Please post your favourite Tom Ryan quotes, anecdotes or memories here.
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The line about Iron Mike going down to Cork and walking all over the cunts is one of the greatest sports quotes of all time.
The new management structure was barely in place, however, when all hell
broke loose, as Tom Ryan explains:
Straight away then there was fing uproar. We had a meeting with
the county board at the Gaelic Grounds, which would be normal at
the start of a campaign. They were hoping, of course, that I wouldn’t
be elected. When we met the county board, we normally met three
people. We arrived anyway . . . it was Bernie’s first outing, I always
remember him inside. Brendan Danagher was the chairman with a
big green tie on him at the end of the table. There were twelve of
them there, the whole lot of them instead of just the three. It was like
the fing Russian Politburo. It was very intimidating, especially after
two years of hassle. I was elected. I had a mandate. These c***s had
no say here.
Danagher said, ‘We have a problem.’ ‘What problem?’ ‘We have a
problem with the liaison officer Charles Hanley.’ ‘What problem have
ye with him?’ ‘There’s a bye-law stating that the liaison officer must be
a member of the executive,’ said Danagher. I had brought him into
the setup, he was the main man in the whole scene, and held the
whole show together. That’s why it gave me so much time to build a
team, sure, I had f*** all to do with anything only the hurling. Hanley
did the arranging like a barrister, Mahedy doing the training, sure, we
had a deadly setup. And I said to Danagher, ‘Charles Hanley is not a
member of the county board executive and the bye-law says he must
be. Isn’t it amazing that in the two years that was never made an issue
of ?’ Charlie was getting a bit big for his boots in the eyes of Jimmy
Hartigan, getting kind of popular and that, getting kind of known.
I said then, ‘Would you tell me what position in the county board
had Fr Tom Carroll, Phil Bennis’ liaison officer?’ I’d be quick to think
on my feet, which is just as well because I didn’t expect this, who
would? Danagher was caught for words. He didn’t know what he was
talking about, didn’t know Fr Tom Carroll or anything. He looked
around him for answers. I said, ‘What position had Fr Tom Carroll? It
is a very straightforward question and in the circumstances very
relevant.’
There was no answer forthcoming so I directed my response at
Danagher because he was the spokesman. ‘My dear man,’ I said,
‘whatever game you are at, you are taking the character of one of the
best and one of the most efficient officials in the country. A man that
has gained immense respect, people are very happy with him. He has
respect up and down the country. You or any of ye c***s around the
table will not get rid of Charlie Hanley. And whatever game ye are at
ye better cough up.’ There was silence for about ten minutes, because
Danagher didn’t know what to say . . . What they were hoping was
that if they got rid of Charlie Hanley, I would have gone too. There
was great sport and no one opened their mouth, like dummies. Then
Hartigan piped up. ‘He overstepped his mark,’ he says. And I said, ‘So
you are the gentleman that has the problem with Charles Hanley. But
you are a bit short in your position. How, where and when did he
overstep the mark?’ ‘Oh,’ says he, ‘I came in here tonight prepared to
resign.’ I replied, ‘I couldn’t give one f*** what you do, it’s all the one
to me if you resign or not. This is about a man’s character. Has this
man robbed money, misappropriated funds or broken rules? Come up
with the answers, don’t mind resigning, that’s not an answer at all.’ At
that stage, Hartigan jumped up and said, ‘I’m resigning,’ and packed
all his accoutrements into a f***ing bag and off he went. ‘Off with
you,’ said I. About seven went with him, Rory Kiely, Eddie Wade, Dan
Hickey and a few more.
Danagher stayed; he was stuck to the seat and couldn’t move. He
was nearly ready to have a heart attack. John Naughton didn’t run out
any door either, he stood his ground. I think there were four or five of
them left. The Pudding [P. S. Ó Riain] stayed as well. So we had the
resignation of the county secretary in the middle of the whole thing
and that was the next bust up before any ball at all was pucked and
nothing to do with hurling. ’Twas a fing terror, a big bust up before
anything at all happened on the field. This was on a Monday night
and a full county board meeting was due to be held the following
night. ‘I’ll be at the county board meeting tomorrow night,’ I said,
‘and I don’t give one f about ye. We will see about this thing,
because ye won’t f***ing get rid of Charlie Hanley.’
