middle fifties. Other fond memories of him also involve his years with another legendary side The Jokers in which his late brother Mickey Joe played, Eamon o Donoghue, Jackie Looney, Jimmy Redpath and Michael Courtney were also involved in that side so named following a game of poker in the local Parish Hall. Tadghie had this unique style of scoring with a long underhand looping throw from the half way line of the now demolished Killarney Town Hall, he was a wonderful basketball player, very strong and a immense rebounder from both baskets.
However he made it very plain that Kerry trainer Dr. Eamon did not take too kindly to him playing the game, ‘ he taught it was too hard on the feet and that both games did not mix and I was using different muscles for both, but fair play to him he did not stop me from playing and it gave footballers great vision on the field and kept us fit in the winter. In 1957 I was on the panel that won the All Ireland Basketball title, it was played on the same day as the National League final against Galway, I was after having my appendix out and I should not have played in the football, we lost that day to Galway but won the basketball, I did not play in that final’.


Bishop Bill Murphy also paid his tribute to the Kerry great. ‘If I was picking a team of the best footballers I have seen I would certainly have him on left half forwarded it would be very hard to keep him off any best fifteen of Irish footballers. We had great admiration for him when I was in St. Brendan’s, he was a real gentleman, he was very quiet and shy and not a show off in any way, he was beautiful to watch at his best, he had such an easy laid back style and he would always get to that ball before his man and he was deadly accurate, he was a model for us youngsters’.


Tadhgies great friend and Dr. Crokes clubman Donie Sheehan had these memories of the Hight Street man, ‘ All the talk these times is about a fellow being one of the all time greats of the game but I will tell you Weeshie and I have seen them all, Tadghie was the greatest of them all, I would say that as far as I was concerned his best game was against Cavan in 1955, I got married that year and I saw both games against Cavan, if Mick o Dwyer had him up in Kildare now kicking those great long range points he would win a couple of All Irelands, we had great days in Sneem for Fr. Teehans seven a sides, they all came just to see the great Tadghie, we will never see his likes again. He was a very unassuming fellow and if you saw him going on to the field you would wonder how he could kick the ball over the bar, he had a gangling kind of a walk, and he was so casual and easy going, but when he got going he was like poetry in motion. He had a saying,’ when I am going through keep out of my way’, forwards had a habit that time of standing in front of the goal, and don’t forget that it was the old pig skin football that time which became fierce heavy in the rain, oh yes he was my favourite footballer’.


Tadhgie Lyne played in five senior All Ireland finals, 1953-54-55-59-60, winning three, and the day before the ‘59 final against Galway he married his sweetheart Mary Brosnan from the town of Castleisland he settled down there and finished his playing career with the local Desmonds, they had four children, two girls, Eileen and Brid, and two sons Diarmuid and Brendan, Diarmuid more popularly known as ‘Domo’ was an outstanding footballer and starred as Castlisland Desmonds won the 1985 All Ireland club final, scoring 2-2 in the semi final against Clann na nGael, (Roscommon), ‘ surly a chip off the old block’.


Another former Kerry great Mixi Palmer was high in his praise off Tadghie. ‘I always says that to me he was the finest footballer I ever saw playing, from fifty yards he would swing it over the bar, he was a beautiful player, now days he would even be better, he would be far fitter. The ‘55 final was his buf day, Dublin were the hot favourites, the Dublin machine they were called , but they were sorted that day. When we were plating Tadghie was my man, if I got a ball in the back line I would look for him. He was my target always, at that time instead of passing a ball you would target a man and Tadghie was always my man.’


That doyen of sports journalists the late P. D. Mehigan who wrote under the pen name ‘Carbury’ summed up Tadghie beautifully following that 1955 final. ‘But when everything is said and done the outstanding figure in the whole panorama was Tadghie Lyne, he showed phenomenal speed and when he gripped leather he swung clear in bewildering fashion to swing over those long legged sailing drives that curled in on the posts as if radar directed. His football was a joy to behold and in my opinion he is the greatest wing forward ever seen at GAA headquarters, polished cool and effortless, he has a great swerve, great hands and an unerring kick’.


What I have written only scratches the surfaces of Tadghies career, nevertheless to me in my teenage years he will always remain in my memory as my first ever sporting idol, but more importantly than anything else The Prince Of Forwards was simply a nice person, how fortunate I was to have known him.


As a correction to my date in the first article, Tadghie Lyne died on the 31st May, 2000 and lies buried in New Saint Johns cemetery Castleisland.

Fogra: My thanks to my friend Patrick Mannix for his great help in transcribing the audio interview with Tadghie and next week GAA legend Donie Sheehan discloses his best ever East Kerry team, prepare for surprises.