PL’s life pageant provided a monument of memories
Not many know about PL Curran's shortlived hurling career
Sunday, August 8, 1971 might ring no bells as regards famous sporting occasions but for a fledgling Carlow Hurling Club, reformed in 1968, it was a milestone day as ‘the town’ fielded an adult hurling team for the first time. Having received an opening round bye, that historic appearance came in a SHC semi-final in a defeat to Borris in Dr Cullen Park.
It was an amalgam of the young, the old, the brave and the bold with Carlow 1962 All-Ireland winning captain Pat Somers at full-back, fronting veteran goalkeeper Paddy Mullins (recently deceased) while teenager Richie Moore was the first of the 1969 minor league winners to graduate to senior ranks. You also had Dan Harnedy, Pat O’Brien and the unrelated Teddy O’Brien, three men who served the new club as Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer respectively.
At left-half forward that August Sunday, sporting No 12 on the back of the white jersey with the blue sash was one PL Curran. To this revelation I can imagine a typical PL chuckle, then a whispered ‘not many people know that.’ We can only imagine that chuckle, that whisper as the force of nature that was PL departed this mortal coil last week and while there was an air of sadness in Carlow and his native Killeshin, there was too, a sense of celebration, a celebration of a full life well-lived, a life that apart from the legacy that is the running track at his beloved St Laurence O’Toole’s also left behind a monument of treasured memories for those who came across him during his livewire 81 years.
Charlie Keegan’s obituary on PL elsewhere in this newspaper (page 4 and 5) will give a more rounded account of a remarkable life. Here I will embark on a whistlestop tour of some personal memories as well as give space to other voices who were in more regular contact with him.
First stop on that tour is the word memory itself?! You see almost 50 years ago, the Autumn of 1977 I met PL for the first time when working on a book on the history of Carlow hurling and I can vividly recall his genuine excitement when his idea to title the book Carlow Hurling Memories met with our approval.
Apart from consulting the old newspaper files we set about interviewing a few key figures involved with the glory days of Carlow hurling. Thus, with PL Curran in the role of Chief Research Officer, acting as chauffeur and in charge of tape recording, we met and chatted with ‘Red’ Willie Walsh, Willie Hogan Pat Somers, heroes of Carlow’s 1962 All-Ireland winning team as well as their trainer Jimmy Phelan.
A colour photo of that trail blazing 1962 squad appeared on the back page of ‘Carlow Hurling Memories’ but would not have done so without PL’s combination of graft and genius. At his funeral mass PL’s sister spoke of how her brother would get ‘the twinkle of another idea’. Well that Autumn of ’77 PL got that ‘twinkle’ when he got wind of the fact that a colour photo of the ’62 team might exist, taken by a former Carlow Sugar Factory colleague who was transferred to Thurles. Apart from the fact that this man had to be tracked down and that this man, whose name escapes me (and the man who knows it is no longer with us) had to find the 15-year old ‘snap’ there was one other major problem. The photo was in slide format. Now we are talking almost 50 years ago, no A.I. to come to the rescue. But we had PL. He brought the slide to a specialist in Dublin where the complicated conversion process involving intricate colour separation took place. It was a race against time to meet the deadline but PL’s persuasive powers not only ensured the deadline was met but that the result was top class.
Thanks to PL too I had the privilege to interviewing three hurling old stagers in Mick Jones and Mick Gaynor in Bagenalstown and Johnny Murphy, Carlow Hurling Club’s 1927 Championship winning captains. As I was a shy 17 year-old, PL’s personable, bubbly nature opened the door (literally) for these encounters.
While Jim O’Brien’s volumes of old ‘Nationalist’ newspaper files and my own scrapbooks provided copious copy for the book, there were gap years and again PL solved the problem, sourcing cuttings from the Mitchell’s and the Coburns in Bagenalstown as well as Eamonn Lennon in St Mullins. And when after this there was still a county final report missing and the deadline looming PL called into the research part of the library and read the report out loud into a tape so as I could listen later and type in the details to the relevant article.
The main article was on those glory years from 1957-1962, an article ‘penned’ by myself but the last words provided by PL who had come across a little poem, ‘Hail to you Heroes’ that he felt with a little ‘re-writing’ would be the perfect finish. He was right. “No nerves, no fear, no terror, Sure the team was really grand, Hail to you, our heroes, The best team in the land!
“For us here in The Nationalist, PL was in regular contact and he sought to promote the St Laurence O’Toole club but he was also the driving force behind the Quarterly and Annual Nationalist Sports Awards,” said Ger McNally, Sports Editor of the Carlow Nationalist.
“PL was a very special person who loved all aspects of Carlow sport. Obviously athletics was his first love but he just loved to see people competing and giving of their best in sport. From the Youths Awards, where youngsters with immense potential are recognised, to the Hall of Fame Awards, where the heroes of yesteryear are remembered, PL was immersed in it all. We’ll miss him every day but especially so around the time of these awards.”
Andrea Ellis, of the Sports Awards committee, in her condolence on RIP.ie wrote:
“I had the privilege of working alongside PL as part of the Carlow Sports Awards where his passion for all Carlow sportspeople was evident. His love for Athletics and his beloved SLOT was always to the fore and he was so proud to host our meetings in the clubhouse in recent years. His legacy will be the fantastic facilities that all Carlow Athletes have in SLOT and the number of international athletes that have competed on the world stage. No doubt there will be plenty more to come."
A browse through RIP.ie as well as a couple of chats outside Graiguecullen church as PL made his final trip out the Killeshin Road revealed the amount of unhidden work PL did to ensure the apprentices under his charge had the best possible opportunity of progress.
“I have great memories of PL since our sugar factory days and especially being part of the Cosets team and all the wonderful outings and success we had back in the day,” wrote Eamonn Kelly, an outstanding hurler with Castledermot and Kildare, adding, “Thank you PL for all your guidance support and most of all your friendship. You were one in a million and you’ll never be forgotten.”
Paul Kehoe, a useful hurler with St Mullins and Carlow, recalled on the steps of Graigue church that he was two years into his apprenticeship when the Sugar Factory closed but that PL ensured Paul and his fellow apprentices got fixed up elsewhere, some in Lapple, some in Newbridge.
Mary Amond O’Brien’s condolence on RIP.ie captured the early days of Carlow Community Games and the pageantry and sense of occasion that PL brought to the event, establishing the Athletics Finals as one of the most special sporting occasions in the county.
Mary wrote: “When I think of PL I am brought right back to the early years of Carlow Community Games County Finals, the first one in Carlow being 1973. The back field in St. Patrick's College was turned into a mini-Olympic venue with a 300 metre marked track, flags from various countries flying high on individual flag poles on one side of the field, individual numbered boxes for competitors in the sprints to sit on before being called 'on your marks', the opening ceremony with doves released to the music of Sean Ó Raida's 'Mise Éire' and of course the medal ceremony with each person’s name read out over the loud speakers, medals presented on cushions ceremoniously placed around each athletes neck as musical fanfares were played. In those early years it was a dream for every child to compete in the Carlow County Finals. All of this was the brain child of PL who brought many others with him along the way to make it happen. It was the start and the spark which led to many athletic highlights for me and my family. Thank you PL. Rest in Peace.
It was appropriate that a man who was responsible for so much sporting pageantry should enjoy a little pageantry of his own on his departure journey with a huge St Laurence O’Toole’s Guard of Honour accompanying the hearse carrying PL to his final resting place on a couple of laps of the track he loved so well.
