McCormack, Paddy
July 28, 2005
The Late Paddy McCormack
GAA followers in County Armagh and beyond will mourn the recent passing of the great hurling man, Paddy McCormack. Go ndeana Dia trocaire ar a anam. Paddy McCormack was the hero of my youth. But then Paddy was hero of all hurling aficionado round Keady. His hurling credentials were impeccable. Born in 1920, he was nurtured in Cloyne where he attended school with the legendary Christy Ring, Paddy's life-long idol. In 1932, Paddy came with his sister on a holiday visit to his aunt in Keady, and stayed. The hurling skills of the 12 year old caught the eye of locals, particularly fellow Cork man, Rev Bros Matthias Buckley, a teacher in the local De La Salle School who had brought with him from Cork a love of bullet throwing and hurling and had led Keady Eire Og to county hurling titles in the early 1930s.
By 1935, Paddy McCormack had been brought on as a forward to the senior team, now renamed Keady Michael Dwyers. He had around him one of the strongest- ever Keady hurling panels including several established county players: Bro Matthias, Packie McGleenon, Gerry Greene, Charlie John McAleavey, Owen McMahon, Jim McKnight, Packie, Gerry and Mick Raffery, Tommie Beattie, Ned Daly, Joe McQuade, Mick Thompson and Barney Arthurs. In a rejigged hurling league in the county in 1935, Keady went on a scoring spree defeating Camlough Shane O'Neill's Portadown and Armagh and monopolised the senior championship of 1935-37. The Armagh Observer reported the young McCormack scoring three goals against Portadown at the Recreation Grounds, Keady on Sunday 2nd June 1935. He had just passed his fifteenth birthday.
With travelling curtailed during the years of World War II, hurling leagues and championships were suspended and the Keady hurling team dispersed. When hurling competitions resumed in the county in 1945, the balance of power had tipped and new forces had emerged in the newly named Christian Brothers 'Past Pupils Union team in Armagh City, Bessbrook Geraldines and Rock Hugh Carberrys. With key Keady players, Bro Matthias transferred to Belfast and Packie McGleenon in England and several of the others retired, Keady hurling was in a transitionary period and turned to new leaders. Chief among these was Paddy McCormack. To the panel of the late 40s, he introduced Patsy Cassidy, Matt Nugent, Gerry Mone, Mickey Beattie, Kevin Arthurs, Barney Quinn, Jim O'Hare, Packie Slevin, Arthur Lenagh, Tommie Makem, Paddy Coyne and McEntees - Noel, Brian and James, the Murphys - Packie, Tommie and, later, Malachy and Philip. They all looked to Paddy McCormack for leadership on and off the field and was not disappointed. Under McCormack, Paddy Cassidy, Matt Nugent and returned veteran Packie McGleenon, the team was renamed Keady Lamh Dhearg. In the true spirit the contemporary shortage of money, they purchased a new set of jerseys, hurley sticks and financed the hire of buses to matches on which we all travelled free. Those Sunday trips to matches in Camlough, Dungannon and Portadown remain a delight in the memory; the craic and choral sing song, Makem's 'Cobbler', and McCormack's obligatory rendering of 'The Banks' - as homage to 'Ringey'.
On the field, the small but well-built dynamic figure with the apple-cheeks and straw-blonde hair parted in the middle, led by example. Paddy was fast and committed, and seemed to be everywhere. He had all the hurling skills, ground-pulling, over head doubling and side-line cutting. We still remember his duels with Phil Woodgate, Patsy Dolan and Dr Seamus McAteer of Bessbrook in matches referred by Poppy Fearon, with the Devlins of Dungannon, with Jim Mockler of Portadown, and with Sean Loughran and Harry McGeough of The Rock. But his keenest battles were reserved for the 'old enemy' Armagh CBPPU stars Gerry Lenagh, Tom Fitzgerald, Donal Garvey and, later, Jimmy Carlisle and Jim Kirk. This local rivalry reached a high point in 1949 when Paddy led Keady to dethrone star-studded county champions, CBPPU.
It was a good year for hurling in Armagh, with the county team winning the Ulster Championship for the first time. Paddy McCormack starred at half back in the team which defeated Tyrone in the semi-final and Down in the final at Corrigan Park. He was at left half back on the Armagh team beaten by Clare in the All-Ireland semi final played in Armagh Athelic Grounds on 7th August 1949 on a score of 4-6 to 2-3. Paddy wold value his Ulster medal, a rare commodity in Armagh hurling. It would be 16 years before another set was won by the county hurlers.
Paddy's high rating as a hurler was recognised by his selection for five consecutive years on the Ulster team in the inter-provincial Railway Cup series. He was first brought into the Ulster panel in 1947 but had to watch from the reserve bench his hero Christy Ring putting Ulster to the caman by a score of 9-7 to 0-0. This crushing defeat gave rise to rumours of Ulster being dropped from Railway Cup hurling. Fortunately, this did not happen and Paddy was selected in 1948 as a left corner forward on the Ulster team which answered the critics and gave a Leinster team including Jimmy Langton and Terry Leahy of Kilkenny and Nicky Rackard of Wexford, a run for their money at Lurgan, scoring 4-2 to Leinster's 5-5.
Paddy's Ulster team mates on that day included Kevin Armstrong, Noel Campbell, Billy Feeny, Brian Debvir and Armagh team mates Tom Fitzgerald and Gerry Lenagh who came on as a substitute Paddy performed so well that he was selected the following year, though now at left full back to play alongside Billy Feeney of Antrim. Ulster put up another gallant fight in 1949, this time holding the high-flying Connacht - which included household names such as Seanie Duggan, Joe Salmon and Josie Gallagher- to a score of 5-7 to 2-7. A national newspaper highlighted the resistance of the Ulster defence: "Substitute goalkeeper G Lenagh (Armagh) made many magnificent saves, while W Feeney (Antrim), P. McCormack (Armagh) and H McCusker (Down) did Herculean work in defence."
Paddy's performance ensured his selection again at left back in 1950 when he fulfiled an ambition to play against his former Cloyne neighbour of boyhood. We will never know what pleasantries, if any, were exchanged: but Ring led another Munster rout of Ulster in Croke Park, this time by 9-4 to 3-2. In 1951 Paddy made his fifth appearance on an Ulster team which went under to a powerful Leinster team powered by the Rackards, Tim Flood and Jimmy Langton.
Paddy played on with Keady into the 1950s when the jersey's had become lighter, more comfortable and changed in colour. But somehow I still see him pulling on the old hairy blue jersey with the white sash of the post-war period. More importantly, he supported and kept the club on the road, encouraging and introducing young players to the team.
Paddy, Art O' Hagan, Patsy Cassidy and Paddy Coyne brought Harry Loughran and myself to our first All-Ireland Hurling final to see Wexford beat Galway in 1955. Paddy McCormack provided leadership for Keady hurlers as a player for over 20 years and as promoter of the game for another 50. He passed his hurl as a baton to his son Jim and to his grandchildren. He was very proud of Paul's All-Ireland medal - even if it was for football!
It was said more than once as Paddy's funeral that his passing was the end of an era. Ni bheidh a leitheidi aris ann.
By Neil McGleenon.
Courtesy of the Armagh Observer
28th July 2005
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