Christy Campbell Relives the glory days of Limerick Hurling Christy Campbell grew up on the North Circular Road, Limerick, where hurlers were about as common as communists. It was an area where rugby ruled but it didn't stop Campbell from becoming a fine hurler for school, club and county. Now 46, he runs a thriving business in the pvc windows and conservatories industry but his great gra is still the ancient game. He made his first hurling impact at Sexton Street CBS as a teenager but prior to that he had trained and competed as an amateur boxer for a good few years with the St Munchin's Boxing Club. It's still his second favourite sport and he was happily boxing up until his Leaving Cert year when the Brothers told him he'd have to pack it in - as Brothers did in those years! "They came along and said "you're training two days a week up in the field playing hurling and you're training three nights a week below in the boxing club and that won't do, you either do one or the other - and we're telling you which one you're doing. So boxing was knocked on the head," recalls Christy. Sexton Street won four Harty Cups in a row while he was there, Christy winning one as a player in 1967 alongside the likes of Jack Foley, Pat Hartigan and the Grace brothers, Richie and Matt. Richie is since sadly deceased, as are two more of that team. By a strange coincidence, the three deceased are standing side by side in the team photo from that year Sexton Street were beaten by St Peters of Wexford in the All-Ireland Final of '67 after a reply. Peters were powered by John Quigley at centre half back whom Christy remembers as a fabulous hurler. Christy played as a dashing half back, a hardy bit of stuff at a mere five feet six inches tall and ten stone in weight Amateur boxers have always been a tough breed and Christy probably came into that category. "That's the way I played it, wicked hard. I had to strike first because an awful lot of the time, a lad'd come out and think he'd have a handy time on a small fella and I'd have to make sure that didn't happen!" he says with a chuckle. Possessing tremendous skill brought about by hours and hours of practice and fantastic speed, Christy was the ideal half back, rarely content with just delivering the ball, he was always willing to take on an opponent and solo thirty to forty yards before striking. It was more or less expected that fellows who left Sexton Street went on and played for Old Christians. Christy played with them until 1976 but it was a frustrating period, getting knocked out of the Championship in the first round every season and left kicking his heels for the rest of the summer. "It was heartbreaking for me because I just loved playing hurling and you'd go out in the Championship, get one damn match and you had the whole summer long then to do nothing. It was a shocking system, absolutely ludicrous," says Christy with some feeling. This terrible lack of club games made it very difficult to maintain a place on the county team. He subsequently transferred to Claughaun and, though no county Championships were won, retained his enthusiasm for playing the game until the ripe old age of 38. His county career had of course, come and gone by then, Christy playing Minor also '67 and getting to a Munster final in which Cork gave them a sound beating. John Horgan starred for Cork that day and was "absolutely superb" recalls Christy, who as team captain was able to hold his head up high, having played one of the games of his life, despite being on the losing side. Two seasons with the Under 21s followed without success and in the latter part of 1970 Christy made his Senior debut as a substitute with Limerick. He wasn't overawed by the occasion and settled into the first fifteen regularly after that. A number of sparkling displays were to follow before having the misfortune of breaking his leg in a League play-off that spring, but Limerick were beginning to assemble an impressive team and he was back on board when they went on to win the National League, beating Tipperary in the final by a point. It was the first major trophy Limerick had won since the Munster Final of 1955 and was a very important breakthrough at the time. They confirmed this renewed confidence by beating Cork in the Championship that summer, the first Limerick team to beat Cork in a Hurling Championship game since 1940, but Tipperary turned the tables in the Munster final edging them out by a point "The very last puck of the ball, I can still see John Flanagan, he was looking down the field and he threw the ball up into the air and hit it a wallop and it went over the bar." That was the team of Cregan and Grimes, Foley, the Hartigans and the Bennises but for Christy, the best man he ever played with was Jim O'Donnell of Doon. "He was absolutely brilliant. I was just 22 at that stage and he would have been pushing on so I wouldn't have realised how good he was at the time but when I think back on it, I never saw anybody who could stop a ball in the air and drop it down into his hand and clear it over and over again like he could. He was strong as a horse and a wonderful guy to play beside." Ironically, neither O'Donnell nor Campbell were on the team when Limerick took home the All-Ireland just over two years later in September '73. beaten by an unfancied Clare team in the Munster semi-final of '72, Limerick finally got it together a year later when Richie Bennie's fabled last puck of the game gave them a one point win over Tipp in the Munster final. Christy's involvement with the Limerick squad ended abruptly before that final. He watched from the sidelines as his team mates went on to September glory but it was a time of painful, mixed emotions for him. That '73 triumph was the culmination of a long quest by players like Cregan, Grimes, Hartigan and Foley, all of whom, like Campbell, had come through the Sexton Street academy. The hurling writer and historian Raymond Smith chronicles the contribution made by this school to that All-Ireland victory in '73. "You could trace Limerick's upsurge back to the success story of the outstanding Limerick CBS (Sexton Street) teams that won four Dr Harty Cup crowns in 1964-'67 and in the period were All-Ireland Colleges champions twice (1964 and '66). Brother White was Superior and Brother Burke trainer when the historic run commenced in 1964 and Brother Scully was Superior when it climaxed. Players like Eamonn Cregan (1964), Eamon Grimes (1964-66, Pat Hartigan (1966-67), Sean Foley (1966- '67) and Christy Campbell (1967) began to develop in those days the kind of approach that made them such an attractive attacking side to watch in 1971 and Eamon Cregan holds that the first seeds of combination forward play were also sown in the same period," writes Smith in "The Clash of the Ash". The disappointment of not making the cut in '73 has never dented Christy's love for the game, he insists, and nowadays he helps out with the coaching of underage players at Na Piarasaigh, recently promoted to Senior ranks and from whom Christy expects to carry the flag for city hurling into the coming millennium. Every Saturday morning they have between 150 and 200 young boys out practising and it's a great little nursery for hurling, he says. He is still a member of the Claughaun club and as a young boy himself earned the distinction of winning two county Championship medals the same day - a juvenile cross-country medal in the morning and a juvenile county hurling championship final in the afternoon! Nowadays he is up to his neck in work, running a business that is expanding year by year. His company manufacturers uPVC windows, doors and conservatories but it is conservatories that are really growing in demand. "We are among the leading manufacturers of conservatories here in the mid-west region," he says. We are twelve years in business and currently employ twelve people. People have come to like the idea of having a conservatory built on to their houses, and they can range in size from small to very large. It can contribute hugely to the quality of family life and can be erected at a cost to suit the family budget. "The most pleasurable hours of yours life you'll spend inside your conservatory sitting down reading your paper or book or magazine," Christy explains. "You have sunshine in the winter time and the really pleasurable time to sit in your conservatory is in the autumn, winter or spring because when the summer comes you'll be sitting outside. A conservatory adds extra space to your home," says Christy "and creates a new found harmony between house and garden." Always recognised for the quality of workmanship in his conservatories, Christy is constantly upgrading his products and you can always rely on the company for job satisfaction. Married to Julie, they have three children Christopher (11), Leanne (6) and Katie (3). Despite all the setbacks over the years, including that traumatic loss to Offaly in '94, he still believes that the county is not far away from an All-Ireland. "This present team, I feel, has as good a panel of players as we're ever likely to have again. If they don't mess around too much with the team, they have to win it. And I reckon they'll go down to Cork and beat Cork and you'll see a fantastic Munster semi-final between Limerick and Clare and Limerick will beat the hell out of them!" To which one can only say, fair play - spoken without fear or favour! Written by the Hogan Stand Magazine 1st March 1996 Tweet

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