The death has taken place of legendary Tipperary administrator Tommy Barrett.

The Thurles Sarsfields clubman was President of the Tipperary County Board at the time of his death but will be fondly  remembered as the long serving Tipp County Secretary, a position he held for all of 37 years, from 1963 until 1999. 

We reprint Tommys farewell speech as Secretary to Tipperary delegates.

"This is my Report for the year and also the final one of my career as Runaí Choiste Chontae Thiobraid Árann. As I bid you all farewell, I would like to take a few minutes of your time to reflect on my 49 years in the service of Cumann Luthcleas Gael, 37 of those years with this Board, working for my county and the games that I love. It has been a long and demanding task, but it has been worthwhile and rewarding, and if I had a high standard to follow in the footsteps of some great Tipperary men, I feel that I had an excellent apprenticeship, having spent twelve years as Secretary of my Club, Thurles Sarsfields, from 1951 to 1963. During my first term there, which was as Secretary to the Football section of the Club, we won Mid-Tipperary Minor and Senior titles. This was followed by eleven years as Secretary of the Hurling section and during this period, we won eight Senior, four Minor and three Junior County titles. A challenge to any club in Ireland to play us in the three grades on the same day at that time was never taken up, such was the strength of the club then. In the mid fifties, Sarsfields Hurling was at its highest peak, which naturally affected the promotion of football, however, a few football enthusiasts, with myself formed the exclusive football club, Dr. Croke's embracing all the Clubs in Thurles parish. They went on to win the Senior Championship in 1960. 1 also played a part in forming Durlas Og in the late 70's. All of this was a good beginning to the task that was to follow.

IN 1963

In 1963, I was honoured to be elected Secretary of the County Board to succeed Pat Stakelum and over the course of the next 37 years, I was part of the back-room team during a period which saw our County win 20 All-Irelands in all grades, 7 National Leagues and 6 Oireachtas titles, an achievement which would be the envy of most other counties. Of course, the '60's was one of the 'golden eras' of Tipperary hurling and I had a happy introduction to my new position, as shortly after taking office, we won two All-Ireland senior titles in '64 and '65, as well as winning the '64 Under 21 title, the first year it was played. This was followed by the deep disappointment of double defeats in '67 and '68, when I felt personally devastated for our Captain, Mick Roche, one of our greats. But in typical Tipp fashion, we bounced back to take our 22nd title in 1971, and took part in the first All-Stars tour to San Francisco. But little did we know that Tipp was about to enter one now famous or infamous 'famine' period at senior level although the great work being done at under-age level ensured. that All-Ireland titles continued. to come to the county. We won another minor in '76, followed by two in 1980 and. '82. The '70's, however was one of the barren eras in our history from a senior viewpoint and while this was to last well into the '80's, Tipperary was alive and healthy in other areas. With Seamus Ó Riain, I was delighted to be instrumental in introducing the Fitzgerald Cup, a competition for all second-level schools which has been an outstanding success and is one of our most prestigious competitions today. Probably the most significant events of this period, though we may not have known it at the time, were the foundation of Feile na nGael in 1971, of which I was proud. to be a founder member, and the winning of three successive Under 21 titles from 1979 to 1981. It was from these winning teams that we formed the back-bone of the panel which eventually brought the 'famine' to an end and set up Tipperary for two All-Ireland titles in 1989 and 1991.

The 80's, too, saw Tipp well to the fore, with the staging of the Centenary All-Ireland Hurling Final proving a success that silenced even the most vocal of critics. I had taken early retirement from working life the previous year, and it was a source of tremendous pride and satisfaction to me, personally, that I was able to play a full part in ensuring that this unique occasion reflected nothing but credit on Tipperary, its County Board and its hurling men and women. Ironically, the success of that great event brought its own problems, not least of which was the massive debt incurred by the development of Semple Stadium. But, as the saying has it, cometh the hour, cometh the men, and when there were many who were happy to stand back and do nothing but pray for miracles, Michael Lowry, Michael Maher, with the support of the County Chairmen of that period Mick Maguire, and Sean Fogarty along with a hard working committee, stood up and were counted. The Double-Your-Money Scheme, the Five Year Ticket Scheme and the much maligned Feile or 'The Trip to Tipp' came to fruition under a hard-working and dedicated committee. What might have been an insurmountable problem to others was merely a challenge to those men who typified the spirit that has made this the Premier County. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

But it can be argued that one event in that era overshadowed all others and that is the memory of Killarney in 1987. Who can ever forget the swelling of pride in a great hurling county when Richard Stakelum made his historic speech at the end of a heart warming Munster Final? Although it took two more years before Liam McCarthy returned once more to the premier county, that day was one of the great highlights of my hurling life.

