The late O'Shea Morty Warriors come and warriors go and one of the greatest warriors of Beara football and a former officer of the Beara GAA Board, Morty O'Shea, passed to his eternal reward at home on Friday morning, December 23. Morty was born on March 14, 1925, the sixth in a family of eight of Mort O'Shea, N.T., Cappanaparka, Adrigole and Siobhan O'Driscoll, Whiddy Island. His father, Mort (the first ever president of the Beara GAA Board), was on the Cork team that won the All-Ireland S.F.C. in 1911. Mort was a member of the Lees team at the time. He used to cycle all the way from Adrigole to Cork City for the games, and then later that night started off pedalling to be back home in Adrigole in time for school the following morning. A magnificent fielder, Morty had his first match with the Beara seniors at the age of 20 when he and his old mate, Brendan Murphy of Bere Island were at centrefield on the team which ran the then county champions, Clonakilty, to two points in a dour struggle in the second round at Glengarriff. He won a Dublin S.F.C. medal with the Garda team in 1948. In 1953 Morty lined out with Beara at centre half back in the county S.F.C and he was at full back on the Beara team that went under by only points to a very strong Garda (nearly inter-county) team in the second round of the 1954 county S.F.C. in Skibbereen. He was playing for Urban by then, as his wife, Sheila Murphy (Bawn) of Cahirkeem was from the Urhan Club area, and Adrigole had no team at the time. The following year he was at full back again with Urhan team which won the Beara J.F.C. For years after that he was a regular in a no-holds barred Beara full back line. He won Beara J.F.C. medals at full back with Adrigole in 1961 and 1962. In what was his swan song for his native Adrigole at the age of 40, he lined out at full forward in the 1965 Beara J.F.C. final v. Castletownbere. The town team, supervisor in speed, led 1-6 to 0-2 at half time. Adrigole came back strongly in the second half due principally to a terrific goal form Morty who fielded the ball about 21 yards out and, using his great strength, soloed in through the town backs before unleashing a mighty left-footed drive, and the goalie hardly saw the ball as it hit the right corner of the net. Town held out for a two point win, but Morty went down fighting to the last. He was chairman of the Adrigole club for a number of years and was vice-chairman of the Beara board from 1958 to 1963 (inclusive). Besides being a terrific fielder, Morty was a man of powerful physique, with a powerful "ciotog" to match. He had a mop of jet-black hair and wore a big togs to well below his knees - a fearless full back in the days when the call from supporters, as a high ball landed around the square, was: "bury it in the net." That meant "bury the goalie and the backs with it." My most humourous day playing with Morty was in a tough, rough third round of the county S.F.C. for Beara against St. Nicks in Dunmanway on September 4, 1960. I was in goal and Morty was full back. The first ball I went down for, a St. Nick's shoe passed my head with bad intentions. The culprit hadn't his leg back on the ground properly when Morty buried his boot in the man's hind quarters. St. Nicks, knowing of Morty's prowess as a fielder, put a full forward of about six foot four inches in height on him - and I guarantee you that it wasn't for the saying of prayers he was put in there. From the word "go" it was hot and heavy between Morty and himself. As I fielded a ball near the upright, the full forward landed on me and crashed my head, the side of my face and my ribs against his and my ribs against the upright. (That night I arrived home looking like a refugee from central Africa - my second wedding anniversary). But the war wasn't over yet. Morty fielded another high ball near the edge of the square . As he was coming down with the ball grasped firmly, the full forward took him with a thunderous upper cut to the jaw that would have knocked a lesser man out. Courtesy of Southern Star 7 January 2006 Tweet

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