Basil Fitzgibbon

Talented footballer who won many honours with Ballysteen/Askeaton and Limerick

Ballysteen GAA club wish to extend our sincere sympathy to the Fitzgibbon family on the death of Basil RIP.

Basil was one of the best footballers ever to put on a Ballysteen jersey. He had all the qualities that have been synonymous with Ballysteen footballers throughout the years. Noted for his tenacity, a Ballysteen old timer once described him as being like 'a ball of fire on the field.' He was the original attacking half back. He won many honours on the field with Ballysteen and later on when the name was changed to Askeaton.
His first major honour was the 1961 West Junior Championship. Ballysteen also captured the county title that year when they defeated Monaleen in the final and in the same year Basil played on the Western Gaels
team that lost the 1961 County Senior football final to Oola. He played for Ballysteen in 1964 when they captured the ultimate honour in Limerick Gaelic football by defeating St Patricks. This was Ballysteen's first and only County Senior football championship.

Basil went on to win three county titles in a row when under the Askeaton name the footballers of the parish won the 1965 and 1966 county finals. Basil was on the Limerick Senior football team that defeated Cork in
Killarney in the 1965 Munster semi final and played in the Munster final against Kerry in the Limerick Gaelic Grounds. Limerick were winning by five points at half time but Kerry got the upper hand in the second half to defeat them. Ballysteen had five players on the Limerick team that day and Tom Downes was a selector. Basil was also on the Munster Railway Cup panel during this period.

Basil was a proud man in 1992 when his nephew Mick Fitzgibbon carried on the Fitzgibbon tradition with Ballysteen footballers when he won a West Junior football title. Ballysteen GAA club wish to salute one of the star football players of the 1960s Golden era of football in the parish.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

Basil Fitzgibbon; died December 4, 2012.

Courtesy of The Limerick Leader. Tweet

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