Just a generation 
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Fine set of oven gloves there in the front left
Nice kit.
The Times did a great obituary on Sean Purcell on his passing.
Gifted footballer and very modest gentleman
Sean Purcell: The passing of Sean Purcell removes another link with the golden age of Galway football in the 1950s and 1960sâŚ
Sat Sep 3 2005 - 01:00
Sean Purcell: The passing of Sean Purcell removes another link with the golden age of Galway football in the 1950s and 1960s.
Within the last 18 months three iconic figures have died: Mattie McDonagh, the only Connacht man to have won four All-Ireland medals, Enda Colleran, who captained two of Galwayâs three-in-a-row teams in the 1960s, and now one of footballâs greatest and most revered players.
In as much as there can be empirical evidence of Sean Purcellâs standing in the game, it was testified to by the fact that he became known as âThe Masterâ and by the overwhelming consensus attending his inclusion on the GAAâs two major historical selections, the Centenary Year Team of the Century in 1984 (when he received more votes than any other player) and the more recent Team of the Millennium.
Born to Johnny Purcell, a journalist with the Connacht Tribune, and Rita Kilkenny, he grew up in Tuamâs Shop Street, which was made famous as the home of Purcell, Frank Stockwell, his partner in the âTerrible Twinsâ central attack and Jack Mangan, who captained the 1956 All-Ireland winning team. Sean Purcell was educated at the Presentation Convent and Tuam CBS national schools before attending St Jarlathâs, the townâs famed college and football nursery.
There he played on the team that won the 1947 Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland collegesâ title. He went on to study for teaching in St Patrickâs in Drumcondra, where a contemporary was RTĂâs MicheĂĄl Ă Muircheartaigh, who in June of this year read the citation when Sean Purcell was awarded an honorary doctorate at NUI Galway.
He also studied in UCG (as NUIG was then known), helping the college to a Fitzgibbon Cup success in 1950. By then he was an established senior player with Galway.
In 1954 he gave one of his great performances in the full-back position when Galway defeated then League champions Mayo in the Connacht semi-final and went on to win his first senior provincial medal. In that yearâs All-Ireland semi-final he gave another superb display, this time at centrefield, although Kerry ran out winners.
The central accolade of his playing career was his versatility. It enabled him to play in all of the central positions, but it was as a centre forward that he enjoyed greatest success and won his senior All-Ireland medal in 1956.
âHe had the skills of the game honed down to a very fine art,â remembers one of his best-known football adversaries. âHe had great hands, he had great feet, left and right, and a great swerve - he could turn on a sixpence. He was a fierce strong man and never selfish with the ball.â Although not particularly tall and very strongly built, Sean Purcell was exceptionally nimble and a very good dancer - âthe only man in Tuam able to waltz properlyâ, according to one local source.
Galway enjoyed other successes during the 1950s, winning the National Football League in 1957 and contributing many players to Connachtâs three Railway Cup wins in 1951, 1957 and 1958, the last of which was captained by Sean Purcell. A year later he captained Galway to the 1959 All-Ireland final but they were defeated by a Kerry team, led by Mick OâConnell.
The 1956 All-Ireland victory is considered by many to have been Sean Purcellâs finest game. Lining out at centre forward, his leadership of the attack was outstanding and the partnership with Frank Stockwell had its finest hour.
Supplied with ball by his long-standing friend and team-mate, Stockwell scored 2-5 (and had another goal disallowed) which remains a record for the 60-minute finals. Years later, Sean Purcell described the instinctive relationship between the âTerrible Twinsâ.
âAt centre forward, myself and Frank had a great knowledge of each otherâs game. Frank was a very experienced player at that time and I was too. We just managed to click together. There was nothing too organised about it. We just took it naturally.â
A teacher for many years, firstly at Carras NS in Mayo but mostly as principal at Strawberry Hill national school near Dunmore in Galway, he also helped to run his motherâs shop in Vicar Street, Tuam.
He married Rita Shannon, who predeceased him in August 1961, but the marriage faltered. They became estranged and lived apart while continuing to raise their six children together.
Although his primary interest was in football, Sean Purcell was also a keen follower of horse racing and more especially dog racing. He owned greyhounds and was a gifted amateur trainer as well as being an authority on breeding. He also briefly took up golf and was sufficiently adept to win a captainâs prize.
âHe was universally respected by sportsmen and footballers of all generations because he was a gentleman and very modest, and had achieved every honour in the game,â was the reaction of one prominent former player with whom he was friendly.
âYet he was a man who was prepared to listen modestly to most opinions. He was a lovely man, a great man for racing and the dogs and universally liked. He was an intelligent man - in fact there is very little you could say against his character.â Sean Purcell is survived by his sons John and Robert, daughters Ruth, Mary, Francis and Louise, his sister Maura, brother Frank and a wide circle of relatives and friends.