There are many more highlights, a chairde, and they will stay in my memory when other happenings have faded with time. The introduction of the Coaching Scheme at schools level in 1986 was one of the far-reaching decisions taken to secure the future of the game. We have seen the development of Semple Stadium, rightly acknowledged as the best hurling field in the country, and, more recently, the purchase and development of Dr. Morris Park. Many of our Clubs have brought their pitches to a high standard of playing quality and spectator comfort. If there is one thing which saddens me in all of this, it is my conviction that club hurling in Tipperary is in a serious state. Recent developments at All-Ireland level, with the much talked about 'back door' system, may well have caught the public and the media fancy, but we cannot disguise the fact that the standard of our club hurling is a matter of grave concern and may not be receiving the attention it deserves at County Board level.

In my early years, football was completely under County Board control, subsequently a Minor Board was formed and eventually a Football Board, under the jurisdiction of the County Board to look after County Football Teams and related activity. The internal football Championships as always are controlled by the County Board.

The Minor Footballers contested the All-ireland Final in 1984, won a further Munster Championship in 1995 and the Junior Footballers won the All-Ireland title in 1998. However, the Senior team, despite their many great efforts find it very hard to make a breakthrough. The proposed new structures for next years Senior Championship in my opinion would have a deterimental effect on the running of the Divisional and County championships in our county.

For the 75th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I was also Secretary of a Committee set up under the Chairmanship of Mick Egan to erect a Commemorative Plaque in Semple Stadium, which will act as a reminder to future generations of Tipperary gaeldom of the part played by Tipperary on that historic occasion.

FRIENDSHIP

On a happier note, I will always cherish the friendship made through our games, the support I have received from countless members of the Association and particularly the support of my late wife, Rose, and my family without whose help and understanding none of it would have been possible I will remember the example set for me, and for all those who have the good of our games at heart, by those men who guided me along the way in my early days. They loved, as we do, the G.A.A. above all else and it is that love of our great games and a love of Tipperary which has been my only motivation over nearly five decades. I have always been happiest when doing what I was elected to do by you, the members, year after year, and I always tried to do it to the best of my ability. I was honoured to serve as a Trustee of the Association for three years, to be a member of the Hurling Development Committee since its foundation, and a member of the National Safety Committee and many other advisory bodies at National level, but never looked to be pushed into the limelight.

You will appreciate the difficult decision I had to make and my reluctance to retire. The job was an intimate and integral part of my very existence. A part of every working day was consumed by the responsibility of the task. Like every person confronted with retirement, I have agonised over mixed emotions. To be honest with you, I don't know what I will do on Monday morning when the reality hits me that I am no longer County Secretary and no longer have any involvement in the administration of the G.A.A. in our county. A life-time of routine will have to be re-programmed. I fear that not even the very best software specialist will be able to alter my mindset.

CO-OPERATIVE

To the Chairman, Treasurer, the other Officers and various Sub-Committees, Divisional Boards and Selectors - my sincere thanks. Our Referees, as always, were most co-operative with me and I value that very much. We can be very proud of our men in the middle, many of them are recognised by the higher bodies, which is an indication of their efficiency. To the Press, local and national and the local Radios - a very sincere thanks.

As with any office in public life, my position as County Secretary was open to criticism, and there has been criticism, unfortunately not all of it constructive and often of a personal nature. I have served under eleven chairmen, had a good relationship with ten of them, and never missed one County Board meeting in all that time. But you take the rough with the smooth' the ups with the downs and, buiochas le Dia, we have had more of the ups than the downs over those 37 years of my secretary-ship. The 'knockers' we will always have with us, but to those who come after us, I will say only this. The games and the Association are bigger than all of us. The position leaves no room for the faint-hearted. Mile buiochas do gach e'inne, agus aragaldh le Tiobraid Árann."

Ar dheis De go raibh a ainm uasal

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