It’s necessary to be pedantic here and I know you’ll agree.
Games.
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It’ll never be done again.
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Same as Fenners and others here, genuinely sad here hearing that news. We would have been of that impressionable age when he was in his pomp, what a player.
It’s doing the rounds, but the response from Teddy when a Clare supporter was slagging Cork hurling by saying Clare had two AIs in three years in the 90s….
“Sure I won two in three weeks boii!”
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He’ll surely remain the only man to win both in the same year too. An incredible record.
Rip.
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There’s not a hope it will ever be done again. An extraordinary achievement.
RIP
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Not a hope will it be done
aside from the remarkable achievement in 1990, he was some fielder and competitor in both codes
Cork had a few senior dual men after but Teddy was the last great one really
Dreadful news to hear. Some hit harder than others. He should have been dining out on his once in a lifetime achievement in watering holes all over Cork for another 30 years. Sincerest condolences to the Cork lads on here. Babs comments of how “Donkeys dont win Derbies” lit the touchpaper for what was to follow later that summer. I’m sure Teddy and the Canon will be laughing about them, still, up there. RIP
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An incredible achievement. To win them both in different years alone would be phenomenal but within a few weeks of each other is staggering really. As said, it’ll never be equalled.
RIP.
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Alan kerins came very close in 2001 iirc.
RIP Teddy.
Brian Corcoran in 99 as well.
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Sean Og in 1999 too.
I’d say Eoin Cadogan will be the last to even play in 2x All Ireland Finals at any stage in their careers.
Unless Daithi Burke switches codes very soon. Even if Con O’Callaghan switched, he’d hardly get to play in an AI Final.
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Think Aidan Walsh would have played in two finals. He won a football didnt he? Presume he played in 2013.
58 is just a shocking young age. Christy Ring also died at 58.
RIP Teddy.
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No he was playing football in 2013.
Cadogan in 2010/2021 the only one.
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Aidan Walsh wasnt on the hurling squad in 2013
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RIP Teddy, you were a good one in your day. No age either. Terribly sad.
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Teddy was a lovely man too who had his demons and his tough times. Such was the mark of the man, that he used routinely turn down fees proposed to him for presenting medals at clubs around the country. This was when his peers and many lesser men of stature achievement and ability wise were demanding and receiving eye watering amounts for a few hours shaking hands and saying well done. And Teddy could damn well have done with the money but the man had a genuine love and respect for the game and money would never poison that for him. RIP to the best leaper I ever did see.
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He didn’t
I think it’s OK to say this. There are no GAA legends more loved than Cork GAA legends, and they’re loved well beyond the boundaries of Cork. Corkness is loved well beyond the boundaries of Cork.
Teddy McCarthy was A list Cork legend status. Nobody ever jumped like him. White men couldn’t jump but Corkmen could jump. He was Cork and Corkness.
The summer of 1987 was my first proper championship summer, though I attended no games. I did listen to a lot of them on the radio.
Cork v Limerick. Cork v Limerick again. I wanted Limerick to win. They were the good guys, which I suppose was understandable because my Mam grew up in Abbeyfeale.
Tipp v Cork. Tipp v Cork again. I wanted Tipp to win. They were the good guys, which I suppose was understandable because my grandad I never met was from Cahir.
Cork v Kerry. Cork v Kerry again. I wanted Cork to win. They were the good guys because they were against Kerry, who were the baddies.
Teddy McCarthy was at the heart of all of those. Teddy. I had a teddy and his name was Owen. So Teddy, being a Teddy, was Owen. Teddy McCarthy was already a name burned into me.
Cork v Galway was on telly. I didn’t see that because I was in London. Cork v Galway again. I don’t think I saw that because we were driving from Galway to Dublin. We must have listened to it on the radio because we listened to Jimmy Magee commentating on Ben Johnson beating Carl Lewis in the 100 metres World Championship in Rome as we drove along past the railway line leaving Galway. I definitely wanted to Cork to win the final against Meath, though I only flicked in and out of it, because I was watching Newcastle v Liverpool, the game where Steve Nicol scored a hat trick.
