Offaly plunged into mourning with the death of one of its greatest ever hurlers

THE Offaly GAA world has been plunged into mourning with the passing of one of the county's greatest ever hurlers, one of its best known and most loved citizens, Johnny Flaherty.

Flaherty's passing on Wednesday morning, after a reasonably short battle with illness, is the worse possible Christmas news for his family, many friends and the multitudes who admired him, held him in such high esteem and gained such pleasure from his hurling exploits.

A true sporting icon, Johnny Flaherty ensured his place in Offaly GAA folklore when his all important late hand passed goal spearheaded the charge to victory in the 1981 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final against Galway.

That was Offaly's first ever All-Ireland senior hurling title, a year after they had made the provincial breakthrough with a famous win over Kilkenny in the 1980 Leinster senior hurling final. A magnificently and audaciously skilful corner forward, Flaherty was then in the Winter of his career but his contribution to Offaly's great emergence was profound.

That was a team of household names, brilliant hurlers, great characters and real leaders. Describing any one man as indispensable is always a risky undertaking with team sports and to suggest that a title couldn't have been won in the absence of any one star is laden with pitfalls as well as generally unprovable. In the case of Johnny Flaherty, however, it is at at the very least a legitimate question and debate and what we can say with absolute certainty is that his individual contribution was at least as great as anyone else's in those never to be forgotten years of the early 1980s.

He was a larger than life, gregarious, confident, almost indestructible type character and news during 2023 that he was in a big health battle and struggling with it came as a tremendous shock to all who knew him. He battled his illness with typical bravery and in my last conversations with him a couple of months ago at the Fingerboard in Tullamore, he spoke with candour about his treatment and the effect it was having on him, the good and bad days he was going through. He was upbeat as usual and the news in recent weeks that the outlook wasn't looking good came as a tremendous shock to his people.

A proud Kinnitty man but a long time resident and business man in Tullamore, he stamped his imprint on his home area, his adopted town and his beloved county in a way that only a handful of people have matched.

He played 66 competitive National Hurling League and senior championship games for Offaly from his 1966 debut to his last game, a league win over Dublin in October 1983. He would have been a centenarian only for spending much of his peak years in the 1970s abroad working in the USA. He didn't play at all from 1975 to 1978 and in 1972 while he played a solitary championship game in 1973 and 1974, defeats by Wexford and Kilkenny.

Much of the 1970s was a bleak decade for Offaly hurling as they quickly returned to the doldrums after the promise shown in an narrow 3-9 to 0-16 Leinster final defeat by Kilkenny in 1969. Watching the All-Stars hurl in San Francisco in 1978, Flaherty told his colleagues that he would be collecting one of those awards himself within a couple of years and he was spectacularly true to his word, winning his only award in 1981.

It would be stretching things to suggest that Flaherty's presence would have saved Offaly from some of the dark days they endured during the 1970s but we can say without fear of contradiction that his decision to return from abroad was instrumental in what occurred in 1980 and 1981.

For much of the 1970s, no one could have predicted that a new force was about to be unleashed on the hurling world but unknown to all but a few close observers, things were changing in Offaly hurling.

Offaly's rock bottom was reached in 1976 when Westmeath beat them in the Leinster championship while they scraped to a notorious 0-3 to 0-1 league win over Wicklow in Aughrim in October 1976. The players that played that day included future All-Ireland medal winners in Damien Martin, Padraig Horan, Joachim Kelly, Pat Delaney, Pat Carroll, Mick Kennedy and Brendan Keeshan and slowly things ignited from there.

Fundamental positional changes took place. Horan was centre back in Aughrim with Kelly, Coughlan and Delaney making up the half forward line. By 1981, Coughlan was full back, Delaney centre back, Kelly midfield and Horan the captain and leading the attack at full forward. Other young players had been bedded in with Offaly's success in the 1978 Leinster U-21 Hurling Championship providing a tangible and powerful boost.

A crucial addition was the appointment of Kilkenny man Diarmuid Healy as team coach, working in tandem with the manager, Andy Gallagher (Tullamore) and Flaherty's return from abroad provided the missing piece in the playing jigsaw.

The second boy of five boys and two girls, his father Bob was a native of Galway and Bob and Mary Flaherty reared a real hurling family

From a young age, Johnny Flaherty was hurling mad and it was not long before it was clear that he had a rare talent.

The Kinnitty area had been synonymous with Offaly hurling from its early days, providing several of its great early names. They went into decline as emigration riveted the area after the 1920s but their stars changed in the 1960s. The re-emergence of Kinnitty and the formation of St Rynagh's in that decade galvanised Offaly hurling. Prior to that, Offaly club hurling had been notoriously tough and violent. Coolderry and Drumcullen had been long dominant but St Rynagh's formation and dominance of the 1960s and 1970s changed the goalposts completely.

Kinnitty were part of this change – a surefire way to get Johnny “hopping” throughout his life was to suggest that St Rynagh's was the reason Offaly hurling came through. “Yes”, he would agree, before the inevitable addition: “But what about Kinnitty, we brought the skill to it”.

