Lyons, Packie
May 30, 2004
A LEGEND IN HIS LIFETIME
Last week Clare mourned the death of 85 year old, Packie Lyons, Moundshannon's most famous hurling son, died peacefully at his home. From hooping hurleys for the Clare team in 1932 to playing with them when they won their very first national league title in 1946. Gerry McInerney looks back on the career of a man he was privileged to have met.
Modern day advertising depicts hurlers as not men but giants. Back in the 1940's they would have struggled to trumpet some catch line to extol the hurling virtues and attributes of Pakie Lyons from Mountshannon.
Pakie, a man who held his own in the company of such legendary figures as Tommy Doyle, Mick Mackey, Christy Ring, Jack Lynch, Jim Young and Sean Herbert was a giant of a man. A giant in every respect, big and broad shouldered, a man who commanded the centre back position with an air of authority.
He was one of the best backs in the 1940's. One of the best this county has ever produced.
A man who won Railway Cup medals with Munster in 1944, 1945 and 1946. He teamed up with club mate, Dermot Solon to play a pivotal role for Clare as the Banner County lifted their first ever national league title in 1946 with victory over Dublin in a replay.
On St Patrick's Day of the same year, Pakie paraded his skills in Croke Park when he stood shoulder to shoulder with who's who of Munster hurling. He was one of two Claremen on the team. The number six jersey was his while the full forward was Alfie O'Brien from Scariff who later went on to play in ten All-Ireland with Dublin. Munster won that final 3-12 to 4-8.
In a strange quirk of fate, opposing him on the Connacht team was former club mate, Paddy Jordan. At the same time Paddy was working in Ballinasloe in the sawmills and got friendly with Inky Flaherty.
It was a friendship which ended with Paddy, a brother of the great Naoise, declaring for Connacht.
Afterwards, Pakie admitted that he would have preferred to have marked anyone else that day other than Paddy Jordan.
1946 was also the year Clare won the first of their three national league titles. The final replay, when introduced as a substitute, was Pakie's last day to wear the saffron and blue of Clare.
In the semi-final, played at Nenagh, Clare mounted a late rally to defeat Galway 6-3 to 2-7.
"Galway Wilt in the Face of Clare Barrage" ran the banner headline in the Irish Independent. "Lyons, Solon Were Stars Of Wonderful Rally" proclaimed the sub-headline.
That year, Clare defeated Limerick in the quarter-final and victory was snatched late on when Pakie scored a goal from a "21" yards free. Limerick put eleven men on the line but Pakie's effort rattled the net. That day he was outstanding despite the best efforts of Jackie Power, Mick Mackey and Dick Stokes marking him.
They all tried and failed.
Later Pakie, who always made his own hurleys, reflected on that match.
"In that game against Limerick, Clare were leading at half time after playing against the wind. Limerick took over in the second half and were leading by two points with little left to play. We got a '21' and I came up to take it as one of our lads was going to strike it. I hit it anyway and it struck the back of the net", he recalled.
However, 1946 was to be a watershed in Pakie's career.
In the drawn final against Dublin he played at centre back. Amazingly, he was left off the team for the replay. A man at the peak of his career, Pakie made no secret of the fact that he was soured by that decision.
"The league final was played in Limerick and ended in a draw. I was marking a fellow by the name Wade. Both of us were dropped for the replay. I came on during the match as a substitute at centre forward and scored a point. We to a '70' just after that and Jackie Solon took it. I started running toward the goalie. He took his eye off the ball and it went straight into the net.
"On the Saturday of the replay I hadn't got an account to go to the game. I wasn't going to go at all and I was in my working clothes when a car pulled up to collect me. Even then I didn't know that I was dropped. The game was my last one for Clare", he said.
In a subsequent interview Pakie broached the subject of his retirement in 1947.
"I was fed up after the league final. I also got married that year and began worrying about getting injuries. There was no compensation for injuries. I started to lose interest in the game as well. I got letters encouraging me to continue playing but the appetite was gone", he remarked.
To this day many would argue that it was a career cut short. Yet, whatever about the longevity or otherwise of his career, it was success laden.
When Pakie eventually hung up his boots he was the proud holder of championship medals at junior, intermediate and senior. He won three Railway cups, but never received his '44 medal, a Clare Cup and a junior football championship with Scariff.
During the same decade Mountshannon teamed up with Scariff for the senior championship. They reached the county finals of 1942 and 1943, losing both by a point to Clooney and Clarecastle respectively. However, Pakie picked up a Clare Cup medal when Scariff turned the tabes on Clooney in the '42 final.
Pakie won junior A championship in 1938 on a Mountshannon team that included his brother, Tom who was a blacksmith. He won Intermediate titles in 1939 and 1942 when Sixmilebridge were beaten in both finals.
