March 2021

For this month I will stick with the theme of commentators so I must highlight Michael O’Muircheartaigh (Moriarty). He was born in Kerry in 1930, he is a great age and hopefully will live to see many more years. He made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest career as a live match commentator. (over 60 years) Guinness World Records started in 1955 the book was founded by twin brothers in England. In the 70’s a Guinness Book of World Records museum opened in the Empire State building in New York.

O’Muircheartaigh trained as a teacher in Dublin. He taught economics and Irish language for several years up until he became a full-time broadcaster.  

He did a test commentary on a hurling match in Croke park. The intriguing bit is he had never seen a hurling match before! And he became the “VOICE of Gaelic games”! Some people are just meant to be where they are, and it doesn’t matter how they got there! O’Muircheartaigh commented on Minor GAA matches in Irish. He replaced the legendary O’Hehir. He established his own style of commentary and his accent was distinctly that of a native Irish speaker. He brought great enthusiasm and vigor to the games. In the heat of the action, he would say very clever phrases & expressions. “Pat Fox has it on his hurl & is motoring well now but here comes Joe Rabbitte hot on his tail, I’ve seen it all now, A rabbit chasing a fox around Croke Park.” If you weren’t interested in sports it was just exciting to listen to his commentary. He was the Parade Grand Marshall for the St. Patrick’s Parade in Canada and various other places. Most people who follow hurling also know that O’Muircheartaigh loves Sailing, hopefully he is still soaring thru the waters. He used to write a sports column for Foinse (source) (Irish language paper) unfortunately that paper ceased production in 2015.

O’Muircheartaigh was presented an honorary doctorate by Galway University for his lifetime service to broadcasting.

His Autobiography is titled, “From Dun Sion to Croke Park”. If I were to write my autobiography it would be titled, “You can take the man out of Ballyfoyle, but you can’t take Ballyfoyle out of the man!”

I will leave you with this insightful story. How do you want to be remembered? “More than a decade ago, a man was reading his morning newspaper. To his surprise, he read his name in the obituary column. The newspapers had mistakenly reported the death of the wrong person for sure. He was shocked to read news headline about his death. He read it to find out what people had said about him.

The obituary included sentences like, “Dynamite King Dies.” The man was the inventor of dynamite and when he read the words “merchant of death,” he asked himself a question, “Is this how I am going to be remembered?” he asked himself. He decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered and he decided to change.

From that day on, he started working toward world peace. His name was Alfred Nobel, and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize, the greatest of all the prizes. The Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace since 1901. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

If you have any questions/comments please call me and will chat about it (708) 425-7021