'My target was trying to hit Jimmy Doyle's plaque. That’s how bold I was'
Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady on the history of Thurles Sarsfields’ wall of legends and an All-Ireland homecoming which ended with ‘Buggy’ O’Meara racing Sharlene Mawdsley.
GER ‘REDSER’ O’GRADY was a young lad growing up in the shadow of Semple Stadium when Thurles Sarsfields’ wall of All-Ireland winning Tipperary captains was painted almost outside his front door.
To him, it wasn’t just a collection of historical figures. Nor just an inspiration to emulate those men. It was also a living mural.
Two of the men immortalised there, Jimmy Doyle and Mick Murphy, grew up in the same Bohernanave area of Thurles as O’Grady was later born and raised. The youngster used puck a ball off the outer stadium wall when the ‘Boy Wonder’ Doyle would pass on his way to the clubhouse.
“He’d always say, having the craic, ‘Hey, you can hit the ball off your bad side as well as your good side,’” says O’Grady, who went on to captain Tipp in 2006.
“It’s gas. I used always hit the ball off my left-hand side then as much as the right-hand side. He’d be passing and he’d just give you a smile to say well done.”
Other times, when he was feeling more mischievous, O’Grady would use Doyle’s portrait to improve his hurling.
I was fairly bould when I was young. When I was about 9, 10, 11, 12, I used to be passing and we’d be hitting the ball off the wall. My target was trying to hit Jimmy Doyle’s plaque. That’s how bold I was.”
As for now, if he passed a kid taking aim at the newly repainted and expanded wall of legends? “I’m the opposite way now,” O’Grady replies. “I’d say keep away from that wall!”
***
No other club can lay claim to such a catalogue of All-Ireland winning captains. There are nine, in total, with 11 trophies between them. However, they had to wait 60 years since Doyle’s Liam MacCarthy lift in 1965 until Sarsfields’ next victorious captain would arrive.
Ronan Maher (left) and Ger 'Redser' O'Grady in 2014.
The mural, on the side of the Sarsfields Centre, was first painted in the late ‘90s to showcase the historic captains to all those filing into big championship matches in the Stadium. Many of the names and faces featured are synonymous with different eras of Premier hurling.
The town which provided the backdrop for the GAA’s foundation also produced its first victorious hurling captain, Jim Stapleton, in 1887.
Tom Semple, who gave his name to the ‘Field of Legends’, led Tipp to glory twice, in 1906 and ‘08. John Joe Callanan followed in 1930, Jimmy Lanigan in 1937, and John Maher in 1945.
The great Sarsfields team of the ‘50s and ‘60s, which claimed 10 county titles in 11 years and won the senior football championship in their year off, provided three more winning captains in Tony Wall (1958), Doyle (1962 and ‘65), and Murphy (1964). When Doyle couldn’t accept the cup in ‘62 due to a broken collarbone, Wall collected it on his clubmate’s behalf.
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“They were three different characters in their own right, but three pillars of the club,” says O’Grady.
“Tony Wall was a very fit man. He was ahead of his time. He did ice baths and weights before they were ever even heard of back then. He was a very quiet fella, living above in Kildare, and an army man.
“I used often meet Mick Murphy for a pint down at Bowe’s pub, which was his local, or after club games. He captained Tipperary in 1964 and in his next game with Thurles Sarsfields, he done his cruciate. He never got to play hurling much ever again. Mick would be a very humble fella. He went on to train Sarsfields because he couldn’t hurl any longer.
Jimmy would be a different kettle of fish. Jimmy was always having the craic and slagging and blaguarding. He was the greatest forward that Tipperary ever had.
“It’s the likes of them legends that kept the club going, and they paved the way for the likes of us coming on behind them.
“We didn’t win a county final from ‘74 to 2005. When we won it in 2005, Jimmy Doyle and Tony Wall were in the dressing room. They celebrated it as much as a player. They were great clubmen, and the same with Mick Murphy.”
***
Since Tipp’s All-Ireland victory, the wall has been repainted and its status renewed as a local landmark.
Local artist David McElgunn, whose father Michael ‘Rocky’ McElgunn captained Sarsfields to the 1964 county title, hand-painted the portraits.
“Since that All-Ireland, you still have three or four cars every night pulling up and taking pictures of that wall,” says O’Grady.
“Over the years, millions of people have seen it, and people do stop when they’re going to matches to look up at the winning captains. It was a lovely gesture by the club to do it. I know Liam Ó Donnchú and Ger Corbett were involved in that.
“When they revealed it in the ‘90s, Mick Murphy, Tony Wall, and Jimmy Doyle were still alive, so it was nice for them to be there when it was revealed.”
Doyle passed away in 2015 and Murphy in 2018, leaving Wall as the last man standing. The player who would join him in July, Ronan Maher, has family connections to a few of his predecessors.
