Noel Tynan

From the Town Tattler Vol 3 Issue 5.

Early Memories

My earliest memories of playing for the club were back in the days when we used to train up on the pitch beside O'Moore Park, where Parkside is now located.

At the time football took precedence in the club, so if you were training with the hurlers you'd have to get up early to get your spot under the trees to tog out. Once the footballers came up then, if you were a dual player, you threw your hurley in under the ditch and went on and trained with the footballers.

Nobody had a car at the time and there were no changing rooms, so you just togged out and left your clothes on the ground under the trees.

The atmosphere and craic was always great up at training. There were some great characters playing at that time, Pascal 'The Red Lad' Delaney, 'The Rake' McDonald, Toomy O'Reilly, Cyril O'Meara, Brian Delaney, Ned Murphy, 'The Humpston' Fitz, Larry Dunne, John Fennell and Paddy Bracken.

In one of my first training games up with the footballers, I was marking 'The Humpston' Fitz, who was more of a hurling man. I was young and wiry at the time and got a few scores off him.

The Rake McDonald didn't like this, so he let a roar at the Humpston, "Will ya pick up that little f***er!" Quick as anything the Humpston shot back, "Give me a hurley and I'll talk to him!"

I remember at that time there was no such thing as water on the sideline. The big rush after a game or training was to get down to the green pump on the Abbeyleix Road to get a drink of water.

The older stock would go on and drink their pints in town, while the rest of us took turns drinking from the green pump.

The hurlers used to train down in Malone's field on the Mountmellick Road as well. I can remember a young John Taylor down there every night we were training, pucking the balls back in to us from behind the goals.

The street leagues were huge when I was young. The Green Road had great teams in both codes. The Top Square had the Brownes and the Prendergasts. The Dublin Road teams had the Mulhares, the Harkins and the Kellys.

Then my own team in Dr Murphy's/St Brigid's. I played on those teams with my brothers Brendan, Pat and Mike, who all played for the club as well.

We won Minor and Under 21 titles in both codes. We had the Critchleys, the Bohans, Teddy Fennelly, 'Cheddar' and George Plunkett, the McDonalds, the Timmons', Aidan Tierney, Liam Breen, Pat Dempsey and Mikey Doyle.

We had a lot of lads over the years that only played street leagues and that was all, but they all put their heart and soul into it. They'd do or die for the street.

Your Biggest Influences

I suppose the biggest influence on my hurling and football career was Bill Phelan, God rest him.

I came to know Bill through school. He was a teacher in the Tech, where I was a student at the time. We won a Leinster Vocational Schools football title under Bill.

He convinced me to go up and play for the club minors. I never played Under 14 or Under 16. Boxing took up all of my time up until then.

We lost minor finals in both hurling and football in 1968. St Joseph's beat us in the football and Borris-in-Ossory beat us in the hurling.

Bill lived for the club. He had a green Volkswagen car and he'd often bring some of us home after training. The only drawback was that you'd have to clear out the back seat to get in because it was always full of hurleys, footballs and jerseys.

He was a great club man and the club wouldn't be what it is without all the work he did over the years.

Involvement With Club Teams Over The Years

I got involved with the club as a selector when my son Dennis was playing for the club at Under 14 level.

I was involved with those teams up to Under 21 level. They were very successful and won a Minor A football title and numerous Under 21 A football titles.

The B teams reached two county finals too, at Under 16 and Minor level, but they lost both unfortunately.

Myself, Jim McManus, Kieran Dunphy, Eddie McCormack and Pat Ryan were involved with all those teams. They were great times.

I got involved with the Juniors then alongside Tom Scully, Kieran Dunphy and Jim McManus.

We won a Junior A title in 2005 or 2006, I think it was, beating Park-Ratheniska in the final. We won the Junior League that year too.

That team were a great bunch to work with and I honestly believe that had we been eligible to play in the Leinster Junior Championship, we would have been very hard to beat.

From there I got involved with the Intermediates. We had the makings of a great team at the time, but unfortunately it was hard to keep the panel together as some of the lads ended up playing senior football.

We came very close to winning a county title with that team.

I always got great satisfaction and enjoyment out of being involved with teams within the club.

Jim McManus was a brilliant coach and a great man to work with, and myself, Eddie McCormack and Kieran Dunphy are still good friends to this day.

Best Games and Memories

The Leinster Final in 1972 was a great game. I was a substitute on that team and it was great to be involved.

The All-Ireland Final in 1983 was a wonderful game and a great day for the club.

The games against Camross in hurling down through the years were always great contests. There was never any love lost in them.

I remember we played a Leinster Championship game against Moate over in Tullamore. 'The Red Lad' Pascal Delaney came on as a substitute and I remember seeing some of the Moate players laughing at him because of his size.

