Des Rigney

From the Town Tattler Vol 6 Issue 6.

Interview by Laura Bergin with Des Rigney an all round athlete in swimming and athletics. He played corner back for Portlaoise hurlers and played in the Leinster Final in 1987, played minor and underage, also played a bit of senior football , played intercounty for Laois. Coached Portlaoise and other club teams. A great rugby player for Portlaoise rugby also played with Greystones and Buccaneers and coached rugby teams. Played in Leinster 4 ball Golf for Portlaoise golf club and finally a well known musician and now he’s passed this sporting ethos to his two sons Luke and Harry who also played underage for Portlaoise Gaa and Laois and now play rugby for Portlaoise and Terenure.

Des: My name is Des Rigney , we were born and reared i suppose in the front row of St Brigid’s, No. 4, and we were blessed because we had a swimming pool, and a twenty acre field in front of us that had a full length hurling pitch, at one stage there was a four hundred meter running track there and it was a town park, so there were slides, swings, there was a tennis court and when the athletics took it over there was a shot put and high jump, so we were blessed with everything right across the road from us.

Laura: God I don't remember half of them Des.

Des: Oh yeah sure Eileen Hayes used to get the athletics going and eventually though you represented Laois,represented your club…

Laura: And what did you play in the Portlaoise club?

Des: No athletics thing first of all, that took off and then the swimming had a club going and we’d go to Butlin’s for competitions where you represented Laois and I have to say the 1st year we went was 1978 and I was one of three medal winners that year, I won a Silver medal, yeah and two other ladies won Bronze,yeah and the athletics was there, but ah Bill Phelan, Lord Rest him, Kitty Phelan lived in No 9 and we lived in No 4 and Bill was always in around with Kit and and Tom at the time and then he’d be coming in picking up Oliver and Denis to bring them up to the GAA Club and of course back then he was looking for lads to go play hurling and play football. He had an auld Hillman Hunter or something like that and he’d come down around the front of St Brigid’s and we’d all be outside playing and as bad as it sounds he’d throw about ten or twelve of us into the car and bring us down the Green Road or where ever it was back then to play hurling and a bit of football and that’s what kick started it all off for us all really.

Laura: What age were you back then?

Des: oh I’d say I didn’t hold a hurl till I was about twelve.

Laura: Did you play in any of the Féiles?

Des: Oh we went to Cork, I do remember going to Cork for an U14 for a weekend, not very successful to be honest, that’s all I remember then. I remember it because it clashed with a big Athletics event, the same weekend and I had to make a decision, thirteen years of age and I remember my mother saying , make up your own mind and I wanted to travel so I went to Cork, so I chose the Feile over the athletics that weekend. We won under 12s, under 14s, under 16s and under 17s and we came to minor and we were beaten in the 1st round.

Laura: And this was all hurling?

Des: oh all hurling for me, I played a small bit of football but only , I have a senior football medal which I won in 1990 but I didn’t kick much football to be honest, back then I was fit as a fiddle you see and they were short numbers so i was dragged in and that was fine and it didn’t bother me. We won the county final that year, we beat Ballyroan in the final in 1990 I’m fairly sure. We won the hurling the previous year and won the hurling the following year so there was a gap year there so we won the football, ha ha, just to get a medal home.

We were always blessed with the sport and blessed with the hurling in particular and everyone in our house done a small bit of hurling, well Brian didn’t do a lot to be honest as he was a small bit big.

Laura: oh I read that…6”5’

Des: so I remember playing 7s, there was 7s football competitions over in Castletown and we were over there one year, the whole lot of us were playing and we used to start Brian in midfield to throw him in for( the throw in) and then take him back off again, we wanted someone that could kick a ball. It was a bit of fun, a bit of a crack for us and sure when the GAA Center was going it was brilliant up there after matches, after county finals, there was no better place to be.

Laura: That's right, it was great for socialising, and everyone was friendly.

Des: Yeah, 100% it was brilliant.

Laura: What is your best memory of a win?

Des: I suppose in 1987 , well my first game in 1985 John Taylor was unlucky to be sent off playing for Laois.

Laura: oh I remember that, lost an All Star because of it.

Des: Correct which was an awful injustice I thought. Well anyway John had a stepped down for the county final and I was drafted in for the county final, my 1st senior match ever to play was in the county final, so we were beaten by Camross by a point I think it was but anyway the following year was 1986 and Noel the brother had got married the day before the semi final against Errill and anyway I got sent off in the semi final, so that wasn’t a great year. The following year Pat Critchley took over training us in 1987 and Pat’s training methods were totally different, there were no running laps. He had us running up and down with a ball, everyone had a ball, it was brilliant, it was different and everyone clued into it if you know what I mean. We beat Clonad in the county final in 1987, we beat them quite well, but we went all the way to the Leinster Club Final that year and we were beaten by a late goal in that against Rathnure, that was a great for us and a great memory.

