Dillon, Pa
June 21, 2013The softly spoken gentleman, the hard yet skilful hurler, the great family man and community activist that was Pa Dillon from Freshford was laid to rest in his native parish.
"He got the send off of a champion. Absolutely!" was how former Kilkenny colleague, Eddie Keher, described the warm and generous mood of the mourners at the packed obsequies.
Mr Dillon, a teak tough full-back who defended the edge of the square with the courage of a lion, won three senior All-Irelands with Kilkenny in 1963 (sub), 1967 and 1969. The '67 success was a seminal moment in Kilkenny hurling, when, after a losing sequence that had run for 45 years, the Cats beat Tipperary in an All-Ireland final.
"The feeling I got at the funeral was that people regarded Pa as the man who turned Kilkenny hurling into the sort of team it is today, which is a strong, physical team yet one that retained all the great skills. Pa was the man who started that change. His legacy is great," insisted Mr Keher when he paid tribute to a man and hurler he admired greatly.
"Everyone at the funeral had the height of praise for him. The Tipp lads we had all the battles with were there. Pa was tall and thin, but if you ran into him it was like hitting a pillar. He could put manners on you or hurl you, whatever way you wanted to play.
"He was a lovely man. The finest compliment was to see the huge number of former opponents who came to say goodbye. He had a reputation as a tough, hard man, but off the field he was a lovely, mild manner fellow."
Being part of that 1967 team with the likes of the late Oilie Walsh, with Pat Henderson, Seamus Cleere, Paddy Moran, Mr Keher and others won the Freshford man a special place in the hearts of Kilkenny fans.
"When I was growing up all the talk was that Kilkenny were lovely, fancy hurlers but when they came up against Munster hurling they were blown away," Mr Keher explained. "That was the traditional talk. Fr Tommy Maher came in 1959 and his ambition was to build a team that would beat Tipp.
"They year 1967was the high noon. They had to be beaten. Fr Maher had built a big team, with Pa a central component. Pa could stand up to anyone or anything. He gave a great sense of security to the rest of us. Pa epitomised what was needed to compete with Munster teams."
Courtesy of The Kilkenny People Tweet