He was certainly right about Kinnitty bringing skill to the table and there were few more skilful than Johnny Flaherty,anywhere in the country and in any era. His first medal was an U-16 hurling one with Kinnitty in 1957 and his full collection includes: two Offaly JHC, 6 SHC and two U-21 HC medals; two Leinster SHC, one All-Ireland SHC, a Railway Cup and an All-Star award.

He was just out of minor ranks when he played on the Kinnitty team that lost to another new club, St Carthage's in the 1965 Junior Hurling Championship final, scoring 1-2. A year later, they returned to the top flight with a win over Killeigh in the 1966 junior final and amazingly, they had won the Sean Robbins Cup in 1967, beating Coolderry by 4-8 to 3-4 in the final.

A young Flaherty destroyed opposing defences in many of those games. Against Killeigh, he had two goals scored within three minutes, ending up with 2-7 while he scored the match clinching goal in the 1967 county final win over Coolderry as well as all eight of their points..

Kinnitty went onto win further senior hurling championship titles in 1978, 1979 and a famous three in a row from 1983 to 1985, when they were agonisingly close to winning a Leinster club championship.

He came home from America to help them defeat St Rynagh's in the 1978 final, scoring six points and he was named as man of the match – he had only been drafted into the starting line up as Pat Delaney got injured in the warm up. Brilliant in 1979 as they beat Coolderry in a replayed final, he was also lethal during their great three in a row run from 1983 to 1985. Kinnitty were agonisingly close to winning a Leinster club title in those years, losing three finals in a row.

Along with fellow county stars Delaney, Ger Coughlan and Mark Corrigan, he helped Kinnitty to win an All-Ireland seven-a-side tournament in 1981 and he wound down his club career in 1993 when he scored 1-3 at 46 years of age as Kinnitty beat Crinkle in the junior hurling final.

By 1966, Johnny Flaherty had graduated to to the Offaly senior hurling team. Still U-21 up to 1967, he hit the ground running and was on fire in one of Offaly's most important wins of that era, a 3-13 to 2-7 1966 National Hurling League win over Tipperary in Birr. That was Offaly's first ever win over Tipperary and it was a huge result at that time. With a Cork native Br Denis Minehan doing trojan work as manager, 19 year old Flaherty scored three fine points in a super individual display.

That was only his second game for Offaly senior hurlers and 1967 was to end in controversy and recriminations. Offaly suffered a shocking championship exit at the hands of Westmeath in Birr, 5-10 to 4-8 in on of those games that was spoken about for decades afterwards.

It went down in history as the “Battle of Birr” and Flaherty was among the players sent off – while he was a supremely skilful hurler, a mesmerising stick artist, he was no shrinking violet when it came to minding himself and dishing out some punishment himself. A wild brawl involving players and supporters lasted a whopping fourteen minutes near the end before the referee somehow managed to restart it and finish the game.

The violence erupted after an Offaly ball landed in the Westmeath square and ended with “bloody faced” hurlers emerging from the “mob”. Willie Gorman and Flaherty and Westmeath's Frank Jackson and Albert Colgan were all sent off and Leinster Council showed no mercy. Willie Gorman was suspended “indefinitely” and his Killoughey club mate Joe Murphy got 18 months. Westmeath's Liam Jackson got six months, Colgan 12 and Frank Jackson was suspended until he appeared before the committee.

Flaherty's ban was a mere one month and he was back to play in the Leinster U-21 hurling final against Dublin that June, causing havoc in the opposing defence in a devastating 2-10 to 2-9 loss.

Gorman and Murphy later got their suspensions reduced with Gorman back playing in 1969 and Murphy lining out in 1968 – both gave great commitment to Offaly hurling and played in the 1969 Leinster final loss to Kilkenny.

Flaherty often spoke about the indiscipline that was part and parcel of Offaly hurling at that time, talking about incidents and sending offs, and noting that it did hold the county back.

Offaly gained revenge against Westmeath in the 1967 Leinster championship, losing to Kilkenny and in 1969, they returned to the Leinster senior hurling final for the first time since 1928. They had a great win over then All-Ireland champions Wexford in the semi-final, after mauling Laois in the first round and really put it up to Kilkenny in the final with Flaherty shooting three points but they paid the price for the concession of three goals.

While time was on Flaherty's side, many of that fine team were heading over the hill at that stage and Offaly were unable to build on it – when they did make the breakthrough in 1980, Damien Martin and Flaherty provided the link with the '69 side.

Emigration took him out of the country for most of the 1970s. He first went to America in 1971 and while he occasionally drifted home, he spent most of his time abroad.

He had a great appetite for work in America. He was based in New York for years, working as a carpenter and playing with Offaly teams there. He travelled up to the depths of Alaska in 1976, working on pipeline construction there in the Arctic Circle, and earning big money – though he later joked that they were too well fed and he lost his hurling fitness there.

After that he went to San Francisco and flirted with extending his stay in America there but the hurling fire and home burnt brightly in his soul and he decided to come home.

