Former Sligo Player And Mentor Barnes Murphy The Yeats County's Second All-Star Sligo's victory over Mayo in the 1975 Connacht Senior Provincial Championship final replay is close becoming a monkey on the back of all involved in spear heading the renaissance of gaelic football in the Yeats County. But these people are made of sterner stuff and won't crumble under the heaving pressure of a past era which threatens to once again haunt their ambitions in the forthcoming Championship campaign. Solidly rooted to Mother Earth, the grassroots football way out west stand against the coalface of seemingly impossible odds and hope that their loyalty will be rewarded and repaid by their county Seniors. One Sligo die-hard who reckons that football stalwarts in the county may not have that long to wait for a resumption of the good times of the seventies is former county star and team manager Barnes Murphy from Enniscrone. "Over the last couple of years Sligo have shown a vast improvement in form from the sort of standard of football that they use to display back in the years previous. I saw them play against Galway recently in Dunmore in the FBD Connacht League and was pleased by the way the team played and the spirit they showed. If the side can continue to improve you'd never know how well they'd do in this year's Championship especially considering that the rest of the counties are struggling in Connacht too". For a man reared on such a diet of football scraps, it's understandable that the self-shame Murphy should pin point Sligo's provincial title win in '75 as the highlight of his career. Captain, trainer and coach of that team and of the Sligo side which clinched the Gael Linn Cup the previous year Barnes recognised the talent inherent in the county during his stint with its premier football side. "During my time as a player with the county between 1968 and '75 we had a very good team. We were very consistent and were always there or thereabouts getting to the League semi final ion 1968, '72 and '74. We were also beaten in the provincial final, after a replay, by Galway in 1971. We ran a very good Mayo team to several replays and were very unfortunate not to have won something in the early part of the seventies", the former star commented. Reflecting back on his times involved in arguably Sligo's best ever football era, Barnes, interestingly, believes that if anything, the 1975 team could have been even better had not some valuable players retired a year or two previously. Apparently men like Jim Colleary, Liam Gaffney, Cathal Cauley and James Brennan were among Sligo's best at the time. "I think we had a far better team before 1975 as others on the team at the team would surely acknowledge. Those four footballers would have got on any team at that time. They were all on the Connacht team which won the Railway Cup in 1969. With others like Danny McHugh and Brendan McCauley also on the scene then, it was a purple patch for Sligo that time", Barnes recalled. Reflecting back over the course of his career, Barnes has no hesitation in nominating Mickey Kearins as the best footballer he ever played with. "I remember watching him before I began playing with Sligo and it was amazing to watch him go of on a solo, beating three or four defenders and then scoring. He was worth seven or eight points every game". Now approaching twenty years since Sligo's last big day, their former star player and mentor honestly feels that the county is on its way back and that the structures and ideas are in place to keep the current momentum going. "Its very sad that Sligo hasn't come close to making the breakthrough twenty years on but going by the type of football that they've played in the last year they could be on their way back. There's a great promotion of underage football going on within the county at the moment and I hope it pays off". Now approaching twenty years since Sligo's last big day, their former star player and mentor honestly feels that the county is on its way back and that he structures and ideas are in place to keep the current momentum going. "It's very sad that Sligo hasn't come close to making the breakthrough twenty years on but by going by the type of football that they've played in the last year they could be on their way back. There's a great promotion of underage football going on within the county at the moment and I hope it pays off". Looking to the future, Barnes is cautiously optimistic that the young talent will be forthcoming but he's in no doubt but that it will take some seriously hard work to help these talented youngsters achieve their potential. "I saw some great prospects at underage level who haven't come through the system, who within twelve months of playing Minor level or some other underage grade have dropped out of the game. They seem to lose interest in the game between the ages of sixteen and eighteen which I'd out down to a lack of commitment. If I was to have a word with them, I'd suggest to them to give the game their full commitment for three or four years before deciding whether or not to give the time and effort to the game". A native of Enniscrone for whom he first came to prominence as a better than average Minor, Barne's first posting as a Garda took him from Templemore to Dublin where he spent approximately eighteen months while commuting home all the time at weekends to complete for his home club. Barnes played away for Enniscrone, right up to 1972 before transferring his allegiance to the Craobh Rua club. One year after joining Croabh Rua, Barnes joined up with team trainer Paddy, Joyce to forge a path to the county final but luck was not with him. Defeat in the county finals of 1974, '75 and '76 were to follow in agonising fashion at the hands of such teams as a Mickey Kearins inspired Saint Pats team and Eastern Harps. Craobh Rua's lack of a football pitch to call their own presented club's amalgamation with Mhuire Naomh (who did own their pitch) was mutually beneficial arrangement. The formation of the new Saint Mary's outfit in 1976, thus, promised better times for Murphy and his peers from the Craobh Rua part of the amalgamation plus of course, their partners in turn. No Sligo town team had previously secured the Sligo Senior Championship title since 1954 but Saint Mary's made short work of redressing such a damning record of non-achievement. Saint Mary's were a powerful combination but they weren't to strike it lucky at the first time of asking however. In their first year together the Saints lost out to Tubbercurry in the county final. "The nig difficulty we had at the start was that we hadn't the same team spirit, morale or even comraderie that you'd expect from a club side", Barnes remembered. A star defender at underage level with his native Sligo at both Minor and Under 21 grades, Barnes played some of his best football with the Saint Mary's outfit where the likes of Mick Laffey and Dessie Kierans fully complemented his own innate skills. In 1977 Saint Mary's not alone scooped the Sligo county title but also went on to win out in Connacht, beating Galway champions Corofin in the decider. "I remember approaching Father Cyril Haran at the beginning of 1997 with a view to getting him to manage the team. He was a school teacher at Summerhill College and it was just as well that we got him to read the game and analyse the opposition's strengths. I especially remember, it was the only thing". Recalling the days when Connacht Championship glory was theirs to celebrate, Barnes reckons that the Thomond College that beat Saint Mary's by four points in the All-Ireland semi final in Limerick was the best side he ever came up against. "They has some great players on that team, such as Pat Spillane, Brian Talty of Galway, Declan Smyth, the former Louth team manager and Richie Bell of Mayo. We trained amazingly hard for that game but were very unlucky to lose out in the end. It was no surprise to me when they went on to hammer Saint John's of Belfast in the final. Even winning the Connacht title again in 1978 was no consolation". Selected as an All-Star in 1974 (only Sligo's second ever All-Star Mickey Kearins being the other), Barnes Murphy later went on to manage Sligo Seniors in 1978. 1981 heralded his retirement from county fare but by then he had married Cavan girl Mary Briody (mother of his children Tara, Barnes, Cormac and Ultan) and priorities began to be re-arrange. Still a fervent football fan and now resident in Carrone, Barnes Murphy will be a name not easily forgotten in Sligo football circles. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 3rd February, 1995 Tweet

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