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Wed, 28 Oct, 2020 - 13:18

Tony Leen

The man with the honour of marking Christy Ring in his last game? UCC defender Tom Field.

The man with the honour of capturing that game for posterity 53 years ago? The indefatigable Kevin Cummins.

The picture appears on the cover of Friday’s special Irish Examiner publication to mark the centenary of his birth. Ring’s last dance.

The year was 1967. Ring was in his 47th year.

“Cork county championship matches between Glen Rovers and UCC in the 1960s was no place for faint hearts,” Blackrock’s Cummins says now.

The Irish Examiner will publish a special 20-page bonus section with the newspaper this Friday to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cork hurling icon Christy Ring

“While the hurling was fast, furious and skilful, sparks often flew and more than one encounter ended up in an enquiry before the county board officials.

“So when the crowd assembled in the old Cork Athletic Grounds in 1967 there was a sense that something special could enfold.

I was there with my camera to record the action and – brazen enough – I went out on to the field during the playing of the National Anthem to photograph Christy close up. I was too shy to photograph him ‘full-on’ and so placed the camera on the ground behind him and got one of my most treasured photographs.

“The game was a dour enough struggle and pretty uneventful with Glen Rovers winning through to the next round. As the supporters trooped home afterwards they may have been just a little disappointed that they had seen nothing special.

“But – unknown to ourselves at the time – we had been present at a very special occasion in the history of the GAA. After 27 years of senior championship combat, we had seen Christy Ring play his last game of hurling.”

Adds Kevin: “Even though Glen Rovers proceeded to the next round, Christy quietly contacted the club later in the week to tell them it was all over: he was retiring from the game he had graced for so long.

The family asked me for a copy of the picture years ago, saying it was a favourite of his wife Rita who used proudly point out the carefully darned socks he was wearing!”

In Friday’s bonus section there are stellar contributions from Gerald McCarthy, Michael Moynihan, Frank Murphy, Donal O'Grady, Diarmuid O’Donovan, Prof John A Murphy, Denis Coughlan, PM O'Sullivan, Donal Óg Cusack, Kieran Shannon, and Paul Rouse.