The first two balls that came into him, he buried one in the back of the net himself and set up his brother Brian for another goal. That fairly softened their cough.

We used to play Railyard down in Kilkenny in challenge matches and those games always stood out because there was no quarter given. They were ferocious battles.

But it was those games that always stuck in my memory because the craic and camaraderie before and after was great.

I remember my first senior hurling game at the age of 17 against Rathdowney in Mountrath. I was playing corner forward.

I was taken off in the second half and Bill Phelan asked me to be his runner, delivering messages and hurleys into the lads on the field.

Seamie Beere was in goals and got badly hurt by one of the Rathdowney players and there was a bit of a flare-up.

The next thing I heard was the Humpston Fitz telling our full-back, "The next time that man comes in the square, you stand aside and let me at him."

I'll say no more after that.

We played Clonad in the championship back in the 1970s. 'The Red Lad' and Peter Conroy of Clonad went at it from the throw-in.

The Red Lad got the better of him anyway, scored two goals and Conroy was substituted for Sean Brennan.

I was half-forward that day and I remember Sean coming on from under the stand. He let a roar at the Red Lad, "I'm taking you out of the game."

The Red Lad answered him back, "Be God Sean, if ya can me boy, come on."

They hopped off each other but after the match they were both in Mick Delaney's drinking pints together.

That to me shows the beauty of the GAA. Enemies on the field but friends off it.

The Thumb!

We were playing Clonad in another championship match and I was playing half-back.

A ball broke out on the wing and I went for it. The ball ended up going out over the sideline on the Abbeyleix Road side of O'Moore Park.

The ball came back in anyway and myself and one of the Clonad lads, whose name I'll leave out, started pulling hard with our hurleys.

Next thing Bill Phelan came down the line roaring at me to mark up.

I turned to him and waved my hand at him and said, "How in the name of Jaysus can I mark up with my hand like that?"

The thumb was hanging off, with only a few tendons still holding it.

Poor Bill went over then and broke the lock off the gate at the side of the pitch with a hurley in a rush to get me to the hospital.

They stitched my thumb back on but gave me no pain relief. I ended up drinking porter for the night to numb the pain.

Shortly afterwards the footballers were playing Stradbally over on the lawn. I was on the line with Bill Phelan and we only had fifteen players.

One of our lads twisted his ankle so I told Bill to give me a pair of boots and I'd go in and play corner forward.

I kicked a point when I went in. Then the second ball that came into me, the corner-back won it.

I went to block him down and that was the end of the thumb. Off it went again.

That was it. I never found it after it came off the second time. Some of the smarter lads on the team maintained that a magpie flew off with it.

Best Players

From growing up and playing, there was nobody like 'The Red Lad', Pascal Delaney.

He always looked after any young players coming into the senior team. The general way it was at that time was that Teddy Fennelly looked after any of the young lads coming into the backs and Pascal looked after the forwards.

On more than one occasion Pascal looked after me on the pitch.

Cyril O'Meara, Harry Mulhare and 'The Rake' McDonald were all great players when I started out.

I remember then Mick Dooley and 'Atch' Whelan burst onto the scene. They were two tremendous talents.

Tom 'Curly' Prendergast was the best footballer I ever saw playing for Portlaoise. He was a genius.

Gerry and Colm Browne were two fantastic footballers.

The Bohans, Pat Critchly, 'Cheddar' Plunkett, John Taylor and 'The Auld Timer' John-Joe Ging were all great players.

In more recent times, Cahir Healy was different class. He was an inspirational player in both codes.

Bruno McCormack was a genius. Peter McNulty, 'The Chief', was a great player, God rest him.

The two Fitzgeralds, Tommy and Barry, were outstanding in both codes too.

What The Club Means To You

The club means an awful lot to me. I've always loved Portlaoise and I'm very proud to say that I've been involved with the club for as long as I have.

The GAA brings about a great sense of community spirit and friendship.

When I think of what the GAA means, I often think about how it kept people going during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

I remember us playing Bellaghy of Derry back in 1973 and seeing how much it meant to the locals up there.

The GAA was always a shining light for them despite all of the hardship and difficulties they endured.

The club of Portlaoise may not have always had a massive following, but those that do support the Town are fanatical about the club.

As a club, we've achieved a lot over the years and I hope that continues.

I'd love to see the hurlers back competing for top honours again soon. Hurling was, and still is, my first love, so it would be great to see our senior hurlers win another county title in the near future.

To see my grandson Ryan involved with the club gives me great satisfaction and I hope that he and his two brothers are able to get as much enjoyment out of the club as I have.

The club has always been the cornerstone of the community and I hope that always remains the case.