The wall pictured in 2002. INPHO
INPHO
Neither Ronan nor older brother Pádraic was the first of their family to captain Tipperary. The county’s first-ever captain was their great-grandfather, Denis Maher. A dispute over travelling expenses saw him stand down as Stapleton took over for the final.
Their grand-uncle, John Maher, was captain in 1945. Callanan, captain in 1930, was also connected to the family through marriage.
A conversation with team psychologist and former Munster rugby player Cathal Sheridan prompted Ronan to change his phone’s screensaver to a doctored image of the wall. The image was a constant reminder of his burning ambition.
“I had a blank picture beside the rest of the captains up there, and it was just an arrow pointing to it,” Maher later revealed. “I had a few words underneath, what my visualisation was, and that was basically it.”
***
Maher’s stated motivation, in order, was to walk up the steps of the Hogan Stand, to lift Liam MacCarthy, to get his picture up on the Sarsfields Centre wall, and to walk into the clubhouse with the trophy, surrounded by his family and friends.
— Sports Focus Photography (@SportsFocusIe) July 22, 2025
The first two ambitions came true on Sunday, July 20, with a man-of-the-match performance to quell Cork’s Hurler of the Year candidate Brian Hayes. O’Grady could hardly have expected a moment to rival his buddy Lar Corbett’s hat-trick against Kilkenny in 2010, but he was left with tears in his eyes as Maher delivered “the mother and father of all speeches”.
At 10.30pm the following day, with the official homecoming celebrations complete, the Tipperary team bus crawled around from the New Stand and stopped beside the wall of legends.
The panel, led by Maher, stepped off to see the wall covered by a blue and white curtain. When Maher was invited to pull the string, it revealed his face on a temporary printed portrait placed alongside that of Stapleton, Doyle, and co.
For his final aspiration, Maher didn’t so much walk as was carried into the clubhouse.
“We won the county final in 2005 after 30 years, it was a massive, massive night of celebrations,” says O’Grady, “but this was probably the greatest night that we ever had in the clubhouse.
“For Pádraic to carry Ronan in with his cousin, Paul Maher, it’s something that we’ll never, ever forget in the club. We had a great night.
The birds were singing when we were leaving the place. We had the joy then of watching the great ‘Buggy’ O’Meara racing Sharlene Mawdsley up the road to cap a great night off.”
O’Grady had the shortest commute home, crossing the road to head in his front door.
“What Ronan did and what Tipp did will inspire thousands of kids around Tipperary to get out and start hurling,” he says.
“I know, as a young boy, I was always destined to be a hurler because I’m living right beside Semple Stadium. And what inspired me was Declan Ryan and these lads running around the field in 1989 and 91. It’s a knock-on effect.”
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'My target was trying to hit Jimmy Doyle's plaque. That’s how bold I was'
GER ‘REDSER’ O’GRADY was a young lad growing up in the shadow of Semple Stadium when Thurles Sarsfields’ wall of All-Ireland winning Tipperary captains was painted almost outside his front door.
To him, it wasn’t just a collection of historical figures. Nor just an inspiration to emulate those men. It was also a living mural.
Two of the men immortalised there, Jimmy Doyle and Mick Murphy, grew up in the same Bohernanave area of Thurles as O’Grady was later born and raised. The youngster used puck a ball off the outer stadium wall when the ‘Boy Wonder’ Doyle would pass on his way to the clubhouse.
“He’d always say, having the craic, ‘Hey, you can hit the ball off your bad side as well as your good side,’” says O’Grady, who went on to captain Tipp in 2006.
“It’s gas. I used always hit the ball off my left-hand side then as much as the right-hand side. He’d be passing and he’d just give you a smile to say well done.”
Other times, when he was feeling more mischievous, O’Grady would use Doyle’s portrait to improve his hurling.
As for now, if he passed a kid taking aim at the newly repainted and expanded wall of legends? “I’m the opposite way now,” O’Grady replies. “I’d say keep away from that wall!”
***
No other club can lay claim to such a catalogue of All-Ireland winning captains. There are nine, in total, with 11 trophies between them. However, they had to wait 60 years since Doyle’s Liam MacCarthy lift in 1965 until Sarsfields’ next victorious captain would arrive.
The mural, on the side of the Sarsfields Centre, was first painted in the late ‘90s to showcase the historic captains to all those filing into big championship matches in the Stadium. Many of the names and faces featured are synonymous with different eras of Premier hurling.
The town which provided the backdrop for the GAA’s foundation also produced its first victorious hurling captain, Jim Stapleton, in 1887.
Tom Semple, who gave his name to the ‘Field of Legends’, led Tipp to glory twice, in 1906 and ‘08. John Joe Callanan followed in 1930, Jimmy Lanigan in 1937, and John Maher in 1945.