After helping Kinnitty to the 1978 championship, Flaherty was not shy about telling team management about what he could offer them and putting himself forward for a recall. Years later, Diarmuid Healy recalled meeting Flaherty “by accident” after a team meal and having a “long discussion” with him on hurling and how the game should be played. It ended with Flaherty taking his place on the team for the championship defeat by Wexford in 1979 and retaining it until 1983.

Healy reflected “In hindsight and having got to know Johnny's ways afterwards, I think that our meeting may not have been by accident on the Kinnitty man's part. Anyway it was to have a huge bearing on the future of Offaly hurling.”

He was superb in 1980 and 1981. He got two goals as Offaly stunned Kilkenny in the 1980 Leinster hurling final, the second a familiar handpassed one, and the sight of him racing up along the sideline and leaping into the subs bench when the final whistle blew was one of the abiding images of that game.

He worked tirelessly on handpassing, with Diarmuid Healy outlining: “”We spent 10 minutes, a quarter of an hour every night handpassing the ball. We got the winning goal with two minutes to go in that All-Ireland, a handpass from Johnny Flaherty. That was probably the thousandth ball Johnny Flaherty handpassed into the net that summer. If we hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have been able to do that in the heat of battle.”

He was partly responsible for one of Offaly's most important scores in a dramatic 3-20 to 6-10 first round win over Laois in 1981. Offaly's dreams were almost stillborn in a real dogfight of a game – Laois gave Offaly fierce headaches in those years – but his instinctive reaction after a Padraig Horan shot went into the side netting was a big turning point. Quickly observing hesitancy among the umpires, Flaherty celebrated “a goal”, demanding that it be awarded, which it was and the rest was history as Paddy Kirwan got the winning point from a huge free.

He won his only All-Star in 1981 and was the Offaly hurler of the year in 1979 and 1981. He was later inducted into the Offaly GAA hall of fame and was selected on the Offaly hurling team of the millennium in 2000.

He had it every way as a hurler: delightfully skilful, he could score on the run, over his shoulder and he had a rare hurling brain. He played hurling and lived life with a twinkle in his eye – a truly rare personality, he had a way about him that endeared him to people.

His career did endure its share of controversy, none more so than an incident in a 1987 club hurling game that ended on the steps of the High Court. Flaherty had been sent off in Kinnitty's defeat by Coolderry after an off the ball incident with John Teehan and it had a high profile sequel in 1994 when John Teehan sued him for damages in the High Court.

The court was told that Teehan had been knocked unconscious in an off the ball incident by Flaherty and the High Court awarded the Coolderry man general damages of £4,500 with special damages of £405. Flaherty had fought the case, claiming that he had acted in “necessary self defence using no more force than was reasonably necessary in the circumstances”

The legal bill was much more substantial than the damages and former club and county colleagues carried out a fundraiser outside Croke Park in 1995 to help him meet the £35,000 legal bill and damages.

He was a successful business man and property owner in Tullamore. Johnny and his late wife Margaret (a Kirley from Ballinagar) owned a prime site at the corner of William Street and Patrick Street in Tullamore. Margaret ran a successful insurance business here for years before this was taken over by Mark Gallagher and Gray Insurance some time before her 2017 death, following a brave battle with illness.

Johnny looked after the Jewellery business and they did a good trade before he closed it some years ago. He also made hurls for years in his beloved Kinnitty and had a great passion for this.

He was a risk taker and not everything he took on turned to gold but he was a generally astute and successful businessman.

Johnny Flaherty was tremendous, engaging, sociable company. A great conversationalist, he loved talking about the GAA and hurling in particular. He coached and managed teams, including Tullamore and Westmeath and he served as the Offaly GAA director of hurling, overseeing the setting up of underage academies in the mid 2000s.

He lived life to the full and was active until getting ill.

He was a long time member of Tullamore Golf Club and was a very good golfer. A renowned huge hitter of the ball, he was a single figure handicapper for years and represented Tullamore in several inter club competitions. He loved golf, competed in most Offaly Hurling Golf Society outings, as well as All-Ireland ones. He loved the game, regularly making the short journey from his Charleville View home to practice and only occasional difficulties with the putter prevented him from being a real low handicapper – he got down to 8 and was off 11 recently.

He got great pleasure out of recording a hole in one at the par four second in Esker Hills at an outing in July 2022 – at a comparatively short 326 yards, hitting this green was no problem for a big hitter like Johnny but he still got a mighty kick out of all that went with that hole in one, and the publicity that accompanied it.

He liked to keep fit and was a daily walker for years. He was a regular walker on the Grand Canal greenway, doing a regular route out to Rahan and enjoying the many chats he had a long the way.

He was a familiar sight on the social scene in Tullamore and while he was not a big drinker, he enjoyed the whole pub scene and meeting friends for coffee, the conversations and fun that was to be had. He enjoyed travel and had many great loyal friends throughout the county and much further afield.

His legacy will last for years and he leaves a treasure chest of great, powerful memories. His loss will be most acutely felt by his family and close friends but his life touched so many people in so many ways. His hurling exploits brought such joy to his county and he was such a part and parcel of life in Tullamore for so many years.

He leaves behind two daughters, Claire and Shauna, sons in law Andrew and Conor, a loved grandson, Eanna and many more family and friends. His funeral details will be announced later.