'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most famous Laois person of them all?...’ If Snow White’s evil ould stepmother in one of those Olympia Theatre pantoes were to put that question today we wonder what the response might be.

The competition for that accolade could be fairly intense. For example, there’s the likes of RTE newscaster Eileen Dunne, Newstalk presenter, Claire Byrne, the Sky newscaster, Lisa Burke, and other faces frequently seen on our TV screens like Darina Allen, the TV chef, and the weather forecaster, Evelyn Cusack. What is it about Laois that it has produced more than its fair share of attractive and competent female TV performers?

But in sport, not least in GAA, the mystical mirror could respond with only one answer. One man. One name. The Boy Wonder himself, Tommy Murphy.

Murphy’s name has long been cherished in his native O’Moore county. But, a few years ago, when the GAA wisely introduced the idea of special graded competitions alongside McCarthy and Maguire in hurling and football, it was a stroke of genius to name the football cup after Tommy Murphy. Now, each year, as we move further into the championship season his name is mentioned so often on air and in print along with those of Ring and Rackard. By this simple stratagem, Tommy Murphy’s name has been brought to the attention of a new generation of GAA fans.

Now, most of us have a fair idea who Ring and Rackard were. But who was Tommy Murphy? How did he make it to the football team of the Millennium and end up with one of the Association’s most coveted trophies named after him?

Tommy Murphy was born in Graiguecullen in 1921. He made his debut for Laois minors at the age of only fifteen and throughout the Thirties and Forties he became a household name throughout the country. Many regarded him as the greatest exponent of football of his time. This was no mean achievement for a man from a county that had not exactly been blessed with much success until his arrival on the scene. Laois won their first provincial title in 1889 when Queen Victoria was still Empress of India and the county had to wait until 1936 for its next breakthrough.

The following year, as a mere stripling of sixteen years of age and while still attending secondary college, the remarkably talented Tommy Murphy played his first game at senior level against Offaly, in a Laois team that went on to win the provincial title. No wonder he was immediately nicknamed ‘The Boy Wonder’.

In the ’37 All Ireland semi final, Murphy had an outstanding game at half-forward against Kerry. A late point earned Kerry a draw, 2-3 to 1-6. But Laois had missed the bus. In the replay they played some great football but Murphy was carried off after an accidental collision with a Kerry player. With him went Laois’s chance of winning. Kerry went on to the final by a single point and duly took the Sam Maguire that year.

The following year, under the newly built Cusack Stand in Croke Park, it was Laois versus Kerry again in the All Ireland semi final. Heartbreak again as Kerry won a keenly contested game on a scoreline of 2-6 to 2-4. There followed almost a decade during which Tommy Murphy accumulated Laois county medals and Railway Cup appearances for Leinster but with no success at inter-county level. They were years punctuated by All Ireland wins by Kerry, Roscommon, Dublin and Cork while Laois looked on helplessly.

Then, in 1946, when all hope seemed lost, came Tommy Murphy’s last chance of that All Ireland medal his talent so richly deserved. Laois took their first Leinster title in eight years. In the All Ireland semi final they faced a Roscommon side still bearing many of the stars who brought them All Irelands in 1943 and 1944.

The game started badly for Laois. With only fifteen minutes played a bewildered team were facing an eight points deficit. But it is in time of adversity that a man’s true worth is often assayed. Single-handedly, Murphy dragged Laois back into the game. He scored one of the finest points seen in Croke Park up to that time - almost at the corner flag when he turned and arched a beauty of a point between the goal posts.

As is often the case with inspirational scores, its value was much more than the mere addition of a digit on the score board. Suddenly, Laois were transformed from a bedraggled and downtrodden gaggle into something like their great team of the late Thirties. Half way through the second half they drew level only to see a determined Roscommon pull away again to a two point lead. With only a minute remaining, Laois thundered forward for the winning goal but the Roscommon goalkeeper dived full length to turn the ball aside. That was that.

Tommy Murphy left Croke Park that day once again within sight of the golden grail of an All Ireland final appearance. But it was not to be. Instead, he became the man many reckoned to be ‘The Greatest Player Never to Win an All Ireland Medal’. Two years later, and his luck had not improved much. Tommy unsuccessfully contested the 1948 general election for Seán McBride’s Clann na Poblachta party. He played his last inter-county game against Wexford in the 1953 Championship and two years later togged out for his last club game when Graiguecullen played Annanough. He died of a heart attack in May 1985 and was buried in his beloved Graiguecullen.

Murphy’s career underlined that you don’t have to win an All Ireland medal to be counted among the greatest. It helps, of course. But it’s not essential.


Tommy Murphy in the front row of the 1937 Leinster senior football champions, Laois.
Front row (l to r) - Tommy Murphy, Joe McDonnell, Paddy Savage, Mick Haughney, Danny Walsh, Mick Delaney, Syd Harkins, Danny Douglas
Back row (l to r) - J. "Tipper" Keating, John Bunyan, Tom Delaney, Martin Farrell, Tommy Walsh, Dick Rankins (head only), Chris Delaney, Dick Skully, Jack Delaney, Bill Carroll (Masseur), Bill Delaney, Jim Slater, John Drennan (County Secretary)

First published in the programme for the Leinster football final 2007, Dublin v Laois