I watched Meath v Cork in 1988 very intensely. I wanted Cork to win. At school, my teacher, Mrs. O’Driscoll, was from Cork, and she was the best teacher I ever had and the loveliest woman. And I was friends with her son who was in the class, and we both agreed we really, really wanted Cork to win the final, because Meath were the baddies and we hated them. Teddy McCarthy scored a goal after three minutes and Kerry’s Tommy Sugrue handed an undeserved draw to Meath with the last kick. Meath v Cork again. Those finals felt big and important and grown up and very grudgy in a way that few other finals since have felt. I was very bitter and angry that Cork lost.
I wanted Mayo to win in 1989. Finnerty scored and Mayo looked like they might win and Finnerty missed and the crowd heaved and Cork steadied themselves and Teddy McCarthy leaped and bounced and ran and kicked a point and Cork won. In 1989 I stayed the night in Jimmy Crowley’s spare room because Jimmy Crowley was married to my Mam’s first cousin and her father had died and we were at the funeral and that was my first time in Cork, and the thing I loved about Cork people was the way they were expert at telling you how many sets of traffic lights you had to go through to get to where you wanted to go to, and how willing they were to take the time to make sure sure in their own head how many sets of traffic lights you had to go through and then the it was the first left and then the second right. And that was the first time I saw that view up to the church at the top of the hill at Gurranabraher and I loved that view and I still love that view. That view is Corkness. I loved Cork, I thought it was so much more cool and exotic than Galway and looked more like a city than Dublin.
By 1990, I had fallen out of love with the GAA, but on July 15th, 1990, I was keenly aware that Cork were playing Tipp in the Munster hurling final. Teddy McCarthy was not playing. I wanted Cork to win. I no longer considered Tipp the good guys. I said to my oul’ fella that Cork would win. He said Tipp would win comfortably. I could not listen to it on the radio, because I was in Cologne. Three days later, we were in Munich, and I hassled my oul’ fella to go into an Irish pub that night to get the result of the Munster final. We went in. Tis was my first time in an Irish pub abroad and it felt big and grown up.
“You won’t believe it, Cork won!” “Yessssss, I told ya Cork would win”, I shouted out.
Teddy McCarthy was back for the All-Ireland final and I watched that All-Ireland final and I wanted Cork to win, I was dying for Cork to win, and Cork won, and Teddy McCarthy played brilliantly and it was sunny and it was ice pop weather and I had those absolutely amazing pineapple Roy Of The Rovers bars to eat during it and it was the best All-Ireland final ever. It was even better than 1986, which I was desperate to experience an exact recreation of, the reason why I’ve gone into elsewhere on this forum. Oh man that Cork team. What a team. What they symbolised and what Cork hurling symbolised and still symbolises. The coolest hurling team ever. They were fun like Cameroon and street smart like Argentina and red and winners like Liverpool and cool like Killer by Adamski and stylish like Vogue by Madonna and passionate like Nothing Compares 2U by Sinead O’Connor. They had this intoxicating mix which set them apart. The wry humour of Hennessy. The coolness of Fitzgibbon. The corner boy hardness of Mulcahy. The fascinatingly awkward effectiveness of Foley. The quiet silk of Tony O’Sullivan. The baldness of Brendan O’Sullivan. The grace of Jim Cashman. The saving the ball with your face and the umpire flagging it wideness of Ger Cunningham. The folk hero Corkness of Teddy McCarthy. Cork need a score, can McCarthy provide it? He certainly can!
I didn’t watch the football final, because I was watching Liverpool beat Manchester United 4-0, but I heard Cork won.
I think my favourite Teddy McCarthy performance was off the bench in 1994 against Kerry. Kerry looked like they were going to win, and then he came on and lifted everything, and Stephen O’Brien scored a great goal and Teddy McCarthy scored two points and the second one was the last kick of the game. I loved that because Cork were the good guys any time they played Kerry.
God I love Corkness. Teddy. 
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