The late Bishop Emeritus Willie Walsh was a great hurling man, recalls Joe Ó Muircheartaigh from the many conversations he had with the proud Roscrea and Tipperary man who became more
Clare than Clare people themselves since first arriving in town and county 78 years ago.
“You know Lord about the match on Sunday. Yea Lord I know we are gone a bit mad down here but I’m sure you’ll understand. Sixty-three years is a long time to wait. We will remember the summer of ’95 for many a year with the weather and the hurling. We have never had the likes of it before.
“And of course, a win on Sunday would crown it all. Yea, I know, I know Lord that you can’t take sides — the Offaly lads are just as precious to you as are the Clare lads. Still, you might just note Lord that they won it last year and had two wins in the ‘80s.
“So maybe if there was a lucky break going you might let it run our way, sort of by accident, nobody need know and by the way, Lord, don’t say anything to the Offaly lads about me being onto you. You see a lot of them are from my own diocese. I’ll shout for them next year.
“But seriously Lord, bless both teams on Sunday and bless all the people of Offaly and Clare and hurling people everywhere and Lord thanks for the pleasure of hurling and thanks especially for the summer of 1995.”
Thought of the Day, Clare FM
September 1995
BISHOP WILLIE Walsh’s prayer touched everyone in Clare that famous week — and you could say it touched a nation because in these greatest hours of Banner County history, he showed a few different sides to his character.
He was up for the craic in seeking a hotline to God in All-Ireland week; it was a bit of fun for the radio, while at the same time being a genuine prayer to the power of hurling, the game he loved like no other.
This was Willie Walsh, the quintessential hurling man and priest using the power to get his message out, with some of his tongue firmly in cheek as he did it.
“There was an extraordinary reaction to that,” he recalled. “It was pure fun as far as I was concerned, but it got such a reaction.
“It got a hostile reaction from a fella above in Offaly who wrote to me that I was a prejudice so and so from Roscrea, because of the border between Tipperary and Offaly, it was typical of a Roscrea man prejudice against Offaly.”
He laughed at the correspondence, because deep down, despite being a priest and a bishop, he knew that prayer wasn’t really the route to hurling success, a fact he acknowledged with more humour when reflecting on the many successes he enjoyed at St Flannan’s College over a golden era for the school under his watch from 1976 to ’87.
The Harty and All-Ireland breakthrough in ’76 when Barry Smythe who was one of Bishop Willie’s greatest friends became a hurling immortal at colleges level — the bonfires that blazed then and for years afterwards as St Flannan’s contested eight Harty finals in 12 years en route to topping the roll of honour.
The games that stick out in my mind the most,” he recalled before St Flannans’ last Harty success in 2019, “were the battles with North Mon in the early ‘80s.
“We played them in the final two years in a row and then in the first round the other year. We won the finals narrowly, one of them after…