His recollection of the 1939 intermediate final was interesting.,
We trained in Murphy's field. Our training was nothing but hurling. We had neither trainer nor selectors. We got great enjoyment out of it. A big crowd would gather and hurl away until near dark. That was the sum total of our training".
"We used to travel to matches in a lorry. Each player would give so much towards the cost.
For the final we hired a bus. We won that fairly easily. There were no cups that time. It was just like any other game to play in a final. The medals were given out at Convention in Ennis. I remember I cycled up to the Queen's to collect them and got a dose of the flu out of it. Scariff were at the convention and brought me and my bike home".
However, three years after his retirement, Whitegate reached the county final. Fr Daniel Crowe, who was parish priest of Whitegate and Mountshannon at the time, summoned Pakie to a meeting.
Being the courteous man that he was, Pakie went knowing full well what the discussion would entail.
"I hadn't hurled for three years an never even thought about playing again. Whitegate had reached the county final and one evening when I arrived home from work there was a message for me that Fr Crowe wanted to see me. I partly guessed what he wanted. I had my mind made up going down to him that I wouldn't play.
"When I went down he said to me that there was training in the hall that night and would I go up to it. I eventually agreed to go. There were only two weeks to the final. We did the usual physical training that night and afterwards ran to Willie Halloran's Cross and back. I wasn't able to stir the next day I was so sore. That finished the running and physical training.
"The following Sunday we did a bit of hurling in Whitegate. That was the sum total of my training in three years for a senior county final. In the final itself I was playing centre back and I couldn't run any distance without getting bloated. The two wing backs that day were Ned Doyle and Tom Thornberry. I used them a lot to clear the ball. I found it very difficult but it was worth it in the end", he said.
A good friend of Pakie's was Michael Cleary who was on that 1950 championship winning team. Mick Moroney was known as the "King of the sideline cut" in the 1970's, well it was an art Pakie had perfected thirty years earlier.
Michéal recalled that during the semi-final of the intermediate championship against Bodyke in 1946, Pakie scored nine points from sideline cuts.
"It was blowing a storm and the wind blew from the dressing rooms side in Tulla. You must remember the ball was much heavier in those days. But that day Pakie judged the wind to perfection. A lot of the clearances from the Bodyke backs went over the sideline and Pakie scored nine points. It was hard to believe but I saw it for myself because I was playing that day", he said
"Pakie would cut the ball across the face of the goals and allow the wind to take the ball over the bar, It was the most mighty work I ever saw and we'll all miss him".
"Just to tell you how bad the weather was, a canal boat, with a load of porter on board, went down near Parker's Point. It was heading from Dromineer to Killaloe when it sank in the weather. That was the kind of wild evening it was. Most of the barrels were washed up on the Tipperary shore but a few, not many, ended up on our side of the Lake", Michéal added.
But hurling wasn't Pakie's only past time. His home overlooks Lough Derg and many's the day he spent out fishing.
May was his favourite time and it was during one May fly season back in the early 1980's that I first met him.
The late PJ Flannery, a native of Mountshannon, was a mutual friend of ours an it was he who introduced me to May fly fishing on the Derg.
The month of May became an annual pilgrim to Mountshannon and every visit back home for PJ wouldn't be the same without dropping in on Pakie if we didn't meet him on the lake.
Sometimes, with the gathering gloom Pakie would be anchored in the home bay waiting for the spent knats to go out. He was instantly recognisable, his huge frame pitched in the boat. Other times you'd know he was on the move because the still air would be shattered by the noise of his seagull engine.
Oft times he's been in off the lake lamenting a poor day's fishing on the dap. Leaning over the half door, the greeting was always the same, sincere and warm.
When PJ introduced us I was immediately struck by he size of Pakie's hands. I imagined that a hurl would be more like a match stick in those enormous paws. It probably was.
When we filled Pakie in on my hurling background, I'll never forget the response. "Jaykers, you tog out a bigger man". A new friendship forged but unfortunately after PJ's untimely passing, the meetings with Pakie became less and less frequent.
Ironically, RTE Radio 1 broadcast a programme on 'Hurling Greats' last Friday evening. It featured Clare's Jimmy Smith and relayed on the evening Pakie's remains were removed to St Caimin's Church. You know, Pakie wouldn't have been out of place had his life and times been featured in such a documentary. He was a legend in his own time.
Predeceased by his wife, Tess, he is survived by his sons Austin, Michael, Tom and Noel; daughter Helen; brother, Tom, daughers-in-law, son-in-law, grandchildren, relatives and friends. He was buried in Moyne cemetery.
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