There was murder anyway about Hartigan and there was meetings
and rows and fighting and f*** it, ’twas a terror and it was going on for
about a month until Hartigan climbed down again and brought
himself back like a bould child. And I’ll tell you something – Charlie
Hanley wasn’t got rid of though.
Bang on the money and a few fellas here should take stock- ‘In Limerick you have a demanding following that expect instant success. A lot of these f***ers who want instant success forget that we haven’t won a Munster championship for years, we haven’t won anAll-Ireland since 1973.’
Bang bang- Tom strike again- ‘But again we had no representation in any boardroom anywhere. We were dealing with only wimps in the county board. That’s what they were and that’s the way they acted, and that’s what you have in the county board in Limerick and that’s the way they are still. There isn’t a man in them. And they ask then why is Limerick hurling down. We are down because of the management, we are down because of the standards, we are down because of the whole makeup.’
Joe Quaid on Tom- "I’ll always give Tom credit. Now, we were twice on holidays and he wouldn’t talk to us; if you were out after a match with the wife or girlfriend he’d salute them but not us. He’d abuse us. I had a very good game against Cork in ‘94 and the next night in training he comes in and goes [Quaid does a marvellous Tom/Timmy Ryan impersonation], ‘Well, Joe Quaid, the bloody big shot, eh? Blocking balls out is all you want to do and they still end up in the bloody net!’ But I loved Tom Ryan because I hated him so much. Every day I went out to prove him wrong.
“Before we played Cork in ‘96 he goes in the dressing room in front of everyone, ‘Quaid, we don’t want any of this bloody gymnastics on Sunday and you fucking diving on the ground!’ Same game, Mark Mullins pulls on a ball about 14 yards out and I dive and tip it around the post. Ryan comes in the following night, big grin on his face, ‘Ah Quaid, we were glad of some of the old gymnastics, weren’t we?!’”
"We had some hard nuts on that team. They talk about the intensity in Kilkenny training. We’d have a couple of thousand people watching Houlihan and O’Neill flaking each other. I mean, the ball was a totally incidental piece of equipment for those two boys. Tom Ryan would run up to me. "Puck it down on top of them!’ "’Tom, they’re killing each other.’ “’Puck the fucking thing down on top of them!’”
I had to meet Jimmy Hartigan one day to buy a load of tickets off him for work. I rang him from the Dock Road and he said he was on the Ennis Road and would meet me in 10 minutes-he then forgot to hang up the phone. The next 3 or 4 minutes were some of the funniest of my life as I listened to Jimmy fuck and blind everyone out of it as he drove along the road. I nearly wet myself picturing him driving along in his An Post van muttering to himself and roaring abuse at all and sundry. :lol:
As long as our own perpetually knock ourselves down we’ll never win fuck all.
It supporters of Limerick hurling who are the real infection. Deep seated defeatism ingrained
into the fibre. Non believers spewing the doubts into the minds of our young talented hurlers.
I believe this current senior panel have risen above this mindset and I expect
Limerick to win senior Munster and AI next year.
There’s a difference between belief and over optimism or hype. A lot of Limerick fans are hype merchants and get carried away with one win.
So you’re a defeatist too choco?
btw don’t take my jibes about your avatar personally. Joshing is all.
ps. maybe you should consider changing it for sensitive types like myself
all the same. 
I’m certainly not a defeatist, far from it, but I just hate the over hyping of teams and players when it is not justified. Let’s do our talking on the field please. There needs to be a balance between belief, optimism and reality.
There is no problem with confidence and belief and it should be encouraged as long as it is kept inside closed doors. This year that wasnt the case and I hope in 2013 the lessons will be learned from that.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Tom Ryan. 
What is it about Limerick as a place but we seem to produce some amount of ‘straight talkers’?
http://www.inpho.ie/cache/inpho/2a/c0/27/04b9625a536c0c16cdc35314cd/INPHO_00001394.jpg
That’s what you get in Limerick. People, in general, are honest and straight…!
Homophobe.
“Jesus Christ, he was driving balls 80 yards up the field, drop-striking balls and that. Houlihan was back.Sure, he went down to Cork the next week and walked all over the c**ts”