I suppose as well and we went on a solo run then for a little while there that was 87. Then in 1988 Camross beat us by a point but in 1989 we won again, in 1990 we lost and in 1991 we won again and at that stage I think I was starting to wind down, I’m afraid the legs were beginning to go a little bit. Probably getting to the Leinster Final against Rathnure below in Kilkenny was a great year. I think the football’s won the same year. We’d have been the only club ever to play in both in one year. That would have been in 1987, we lost by a goal and they won. I was a minor in 1984 and both the minors and the seniors won the county final in both codes. I don’t think that’s ever been done since by any club in the country.

Laura: Who would you say was the best player in your opinion in Portlaoise club or county or any other county?

Des: You can’t look beyond John Taylor, he was head and shoulders above anyone really but I suppose a close second to that would have been Pat Critchley and what he achieved and people under estimate the full back position, it’s not something that you can train for, you have to be a natural in that position. John Bohan was a fantastic full back and Cyril Duggan was a fantastic full back. You couldn’t move John Taylor in full back , as good as he was you couldn’t do that, because he’s not a full back, you couldn’t move midfielders back or full forwards back, it’s a specialised position and John Bohan was brilliant at that and I thought Cyril Duggan was brilliant at that so to answer your question, John Taylor I suppose and Pat Critchley and John Bohan a very close second.

Laura: Any players in any other counties.

Des: Well not so much other counties, if I stick with Laois and back to that full back position I think Bill Maher Rathdowney was incredible as well and very much under estimated, again a very hard position . I hurled with Bill myself, I would have been a corner back and Cyril Duggan the other side and Bill Maher full back, that was the late 80s mid 80s somewhere and Bill would have been a great hurler, very under estimated. So Niall, Niall was some hurler, incredible, he was so unlucky with his injuries and then lucky to get back playing . He was exceptional.

Laura: Any funny stories?

Des: Not really. Well the year of the row? Do you know about the year of the row, it was in 1989 against Camross. Sparky Lalor of Durrow was referring and he was probably the only Referee that never feared Camross so because of him the match was carried on, any other referee would have abandoned it. It only started off with two or three lads and went on to about twenty

Laura: oh I remember that game.

Des: I got a six months ban for that, I was innocent, the first time I was ever banned in hurling or any sport but the match was re started and we went on to win the match and Niall went onto get Man of the Match so it was a good outcome I suppose, but again back then Camross were big strong fit lads but they bullied their way through a lot of teams but we put it up to them, physically we were taking them on also and hence that day the match was re started and we won the match and sure that was great.

Laura: Speaking about Niall there, he went off to play “Shinty” in Scotland against Scotland?

Des: I think he was picked a couple of years in a row back then , sure he had a fierce strike of a ball, like John Taylor, a different strike of a ball than a normal fellow. He went for a couple of years.

Laura: That was unusual.

Des: yeah I won’t say it’s a very different game but they have different hurls as well. They’re huge yokes.

I think the Scots were using hurls because their stick is a different stick Laura: that’s right it’s curved.

Des: yes a big curve and much longer I think, yeah you’d get an awful strike of the ball with one. Yeah he went over, but he used to go to San Francisco as well to hurl, himself and Cyril Duggan and a few of them, worked there during the day and hurled at weekends, for the summer, for three or four months like.

And it was great for them, go see some of the world.

Laura: Apart from the hurling you went on to play Rugby?

Des: Yes I enjoyed the rugby, it probably suited - me better in one sense because I was going from the hurling into the rugby , I was going in fit and vice versa, I was coming out of the rugby and going into the hurling fit. Yeah we ended up going up to Greystones-Wicklow at the start of it. I followed Brian, Brian was up in Greystones and I ended up being captain up there for a year around 89/90-92/93.

Laura: How did you keep it all going?

Des: Ah sure look we loved it, that was it you see, we loved it, the training and the comradery and the pints at the weekend and we ended up going back to The Buccaneers-( amalgamation of Athlone and Ballinasloe) then for the last couple of years, we played three or four years down there and that was great crack all together.

We trained down in Athlone. I was back living in Portlaoise at the time, I had lived in Dublin for a few years when I was playing with the other crowd. When I came back to Portlaoise we used to travel up to Athlone on Tuesdays and Thursdays for training and play matches at the weekend and we were quite successful as we joined Division 3 and we won Division 3 and we got promoted again the following year into Division 2 and then into Division 1 and I was convinced that we played in 2 All Ireland Semi-Finals but some lads told me it was only the 1.

