Dublin’s Grange Golf Club are holding a ‘Friends of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh’ fourball competition on Thursday, August 14 to honour their longstanding member who sadly passed away last June.
One of the nation’s most beloved individuals and the voice of the GAA, Ó Muircheartaigh’s passing was felt the length and breadth of the country, even more so at the golf club which he joined in 1957 along with his two brothers, Paddy and Donal.
All proceeds from the fourball competitions will be split between the Hospice Foundation and the Camphill Community in Ó Muircheartaigh’s native Dingle, with club members paying €50 each and visitors paying €75 for golf and a meal afterwards.
John Moriarty, nephew of Mícheál, and a current member at Grange Golf Club, recalls fondly the many times he joined his late uncle on the fairways, both at Grange and in their spiritual homeland in Kerry, and he is looking forward to the day when members of the GAA and golfing communities unite to pay homage to the man who graced the airwaves for six decades.
“Mícheál joined Grange in 1957 along with my late father Paddy, and my late uncle Donal,” Moriarty recalls. “The three of them weren’t long in Dublin. They had learned their golf in the original Dingle golf club which was less than a par 4 from where they were brought up. They tried out all the golf clubs on the Southside but got the best welcome in Grange.
“They were all accomplished golfers, Paddy and Donal becoming Captains and later Presidents of Grange. Mícheál won Donal’s Captains Prize in 1978 and had to be summoned from the dogs in Harold’s Cross for the prize-giving.
“In recent years, I had pleasure of playing a few holes in the evening with Mícheál and his son Aonghus either here in Grange or in Ceann Sibéal west of Dingle. He played regularly right up until a few weeks before he left us last summer. These are great memories.
“Mícheál loved Grange and of course the GAA was his life. It’s therefore supremely fitting to have a day in Grange to bring together golfers hurlers and footballers. The family is delighted by the support from the club especially Captains Ronan and Mary and President Michael. We’re looking forward to a great day on the 14th August.”
Kelleher got to know Ó Muircheartaigh well as a player but it was in Dingle where their friendship blossomed and he’s honoured to have an association with the day.
“Mícheál was a very special guy – he was special to everybody,” Kelleher said. “His voice was renowned all over the country. I got to know him very well. He came from just outside Dingle, and I’ve had a house the other side of Dingle for the last 40 years, and we got to know another very well, and played a lot of golf together.
“He was an iconic character – some of his phrases were incredible, as was his knowledge. He’d know the players on the pitch, but he knew their brothers, their fathers and mothers, their cousins, everything. He really was an iconic character.
“He was very fond of golf and he was quite a good golfer actually. He was a member in Ceann Sibéal as well, and I’m a member there too, and you’d often see him there, well into his 80s, going round with the bag on his back. He really was incredible. He loved Grange and the whole family did too, so it’s a great, great honour.”
Patrons of the day with strong links to Grange Golf Club and Mícheál include Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, four-time All-Star and three-time All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winner with Dublin, Robbie Kelleher, and four-time All-Star and seven-time All-Ireland winner, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston of Kerry. Grange Golf Club captains Mary O’Grady and Ronan Cox and Michael Quinn President of Grange Golf Club all expressed their delight at this event taking place at Grange Golf Club and also supporting some great causes that were close to Mícheál’s heart. A special thanks should also be extended to Donal Bollard and Paul Muldowney, both past Captains of Grange Golf Club who have helped put the day together.
To book your place in the field, please click here.
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