NEW CLUB PATRON AND ALL-ROUND LEGEND - LARRY RYAN HONOURED!
NEW CLUB PATRON AND ALL-ROUND LEGEND - LARRY RYAN HONOURED!
".... Larry attended every Senior Hurling All Ireland final from 1949 until 2013 and every Football final since 1951 including replays! Taking that record, together with his constant presence at every significant game played by this club at juvenile and adult level since 1962, we have to sincerely acknowledge a great GAA man that this club has been honoured and fortunate to be able to claim as a member."
This is a great Kilmacud Crokes occasion. Larry Ryan has been at the heart of this club and everything that has happened in it since his arrival in Kilmacud GAA Club in 1961. Larry it is a great honour for me to be able as Chairman and on behalf of all of the members to express the gratitude of the Club for the enormous contribution you have made in making Kilmacud Crokes what it is today.
Before his arrival in Crokes Larry was already a hugely active GAA man – he seems to have played for more clubs than your average professional soccer player although he has been quoted himself as saying that he seemed to specialise in joining teams in the year after they won championships or leaving teams in the year before they won the championship. He managed this feat with Rovers of Laois and Grocers of Dublin and indeed with Crokes / Kilmacud as it was then when he managed to hurl with the Club in 1966 but avoided being on the team that won the championship that year.
Larry was born in the home of the GAA – Thurles – and went to school in Thurles CBS where he won an under-14 Rice Cup medal hurling for Tipp Secondary schools in 1947. That might sound like a fair achievement but Larry himself is quoted as saying that one of his proudest moments was actually as a sub on the Bohernanave team that won the Thurles Street league in the late 1940's. My guess is that even as a sub at that young age he was a bit of a schemer and budding mentor !!
Larry's arrival in adult hurling was in the intermediate league with Grocers where in one of his first games he found himself marking a Dublin and Leinster senior hurler called Ned Dunphy – history does not record who got the upper hand there. Larry went on to play with Rovers in Portlaoise as I mentioned and Bray Emmets and even a couple of matches with Civil Service. There is no clarity whether all these transfers were as a result of him being poached or being encouraged to leave.
Larry however found a more permanent home as a player with Patrick Morans – a forerunner club I think of Geraldine Morans. Larry had his most successful period as a player there - winning a Smith Cup and a Tostal tournament in 1954. An Tostal was a festival series of events happening on a National basis throughout the 1950 in particular and so to win a Tostal tournament was a feat to be proud of. The last recorded act of Larry's playing career was to win a Junior Division 3 title with Partrick Moran's beating Kickhams only to have the result overturned on an objection – we'll get them back yet Larry!
Larry's greatest contribution to the GAA as we in Crokes know so well has been as a mentor [sometimes even what was called 'Chief Mentor'], administrator and tireless worker off the field. In fact my own father reckons that at times Larry was working so hard for this club he was effectively the only full time GAA Club official in the country! Sponsored by the Department of Posts and telegraphs we presume.
Larry is alleged to have contributed to the development of Cuala GAA Club by starting a Juvenile Hurling team in DunLaoghaire in 1956 – a dastardly act which has rebounded on him over the years as he tried to outsmart Cuala on the pitch as a mentor. At that time also he became secretary to the South City Juvenile Board continuing up to 1962. He attended his first County Board Convention in 1957 and actually continued to attend the convention for decades afterwards on behalf of Kilmacud Crokes GAA Club. . Larry actually has represented this Club at the County Committee, the Juvenile, Minor, Junior Football and Hurling Boards as well as being a selector with the Dublin Senior Hurling team in 1969 and the Junior Hurling county team in 1989. He has also a selector with Dublin Minor and Juvenile hurling and football teams. We are proud as a Club of Larry's record at county level.
Larry himself is proud to have been one of 5 flag bearers in 1966 when the GAA held a 1916 commemoration Parade from Congress in Colaiste Mhuire to the Garden of remembrance.
Larry came to the Club to offer support when it was badly needed in 1961 bringing some of his juvenile players with him. Larry is recorded as taking up his first committee position with the Club in 1962 when he served as Secretary. Funnily enough as Club Secretary in 1962 Larry had the pleasure of writing to himself as County Juvenile Secretary about an Under 13 match and if that wasn't enough he appears to have replied to himself also. We can only hope that the correspondence was polite !
From that moment the history of this Club is littered with the influence and contribution of Larry Ryan – as a mentor of teams across the years, as a member of committees and as County Board delegate in various guises. Larry served in particular variously as secretary and Chairman of the hurling section after the merger with Crokes in 1966 and all through the 1970's. A peculiarity of Larry's record in this club at officer level is that he was succeeded as Club secretary in 1963 by Sean Collins who was succeeded in 1979 himself by none other than Larry Ryan – Larry says himself that the reason for his return as secretary was his own lack of sense and maturity! Larry went on to serve as secretary of the club for another 26 years
Every major undertaking in this Club since 1963 has involved Larry and we can acknowledge here that this club would not be what it is today without Larry's contributions.
Larry was part of the little group that conceived, designed and delivered the first Hurling Sevens in 1973. It is recorded by Paudge Fitz that the driver for the idea was an effort to keep hurling going that year after the leagues finished and championships were lost. Paudge also recorded that Larry Ryan was personally responsible for blowing the entire profits of that first sevens on drink – Paudge tells us that the profit was a pound (Tom McIntyre should be able to verify that) and that the committee handed that to Larry to buy a pint. When he was asked what the pint was like Larry apparently declared that 'there was never a pint that such an amount of effing hard work went into!'
As a side point we can also credit Larry with initiating the idea of catering on match days in Kilmacud Crokes. As many people will know Larry has – in years gone by - occasionally found himself in the clubhouse morning and afternoon for matches and before Mick Kinsellla was heard of Larry invented the idea of taking the lunch break with a quiet pint while eating crubeens from his pocket. A true innovator and ground breaker.
An astonishing record that is testament to Larry's love of Gaelic games is the fact that Larry attended every Senior Hurling All Ireland final from 1949 until last year and every Football final since 1951 including replays ! Taking that record together with his constant presence at every significant game played by this club at juvenile and adult level since 1962 we have to sincerely acknowledge a great GAA man that this club has been honoured and fortunate to be able to claim as a member.
As I conclude I would like to acknowledge Larry and Carmel Ryan's continuing vital contribution to this Club which is seen most clearly by the members at ticket allocation time. It is only since I became Chairman that I really understood the enormous task undertaken by Larry and Carmel throughout the Leinster Championships and All Ireland series in securing tickets for members and handling the distribution. It is a fact that the members of the club repeatedly benefit from the esteem with which the County Board holds Larry and Carmel – they are the masters of the extra allocation. Sincere thank you Larry and Carmel – I don't know why or how you do what you do but we are glad that you do it.
Larry – on behalf of all the members of this great club can I thank you for your incredible contribution and wish you a very happy 80th Birthday and many more to come.
