PADDY QUIRKE A Remarkable Man With A Remarkable Medal Haul Much has been made and rightly so of the recent place on the leinster hurling side gained by Carlow's Micheal Mullins, but less than a dozen years ago, in 1980 to be exact, another man from the Barrowside County was not alone a regular on the Leinster sides at both football and hurling, but a dual all star replacement as well. And even now, though he is a few retired from the county game, Naomh Eoin's Paddy Quirke has retained a very live interest in his county's fortunes. When Quirke talks about Carlow football, you tend to listen, there isn't much choice as the former midfielder in full flow is as enthralling a spectacle as he was in full flight in his inter county heyday. And already he has become a discipline to Alan Larkins cause reckoning that the appointment of the former Dublin star to the head of Carlow's football affairs was a giant step in the right direction. "Every county, with the exception of Kilkenny, is very organised at football an thankfully, Carlow have kept up with the times. Larking knows exactly what it takes to win things, he is a very professional man in his outlook to football and nothing but the best in terms of effort and commitment will do for him". In that respect Larkin has already shed his mr nice guy image and quirke for one is glad he has done so as he feels that the current Carlow panel has one ingredient that may well have been lacking in teams that represented the county at late. "He has installed discipline into the panel and while he might not necessarily have the best players in Carlow involved, he has players who are willing to make sacrifices that are needed and that is essential in any side at county level". And then Quirke voices an opinion that he has kept under wraps for fear, one fears, of ridicule, not that any pronouncement by Paddy Quirke on football will ever be ridiculed by anyone." Look at it realistically, Carlow play Westmeath in their first Leinster Championship game and they should beat them, after that they would be in a Leinster semi final and in a semi final anything can happen". Quirke himself, figured in a few leinster semis and although the only thing that did happen was that Carlow lost, he feels it wasn't lack of belief that done it. "We were just unfortunate to meet good Dublin sides, I know that sounds like a cop out, an easy excuse, but it is nonetheless a fact and remember, we had some very talented players such as Willie Doyle and Tom Cullen, I suppose too there was at the time a sort of attitude in the county where players took the club championship more seriously than anything else but thankfully, that is all changing new." And indeed, although the record books may not show it that Carlowside of the early eighties was far from bad, as indicated by Paddy's recollection of the best game of football he ever played in. "that was the centenary cup game against Kerry, we only lost very narrowly. Two points I think it was, I really come off the field on a high after it, even though we had been beaten." It is no real surprise then to find Paddy listing Brian Mullins as his most difficult opponent and he is quite fulsome in his praise of the Dublin star. "A very hard man to mark, a tremendous footballer in his heyday, he could play football or mix it physically and inevitably come out the best, whichever way his opponent choose to play it". In hurling which, though he won't say it, one suspects from talking to him, was Quirkes real love, Paddy had no doubt either about the best he encountered. "Iggy Clarke stood out as the sweetest striker and technically the finest I ever had the pleasure of playing against and a gentleman as well." And while he is never one to turn down his own, Paddy Quirke is also a realist and he admits that Carlow may have left themselves a little to much work to do in the hurling league season. "Their last game away to Antrim will be a hard one to get anything of, as Antrim are little better than the grade they are playing in. But Seamus Fitzpatrick is still doing a great job with the hurlers and I'd have a sneaking feeling that they could take the All-Ireland "B" championship. They are a young team so if they get the taste of success, watch them go then." Naomh Eoin has, Paddy Owns up, always been more of a hurling than football club. "I suppose, if a few of us went down to the fields, we'd be more inclined to get the hurls out for a few pucks rather than kick a ball." And as Paddy proudly relates, they are on the verge of a fairly historic achievement in the Carlow championship. "We are chasing a three in row in the third decade in row having won in 1974, '75, '76, '85, '86, '87 and 1990 and 1991. That would be phenomenal and I'll tell you, if we don't do it, it won't be for the want of trying." And indeed, in 1985 Naomh Eoin became the only club ever to the double in Carlow with Noel Smithers captaining the team to beat Pallatine in the football and Anthony Cundy leading the hurlers to beat St. Mullins and it is a feat of which Quirkes notes "it won't be done again unless we do it ourselves." It is generally acknowledged fact that players who have mixed it at the highest level are sometimes the last to know when to call it quits. So has Quirke experienced pangs of discontent, only, it seems, on one occasion. "Well, I realise full well you can't turn back the clock, but sitting in the stand watching the Meath and Dublin last season, the feet were starting to get a bit itchy. I'd love to have been in the middle of all. It was some football, But the best game I've ever seen was Kerry versus Dublin semi-final in 1977". The dual all star award earned Paddy a trip stateside and also an award he had never known existed at the time he actually won it. "Kerry were the all-Ireland champions and we played them in America with the all stars I was midfield on the Bomber. I think we won, but anyway at the dinner dance afterwards I heard my name been called out on a microphone and I didn't know what it was for, I was speaking to someone at the time and they said 'well done, you've won the 'man of the match award' and to tell the God's honest truth , I did not even know that their was one. That was a big thrill at the time, as there was some amount of talent of talent on the field" And according to Paddy, there is now another face about to arrive on the Carlow scene who could join the exalted ranks of well known dual players. "Johnny Nevin, who hurls with Parnells and plays football with O'Loughlins is a fine player. He has both the talent and dedication. Definitely a lad you'll be hearing much more of." A defender to the last of the association and all it represents, Quirke even his time to give his backing to the most maligned of gaelic creatures, the referee, and he has a novel idea as how to deal with players who criticise the men in the middle. "Lads who crib about the refs should either start doing it themselves or stay quiet about it. I think if there was a rule about where the player gets sent of for giving abuse to the ref, had to undergo a course in refereeing during his suspension, it would help the players understand a lot more." Allowing for all that, Paddy still recollects that the funniest incident he ever witnessed on a football field involved a referee. "It was a club game a few years back, I won't tell you who was playing for fear of embarrassment, but this guy got sent off and duly trotted over to the sideline where he proceeded to sit on the match ball and he wouldn't give it back to the referee, or anyone else either. It took about ten minutes of persuasion before he gave up. I know it wasn't right, but the sight of him sitting there on the ball was funny at the time." Paddy, who made his county debut in football against Louth. "It was a League game and you don't really want to know how far back it was," has a grand total of eleven county championship medals, owns up not being too surprised at Down making the breakthrough last year. "No, that genuinely did not surprise me, they had been one of the better teams in Ulster for a few years. All they needed was a good man to gel them together and they certainly got that in McGrath, and I felt long before the All-Ireland that Meath or Dublin wouldn't win it as they burned themselves out on each other". So while there is a quiet revolution going on in Carlow football, courtesy of a Dublin man, Quirke is delighted to see one particular Carlow man has re-emerged in the county panel and points to him as the base for Carlow future. "Tommy Dwyer is back on the scene and I'm delighted about that. He never really fulfilled his potential previously and now he has another chance. He is six feet seven and powerful strong. He has played in big games before. Hopefully he can be the lynchpin of the team this year." And with that the conversation is concluded. Paddy's off to train with the club and the aim is, of course, the triple three in a row, that would be really a remarkable achievement. Then again, when you come to think about it as far as gaelic games go and not just in Carlow either, Paddy Quirke is a remarkable man. He said earlier you can't turn back the clock. True, but what Alan Larkin wouldn't give to have a young Paddy Quirke on his side come Leinster championship time this season. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 20th March 1992 Tweet

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