Attributes Contemporaries described him as the most complete and natural footballer they had seen, combining intelligence, strength, athleticism, courage and skill. He could play almost anywhere on the pitch. Beginning as a midfielder or a half-forward, in the early 1950s he moved first to the centre half-back and then the full-back positions. From the mid 1950s, he established himself in his most effective berth as centre half-forward before concluding his career as a full-forward. He regularly switched positions during a match and, when playing as an attacker, would often drop deep to get the ball. Self-effacing off the pitch, he was a charismatic and forceful presence on it, assuming the captaincy of both his club and county during the early 1950s.
Not especially tall at 5 feet 11 inches, he was a superb fielder, timing his jumps perfectly through careful study of the trajectory of the long, high passes launched by his teammates. His flawless technique enabled him to solo the ball at speed, and to swerve, feint and jink past defenders. Though burly, he was deceptively nimble and quick over short distances; his balance was such that he was said to be the only man in Tuam who could waltz properly. A fluent striker of the ball off both feet and invariably the designated free-taker, he possessed an accurate and powerful kick, capable of pointing from 60 yards. He always had an eye for goals, which were often produced (directly or indirectly) by his fierce long-range shots.
An intuitive playmaker and a selfless team player, he sought to bring the best out of his colleagues and distributed the ball with great precision and shrewdness, eschewing flamboyance for straightforwardly effective play. When required he was capable of transforming a match through a spectacular feat of individual skill. The speed and acuteness of his thinking allowed him to make the right decision under pressure and to plan several moves ahead as an attack developed: he outwitted as much as he outplayed his opponents.
Slight and speedy as a youth, he weighed over 14 stone in his late twenties, and as a result lost pace and was prone to fading in the latter stages of a match. This was compensated for by greater upper body strength. He was subjected regularly to heavy tackles and cynical fouls, which he shrugged off with good humour, gamely continuing when hurt and never shirking a challenge. Generally sportsmanlike, he was not above either trying to engineer a free or getting his retaliation in first.
Wilderness years His early career was characterised by precocity and success, but from the late 1940s he endured a lean period (notwithstanding triumphs in the Sigerson and Railway cups) in which his fine individual performances could not compensate for the weakness of his county and club. Despairing, he took up golf to occupy himself during the summer. In 1952, Tuam football revived after which the club won nine of the next eleven county titles. This dominance, however, intensified the inter-club factionalism within the county setup. Galway boasted many talented footballers but they were lacking in robustness, team spirit and resolve, and discomfited by muddy and wet conditions.
In 1954 Galway faced Mayo in the first round of the championship. Enraged by the indifference of county officials and some regular players, Purcell roused the team with a fiery pre-match speech and proceeded to give one of the great full-back displays as Galway triumphed over the National League champions who unavailingly deployed three different forwards against him. During the second half he kept Mayo at bay single-handedly, repeatedly plucking the ball out of the air before bursting through a thicket of attackers and launching lengthy relieving clearances.
Galway won the Connacht championship before falling to Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final. Significantly, Kerry had been winning comfortably until Purcellâs move midway through the second half from defence into midfield sparked a Galway revival. This led to his re-emergence as a forward, specifically as a centre half-forward through whom all of Galwayâs attacks were channelled. The hopes thus inspired were dashed in 1955 as Galway lost dismally to Roscommon in the first round of the championship and as Purcell became embroiled in a divisive controversy over the decision to order a replay of a county championship match won by his club. Aware that his prospects of inter-county glory were fast receding, in January 1956 he gave a forceful address at the annual county football convention, attributing Galwayâs inconsistency to poor morale and lack of dedication among the players and to an unwieldy and unresponsive management structure, which was failing to provide the team with the training and tactical guidance that it needed. Declaring that an All-Ireland was there for the taking, he called on all interested parties to set their differences aside.
Most of his advice was heeded: a more sharply defined management hierarchy was established and players were allowed a greater say in team selection, preparation and tactics. Interestingly when the Galway squad was given the right to elect its captain, it spurned Purcell, even though he was the incumbent, choosing instead his friend and Tuam teammate Jack Mangan. Mangan was mortified, but Purcell swallowed his pride, probably recognising that the election of his ally was a backhanded acknowledgement of his ongoing importance to the team. Thereafter, team spirit grew (though cliques based around club affiliations persisted) and the players trained assiduously for the 1956 championship.
The terrible twins Purcellâs optimism reflected the blossoming partnership he had struck up in the Galway colours with his childhood friend Frank Stockwell (1928â2009). Though Tuam and Galway colleagues since the late 1940s, until autumn 1955 they never played together at inter-county level in the positions that would make them famous: Stockwell as full-forward and Purcell as centre half-forward. Stockwell had been regarded as too small and slight for that position but, possibly inspired by the example of Dublinâs Kevin Heffernan, compensated by roaming outfield where he could exploit his speed and skill, and combine with Purcell.
