Martin White Kilkenny's Lone Survivor From 1932 Is Rewarded When Martin White first played hurling for Kilkenny, the Republic of Ireland was just ten years old. It wasn't just a young country then, it was a very different country and sport came well behind survival in the list of priorities for most Irish people. A native of Tallaroan, Martin first wore the black and amber in 1931 at the age of 22. A year later he won the first of three All-Ireland titles and is the only surviving member of that victorious 1932 team which beat Clare in the final. Two weeks ago the Clare people, in the grand and generous spirit which typified their year, paid tribute to Martin at a function to honour their magnificent team of champions. It was the Clare people's association in Kilkenny which organised the function for their team at the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny City, and Martin was delighted with the accolade. "Oh it was very nice. I was very pleased. Why wouldn't I? To be remembered like that at my age!" Martin is 86 but possesses a remarkable lucid memory: "I remember it (1932) like it was yesterday." He played full forward that day on the legendary Paddy "Fowler" McInerney and scored two goals and a point out of Kilkenny's 3-3 on the day. The mighty Lord Meagher sent him in the two balls that yielded his two goals. Martin's two corner men were Mattie Power and Dan Dunne. They were complete players, says Martin. "They were able to do their work and I was able to do mine." But scores were hard to come by in those days; backs were very good, very hard. But were they rough? "I wouldn't think so, but there was no pulling back." Interestingly, another reason why scores were harder to come by was that the ball was heavier. This also led to much more midfield play because goalkeeper's puckouts only landed that far and, says Martin it led to a proliferation of great midfielders - or 'centerfield men' as the older generation called them. Martin reams off some of them: Jimmy Ryan from Limerick, Jim Hurley and Mick O'Connell of Cork and of course, Lory Meagher. They were all big powerful men too. Meagher was very strong, very lean, a farmer and a horseman who was "always following horses", Ploughing and harrowing, hence his natural fitness! The turbulent 1920's in Irish politics and society was bound to have had an impact on GAA life and the civil war left a legacy of bitterness and division which distracted form events on the playing field. There was a kind of a transition period because after the black and tan war and then the civil war households "got broken up" and it was very difficult to get fellows together. "People were very divided. They were bitter times. I would not like to see them again. The Civil War was worse than anything; some fellows would not play with their clubs because of politics. I sat in houses where two brothers might be out with the irregulars and two more in the army. That lasted up to the forties in a lot of places. Hurling and football declines a good bit in the 1920's as a result and the situation was exacerbated by depressed economy and rampant emigration. A lot of good young players simply went to America and Australia, leaving the playing fields bereft of top quality talent. Offaly, for example, says Martin, had great hurlers like the Spains and the Cordials who had to emigrate. Then, when Bord na Mona got going and jobs were created, most of the young men stayed at home and they started developing good football and hurling teams."A county must be prosperous to have a good team," Martin believes. Dublin won an All-Ireland in this valley period with a team well sprinkled with guards based in the city from all over the country. A lot of these had been inter-county players with their native counties before joining the force but General Eoin O'Duffy was Garda Commissioner and recruited a lot of them. The GAA rule then was people living in Dublin had to play for Dublin and the Garda team ended up winning a Dublin Championship in 1962 with virtually an entire inter-county team. And it was a Garda-powered team that brought their All-Ireland title. That rule was replaced by the Declaration Rule in 1930 which enabled players to declare for their native counties and a lot of men who'd lined out for Dublin returned home: Mattie Power, Ned Byrne and Dan Dunne went back to Limerick, Mick Gill and Mick Finn declared for Galway while Jack Gleeson and "The Fowler" went back to Clare. There had been a few bad All-Irelands, says Martin, during this valley period in the mid to late twenties but the 1931 final between Cork and Kilkenny revitalised the game. It took three games to separate them and the series captured the imagination of the Irish sporting public. History was to repeat itself in surprisingly similar fashion exactly 60 years later when Gaelic football got a huge injection of public interest from Dublin/Meath saga in 1991. "The three teams in 1931 brought hurling back to its rightful place because the All-Irelands had been so poor and the game needed great matches. They say the second game in '31 was the greatest ever played." Martin recalls. Those games brought in crowds of 47/48,000 which was huge given the limited transport, available at the time. Previous All-Irelands had brought in crowds smaller by 10,000 or more. Martin played in the first of those three games but was pitted against the great Jim Regan of Cork. At five feet eight and eleven stone five he hadn't the bulk to cope with Regan so the selectors, replaced him with Gerry Leahy for the subsequent two games. "Jim Regan was centre back for Cork and recognised as the best in the country with three All-Irelands. I was a raw recruit and wasn't big enough for him. You had to be very good to beat Jim Regan," Martin declares. Kilkenny were severely depleted by injuries as the series went on. Dick Morrissey got hurt in the first game, Paddy Larkin - father of Fan - also picked up an injury, and Lory Meagher got a couple of broken ribs in the last quarter of the second match. "They were an awful loss. Meagher was punished a bit because he was so good. He was singled out. That was my opinion at the time," recalls Martin. They came back of course, to beat Clare the following year, the first of Martin's three All-Ireland titles. Training with the county team wasn't really organised simply because of the transport difficulties. "We did a bit for the final and semi-final but you had no way of getting anywhere, fellows in rural areas especially. Indeed they just trained with their clubs. Martin won three county titles with Tullaroan where he also played alongside the Meagher brothers, Lory, Billy and Henry. Henry was a tremendous player, adds Martin. For the 1932 final they travelled by train to Dublin the night before and stayed in the old Ostry Hotel on Denmark Street (next door to Barry's). There was no coach or Garda escort them days, "We walked down and walked back." They returned a year later to beat Limerick in the final. Mick Mackey was a Limerick god in that era, a great leader and a powerhouse of a man. He played in '33 and '35, when Kilkenny again beat them, this time by a single point. Martin started the '35 final at left half forward but a high attrition rate saw him moved to the corner when Johnny Dunne got knocked out and then out to the forty when Jack Duggan got a bone broken in his hand. One of the perks of winning an All-Ireland in those years was a trip to New York and in 1934 the Kilkenny team and officials set sail. The crossing took six days and they spend six weeks in the Bigg Apple which was a unique experience: people didn't go to New York for their holidays then - they went to work and live. The amount of Irish people out there was amazing, says Martin, and they had good teams there. They were well looked after as players, although players today are treated better, he believes. They are treated better, but one wonders, are they better players? Would DJ Carey, for example, have got on that Kilkenny team of '32, '33 and '34? "He would have somebody with hands like him. Good hands are everything; you make it easier on yourself, instead of struggling to get something out of the ball. You can manoeuvre and manipulate it, that little touch will save yourself from having to fight and struggle." DJ would have been "well fed and well minded" on that team, says Martin. If he had a couple around him to look after him and give him the ball - "which he hasn't" - he'd get a lot of scores. He'd need to be minded through: "It's up to the other fellows to watch the fellows that are watching him!" Martin spent his working life in the meat business. He worked for Clover Meats, Waterford from 1929 to '39 before moving to Cork where he worked until 1947. He came to Dublin that year where he is now happily retired. He had five sons and two daughters. Clare's win in this year's All-Ireland was "a Godsend", he believes, and badly wanted after all those years of disappointment and heartbreak. He would have been at it only for he wasn't in good form but he has seen 66 All-Ireland's in hurling and 62 in football. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 27th October, 1995 Tweet

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