A man of courage and character

KILLINAN END

Liam King was one of the old school. A gunslinger, a man who never needed a sports psychologist to coax intensity. Old school too in that he predated development squads and the scaffolding of a county underage and schools hurling profile. He tasted September glory in Croke Park entirely on his own merits – a late bloomer joining hurling’s immortals.

They started out modestly, these 1971 heroes, perhaps not realising the significance of their achievement. Not many Munster final wins for Tipp have echoed in local folklore quite like the win in Killarney. The teeming rain, the Limerick net unleashing a tsunami of water when Babs Keating’s ‘21’ roared past all those defenders. The 1971 All-Ireland is unique as the county’s only 80-minute final win – the experiment lasted from 1970 to ’74 inclusive – but they were also great gap-bridgers. Despite Tipp playing in the finals of 1967 and ’68, only four players from that 1971 team had started an All-Ireland Senior Final previously. For Liam King and ten colleagues, it was the only appearance at the big dance.

If Liam’s rise to hurling’s big stage did not come after a jaunt along the Yellow Brick Road, with success and possibility falling at his feet along the way, it can be fairly said that he struck gold in the place and timing of his birth. It’s another one of those great sporting quirks, but something certainly appears to stir around Lorrha when the year ends in six.

While this year’s minor team has carved its own special niche, they follow in illustrious footsteps. When the North Senior title went to that most peripheral part of North Tipp back in 1956, it was done against Borris-Ileigh, one of most illustrious teams that ever graced the North championship.

The scoreline does elicit a smile: Lorrha 4-8 Borris-Ileigh 0-18. This was what happened when Tony Reddin was in goal, putting us in mind of another gentleman goalkeeper, Patrick McLoughney, who caused similar scorelines when he defied all attackers in goal for Shane McGowans’s crowd.

If Lorrha’s men of 1956 leaned on the modern heritage that had sprouted in 1948, the feats of 1966 beat Banagher altogether. The club enjoyed a year beyond belief and comprehension, still the finest hour in a long and worthy story. This was when Liam King came into his own and defied the career gravity that dragged so many great hurlers around North Tipp not born with the silver spoon of opportunity in the hinterland of Thurles.

The 1966 North Senior championship win was coming. Signs loomed in 1965 when Lorrha reached the final only to come up short against Kilruane. When they did win the North Senior final a year later, they might have let him keep the cup because they certainly earned it. It took three matches to overcome Nenagh in the quarter-final, before a tight, tense two-point semi-final win over Kilruane overturned the result of the previous year’s decider. Old reliables, Toomevara, awaited in the final.

Lorrha had beaten the winners of the 1964 and ’65 North championships along the way; now they would meet a club that had contested every North final 1957–63, winning four of them.

The Frank McGrath Cup was as hard-earned as ever; just a white flag separated them: Lorrha 3-11 Toome 2-13. Heroes to a man wore blue, including Mick Liffey, Séan O’Meara, Peadar Hogan and Paddy Madden. This rising tide lifted Noel Lane and Liam King to wear Blue & Gold in the following years.

Sliding doors – it was two decades before Toome saw North final day again; and another five beyond that until they wore medals. Lorrha had set in motion somewhat of a golden era of competitiveness for the club, contesting eight finals and winning two in the following thirty years.

They also won the Under-21 hurling against Toomevara, Junior hurling against Silvermines, and Junior football against Borris-Ileigh in ’66. The underage title and subsequent County title were won in combination with neighbours Knockshegowna.

Liam King developed a reputation as what might be euphemistically called an uncompromising defender. His sending-off in the 1970 Munster final against Cork was, according to Mick Dunne of the Irish Press, a result of the broader ferocity of the exchanges following a few borderline tackles.

The decision baffled even Tomás Ryan, the ‘victim’ of Liam King’s indiscretion. Cork scraped home by two points against fourteen defiant Tipp men on a strange day when an insipid, tedious first half gave way to a second period of rare splendour. Liam would have further heated interactions with the Blood and Bandage a couple of years later when a League match in Thurles boiled over into mayhem. He was not found wanting there either.

He made his championship debut against Waterford in 1969 and took his final bow against Limerick in the 1975 replay. A man of rare courage and character you would always want on your side.