The great Sarsfields team of the ‘50s and ‘60s, which claimed 10 county titles in 11 years and won the senior football championship in their year off, provided three more winning captains in Tony Wall (1958), Doyle (1962 and ‘65), and Murphy (1964). When Doyle couldn’t accept the cup in ‘62 due to a broken collarbone, Wall collected it on his clubmate’s behalf.
“They were three different characters in their own right, but three pillars of the club,” says O’Grady.
“Tony Wall was a very fit man. He was ahead of his time. He did ice baths and weights before they were ever even heard of back then. He was a very quiet fella, living above in Kildare, and an army man.
“I used often meet Mick Murphy for a pint down at Bowe’s pub, which was his local, or after club games. He captained Tipperary in 1964 and in his next game with Thurles Sarsfields, he done his cruciate. He never got to play hurling much ever again. Mick would be a very humble fella. He went on to train Sarsfields because he couldn’t hurl any longer.
“It’s the likes of them legends that kept the club going, and they paved the way for the likes of us coming on behind them.
“We didn’t win a county final from ‘74 to 2005. When we won it in 2005, Jimmy Doyle and Tony Wall were in the dressing room. They celebrated it as much as a player. They were great clubmen, and the same with Mick Murphy.”
***
Since Tipp’s All-Ireland victory, the wall has been repainted and its status renewed as a local landmark.
Local artist David McElgunn, whose father Michael ‘Rocky’ McElgunn captained Sarsfields to the 1964 county title, hand-painted the portraits.
“Since that All-Ireland, you still have three or four cars every night pulling up and taking pictures of that wall,” says O’Grady.
“Over the years, millions of people have seen it, and people do stop when they’re going to matches to look up at the winning captains. It was a lovely gesture by the club to do it. I know Liam Ó Donnchú and Ger Corbett were involved in that.
“When they revealed it in the ‘90s, Mick Murphy, Tony Wall, and Jimmy Doyle were still alive, so it was nice for them to be there when it was revealed.”
Doyle passed away in 2015 and Murphy in 2018, leaving Wall as the last man standing. The player who would join him in July, Ronan Maher, has family connections to a few of his predecessors.
Neither Ronan nor older brother Pádraic was the first of their family to captain Tipperary. The county’s first-ever captain was their great-grandfather, Denis Maher. A dispute over travelling expenses saw him stand down as Stapleton took over for the final.
Their grand-uncle, John Maher, was captain in 1945. Callanan, captain in 1930, was also connected to the family through marriage.
A conversation with team psychologist and former Munster rugby player Cathal Sheridan prompted Ronan to change his phone’s screensaver to a doctored image of the wall. The image was a constant reminder of his burning ambition.
“I had a blank picture beside the rest of the captains up there, and it was just an arrow pointing to it,” Maher later revealed. “I had a few words underneath, what my visualisation was, and that was basically it.”
***
Maher’s stated motivation, in order, was to walk up the steps of the Hogan Stand, to lift Liam MacCarthy, to get his picture up on the Sarsfields Centre wall, and to walk into the clubhouse with the trophy, surrounded by his family and friends.
The first two ambitions came true on Sunday, July 20, with a man-of-the-match performance to quell Cork’s Hurler of the Year candidate Brian Hayes. O’Grady could hardly have expected a moment to rival his buddy Lar Corbett’s hat-trick against Kilkenny in 2010, but he was left with tears in his eyes as Maher delivered “the mother and father of all speeches”.
At 10.30pm the following day, with the official homecoming celebrations complete, the Tipperary team bus crawled around from the New Stand and stopped beside the wall of legends.
The panel, led by Maher, stepped off to see the wall covered by a blue and white curtain. When Maher was invited to pull the string, it revealed his face on a temporary printed portrait placed alongside that of Stapleton, Doyle, and co.
For his final aspiration, Maher didn’t so much walk as was carried into the clubhouse.
“We won the county final in 2005 after 30 years, it was a massive, massive night of celebrations,” says O’Grady, “but this was probably the greatest night that we ever had in the clubhouse.
“For Pádraic to carry Ronan in with his cousin, Paul Maher, it’s something that we’ll never, ever forget in the club. We had a great night.
O’Grady had the shortest commute home, crossing the road to head in his front door.
“What Ronan did and what Tipp did will inspire thousands of kids around Tipperary to get out and start hurling,” he says.
“I know, as a young boy, I was always destined to be a hurler because I’m living right beside Semple Stadium. And what inspired me was Declan Ryan and these lads running around the field in 1989 and 91. It’s a knock-on effect.”
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GAA Ger Redser O'Grady Hurling Ronan Maher Thurles Sarsfields Tipperary GAA Wall of legends