The resulting interplay, movement and positional switches between Purcell and Stockwell baffled defenders and was largely improvised, relying on a near telepathic understanding honed by years of playing together. Purcell was the creator, Stockwell the finisher: typically, Purcell would win possession, beat a defender, attract another and lay the ball off to the unmarked Stockwell in a scoring position. Initial concerns that the duo would marginalise the other Galway forwards abated during the early months of 1956 as they drew their colleagues into their attacking patterns.
Uniquely in Galway, Tuam Stars developed a style involving the rapid interchange of short passes, longer passes kicked in low and constant movement off the ball in order to receive possession unmarked and to create space for attackers; a departure, pioneered in Dublin, from the âcatch and kickâ orthodoxy. Under Purcellâs influence, Galway effected a pleasing blend: unceremoniously catching and kicking their way out of defence before proceeding with greater subtlety in their opponentsâ half, thereby injecting an element of guile while largely preserving the frenetic tempo and fielding skills that were hallmarks of the sport.
Orchestrated by Purcell, the Galway forwards had by summer 1956 cohered into a devastating attacking unit that enabled Galway to carry all before it for the next year, claiming the 1956 All-Ireland and the 1957 National Football League titles. Purcell and Stockwell enshrined themselves in Gaelic football lore by ripping asunder a highly rated Cork defence in the first half of the 1956 All-Ireland final, giving a dazzling exhibition of fluid attacking play. Purcell was more effectively marked in the second half but re-asserted himself in the last five minutes as Galway held off a late rally. The performance was all the more remarkable given that Stockwell was convinced that Purcell played much of the match suffering from concussion.
Carrying an injury and unable to kick with his right foot, Purcell was subdued for most of the 1957 National League final against Kerry when, with the scores level and five minutes remaining, he received the ball in the full-forward position. Spurning an easy point, he soloed away from the goal, cleverly drawing the Kerry full-back out of the square while keeping the mesmerised defence at bay, feinting and twisting as he juggled the ball between his foot and hands, until Stockwell was in position. Then, with the threat seemingly contained, he delivered a centre of startling power and accuracy, which Stockwell fisted into the net, clinching the match with one of the best-executed goals seen in Croke Park. Such exploits led the Irish Press journalist Mick Dunne to dub Purcell and Stockwell the Terrible Twins of Tuam â presumably because they were born within ten days of each other â a moniker which stuck.
One-man team Sated, Galway failed to train properly for the ensuing two All-Ireland championships (1957â8), which were lost in successive semi-finals. Purcell gained weight, which undermined his mobility and his fielding, but his cunning compensated for his diminished athleticism and he mitigated his aerial vulnerability either by demanding low passes or by breaking the high ball to teammates. In 1958 he was the leading scorer in the country with 11â74 from twenty-two games.
Opponents developed a better appreciation of how to neutralise Galwayâs attack, which was too reliant on the Terrible Twins for scores. With Stockwell increasingly hampered by injury, Purcell could not quite carry an otherwise misfiring forward line to another All-Ireland. Galwayâs dependence on him grew to such an extent that in the teamâs four championship matches in 1960, he accounted for 4â18 of Galwayâs total of 5â26. An opponent observed that there would be no glory in beating Galway without Purcell. Although he captained Galway to the 1959 All-Ireland final, the team had peaked and lost decisively to Kerry.
After 1960, though palpably in decline, he re-incarnated himself as a languid but wily full-forward. In his twilight years he played an important role as mentor to an emerging cohort of footballers who would win three All-Irelands in a row for Galway in the mid 1960s. He retired from inter-county football in 1962 and from club football in 1964.
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Tom Pook Dillon in the back row our local legend from the next parish, Sean Keely still knocking about Ballinasloe.
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The Pook was a hardy and wily fucker, tough out. I spotted Kelley having a couple of nice âcondolencesâ in the RIP on the passing of McGarty and Flynn a couple of years ago. Must be well in his 80âs now.
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My internet persona was meant to be The Pook but was hungover the day I registered for AFR and wasnât concentrating and ended up with The Puke.
A little known internet tidbit for ye all to digest
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Essential reading in that obituary for all followers of Galway. The origins of âthe fancy dansâ tag and the never ending internecine battles between clubs, delegates and players. Galway in a single article.
I always regarded Purcell as the greatest of them all, to the point I went to his funeral. RIP.
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If Iâm correct he was just out of minor that year and a quick tot would suggest 86.
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A Minor game mate? Fucking hell.
Any grade really since 2008
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Galway sitting in the long grass with all the focus on the Munster mini blitz.
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Sure we fell over the line against Wexford and only drew with a bang average kk team. Itâs a football year
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Weâre so bad we wont find our way out of it.
Rebuilding. Itâll be a few years before we are in contention again. A Leinster title would be the height of our ambitions this year and that wonât be easy.
Sheedy wrote us off last night anyway. Munster is where the glamour is.
Iâm only going on Sunday outta solidarity with adopted Galway hurling man Paddy Joe Burke to shout for the Rossies in the second match. Dubs will beat us by 5.
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