We definitely played in 1 anyway against Cork and Ronan O’Gara was playing , he kicked us off the field in the second half and that was the end of it down there and that was brilliant. At that stage now around 2000/2002 the legs were completely gone.

Laura: Ha Ha I’m not surprised. You played Intercounty yourself, didn't you?

Des: I did, I played for four years at Intercounty and back then it was all knock out, if you know what I mean. Now we got on well in the league, the league ran through the winter and it was a heavier ground so it suited me, but then the championship came around say June/July but it was complete knockout so we never got past the 1st round.

So it was four years and four knock outs.

Laura: You also trained teams?

Des: I coached Ballinakill in hurling and I coached Kilcotton for a year and in Rugby then I coached Portlaoise for four or five years and I also coached Newbridge for a year.

Laura:Then you went on to something completely different? You played with “The Mere Mortals”!

Des: I played base guitar with “The Mere Mortals” and I played saxophone with a band called “Soul Set”. Angie McNulty , Tony Tynan and a few and Tony’s son was on the drums I played base guitar with “The Mere Mortals” originally “The Drowning Fish” and our 1st gig was in the Portlaoise GAA center in Portlaoise. That’s right Ollie Plunkett, Paul Marron, Paul Brophy, Dick Duff and Pat Critchley were also involved. We recently got together again and we actually played a few gigs there lately.

Laura: Oh you weren’t up in Wolfhill with them were you?

Des: hahaha. I was. I was up there two or three times now at Leeche's Pub. They liked us up there, yeah, a very quiet little small place but yet there was a nice crowd.

Laura: You were down at Féile too?

Des: Yes Féile I think the very 1st Féile back in 1990 also and we played at that and the best part of that was you had back stage passes for the weekend you see, yeah so we got to meet the likes of Van Morrison and The Hot House Flowers and all them boys, we got to meet all of them.

Laura: I remember the Flowers playing up in the Club. Liam Ó Maonlaí

Des: Yes Ollie organised all of that to be fair to him, sure your talking 35/40 years ago now, we done support for Van Morrison, he would have been a lot bigger back then.

Laura: Oh, Van Morrison was great!

Des: They were great auld times.

Laura: Yes sure I remember Fiachna O Braonain, he has a radio show now and Liam and the lads, well, I used to cater for the bands with a few other girls and I remember one night Liam stood at the door of the hall in the clubhouse and Tommy Keogh God rest him had spread the slippy stuff on the dance floor and Liam ran and skated right across to the kitchen door, ah sure they were great times.

Laura: Now just before you go! Your son plays rugby?

Des: The two boys. Oh Luke did play underage for the club , Cyril Duggan is our nextdoor neighbour and Cyril has a young lad Cathal and he’s the same age as Luke so when they came to under 7s-under 8s Cyril was their coach and Cyril, he’s a great man to organise things and he pulled me onboard with him of course so they played under 7s under 8s. He played Féile, he played with Laois Under 14s but he’s a big man and when he got to 15yrs/16yrs he was nearly too big for hurling because they were fast little lads you know but he played . I remember distinctly going down to Erril one Saturday morning with the Laois 14s and they played Tipperary and there were only three Laois lads able for them, the pace of the game was incredible for that level and so he knew then himself and he turned to Rugby which suited him better, So he plays Rugby now with Terenure in Dublin, so he’s going well at that. Luke’s doing quite well, he played for Irish clubs and County last year. He’s a big lad so he won’t be turning to hurling anytime soon although Luke was talking about going back to Junior hurling last year. So Harry plays for Portlaoise and Luke for Terenure. Harry would have come from an underage club set up as well and then he moved on. He moved to Shannon first, then he moved up to Dublin.

Laura: In golf then you played in a mixed four ball for Portlaoise Golf Club in 2024?

Des: That’s right and we won out Leinster and we went to a quarter final and then an All Ireland Semi Final against a Club from Clare but we lost, yeah but we won out Leinster that year. It was a great achievement, anything in golf is hard so to win out anything is great. So that was a great year and a great crack, and again you're competing.

Laura: Anyone we know on that team in golf?

Des: Yes you know Ray Carroll? He was on that team it was mixed you see, so I played with a lady called Elaine Redmond, she was my partner and like that we were unbeaten until the semi final. Sure you can stay going at the golf as long as you can and Paddy Fitz Lord rest him used to say. that golf is not a sport as there’s nobody marking you ha ha. That’s what Paddy would say, that’s a great saying, a great quote yeah from Paddy. “There’s nobody marking you.

Laura: That’s it now Des. Thanks for all that!

Des: How long was that?

Laura: Ah, 23 minutes …

Des: God you wouldn’t be that long in a Garda Barracks!