The late Tim O'Donnell Tim O'Donnell, the eldest surviving Kerry footballer, died in a Dublin Hosptial at the advanced age of 96. Born in Gleann na nGaelt, Camp on March 7, 1907, he was a younger brother of the legendary John Kerry O'Donnell who emigrated to New York and later established himself as the owner of Gaelic Park, a venue that became synonymous with the Irish identity in America during the peak years of emigration. Both brothers were said to be directly opposite in temperment. While John was fiery and well known for his frequent battles with Croke Park officialdom, Tim was placid by nature and completely nonconfrontational. But while the O'Donnells may have been very different in some ways they shared one trait that forged a common bond. That bond was loyalty. If John Kerry O'Donnell was on your side there was no better ally and Tim was the same. The holder of three senior All-Ireland medals won in 1929, 30' and '37, Tim lost out on two more All-Ireland wins, 1931/32 due to injury. Under more favourable circumstances he would have won at least five All-Irelands. A bad knee injury sustained in the 1931 All-Ireland semi-final agaisnt Mayo in Tuam sliced three years off a career that was full of promise when he broke on to the great Kerry side of the late 1920s. It is very likely that he had fallen prey to the dreaded cruciate ligament injury but at the time nobody in medicine or elsewhere knew anything about it. Trying to resuscitate his career in the face of such a handicap presented him with the biggest hurdle he ever faced in football and the fact that he returned to play at the higest level after such a long layoff is testament to his perserverance and outstanding dedication. An abiding love of Gaelic football was nutured in the family members by their father and the young O'Donnells figured prominently in the Camp team in West Kerry championships. Tim worked on the small family farm at home as a teenager before joining the ranks of the Gardai in 1931. His first posting was to Knocknagree, Co Cork and he later transferred to Killarney where he joined Dr Crokes. He also served in Kanturk and Clonmel. Then he moved to Dublin where he was to spend the rest of his life. Reared on a mountainary farm his athleticism blossomed at an early age and he was to become an accomplished athlete as well as an outstanding footballer. The story goes that on one occasion he cleared six feet at an athletic event in Tralee when he tied with the noted Olympic hammer thrower, Dr Pat O'Callaghan. He always acknowledged his father's enthusiasm as being a huge contributory factor in his later sucess in football. "I would run by the hills for the sheep insted of bringing the sheep dog," he revealed. "I had a mighty leap for a ball and I was lucky to have very good hand too." His motto was: "Mark your man and don't foul." Within a two year span of Kerry winning the 1926 All-Ireland final replay, no less than six of the winning team, Jerry Moriaty, Pat Clifford, Bill Landers, John Slattery, Tommy Mahony and Phil Sullivan had emigrated to New York. It was this exodus that alloweed space for young players like John Joe Landers, Joe O'Sullivan, Padler Sweeney, Miko Doyle and Tim O'Donnell to make their mark. Even with an injury-ravaged career behind him O'Donnell had always been acknowledged as a powerful wing-back who played on a Kerry team (1929/31) that is still rated one of the best of all time. When Kerry beat Monaghan by 3-11 to 0-2 in the 1930 All-Ireland final, a northern newspaper reported; "Kerry's excellenance is becoming a positive menace to Gaelic football. There is no other county in the same class as them." Soon after joining the Gardi, O'Donnell was approached by General Eoin O'Duffey, then Commissioner of the force and a Monaghan man by birth and asked to delclare for Mongahn. This transfer of allegiance would have been facilitated by a move to a border station. However, O'Duffy, later the founder of the Blueshirts after being expelled from the Gardai, got a blank refusal which wasn't a good career move by the young recruit from Camp. Both of them never got on subsequently, it is said. Tim O'Donnell's first year as a member of the Kerry senior team, 1929, was a successful one and he played at left half-back on the winning combination that lifted the Sam Maguire Cup that year. He occupied the same position a year later when Kerry retained the title. The visit to America which followed when Kerry beat a New York selection at the Yankee Stadium before 65,000 spectators, was, he often said "the highlight of his career." His injury in 1931 threatened to end his involvement in football but after losing out on two All-Ireland successes with Kerry he was back playing for Dublin in 1935 along with Paul Russell and Paddy Whitty after three years on the sideline. The reason he played for Dublin was because Kerry did not participate in the championship that year, having stood down in sympathy with IRA prisoners in the Curragh. He claimed one more All-Ireland medal in the 1937 replay win over Cavan when he was picked at right half-back. Unfortunatley, the old knee injury that had plagued him for so long resurfaced in that game and forced his retirement after 10 minutes. In the drawn game, he lined out at full-foward where he was opposed by Jim Smith, the recognised "hard man" of the Cavan defence. He retired shortly afterwards having won a total of three senior All-Ireland medals, three successive National Leagues (1929/30/31), five Munster championships and a Railway Cup medal in 1931. He won a junior All-Ireland medal in 1928 when Kerry beat Louth. Along with Tom Murphy, orginally from Farranfore, he was a founder member of the Kerry Association in Dublin. A chance meeting one day in August 1951 resulted in a conversation that was to launch the Association which maintains a vibrant presence in the capital to this day. Kerry were playing Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final and both men decided that the occasion should be marked by holding some sort of function. Murphy was manager of a dance hall in Granby Row and had no difficulty in arranging the venue on the eve of the match but the night didn't pass without incident. A certain Kerry footballer who lined out at Croke Park on the following day arrived at a late hour and very much "under the weather". He was refused admittance. This sparked off a row which resulted in the doorman sustaining a broken jaw and the culprit being arrested and taken to a local Garda Station. The intervention of Tim O'Donnell resulted in no charges being pressed and the incident was quashed. The match between Kerry and Mayo ended in a draw and a similar function was held on the night before the replay, again with profitable results and a sum of £90 was raised at the two dances. Tim wanted to donate the money to Paddy Bawn Brosnan who was buying a fishing trawler at the time but was over-ruled. This was the begining of what became known as the Kerry Association and from the way Tim told it, there was no great fuss made out of the preliminaries. "Tom Murphy agreed to act as secretaty and I took position as chairman," he later recalled. In 1952, the Association was launched on a more formal footing. That was to be the start of a long involvement by the Camp native in an organisation that absorbed much of his dynamism and energy down the years. After retireing from the Gardai where he established himself as a brilliant crime investigator he founded a bakery and a confectionary business on Malahide Road along with his late wife, Maura, who hailed from Clonmel. In his capacity he regularly provided a ball full of goodies including the inevitable iced cake, suitably decorated in green and gold, for spot prizes whenever the Kerry team were coming to town. Colleagues in the Dublin Kerry Association who knew him, people like Tim Doyle, Bart Moriatry, Tony Mackey and Brendan O'Shea speak glowingly of the "gentle giant" from Camp who was considered one of nature's gentlemen. His friend Jo Jo Barrett, the former well-known Kerry footballer describes him as "a lovely man and fabulous company." Tim Doyle a former Inspector in the Gardai remembers him as "a lovely quaint man who had a tremendous insight into life." Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam uasal. Courtesy of the Kerryman July 2003 Tweet

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