Most small boys of all ages
are, I suspect, likely to
provide a broadly similar
answer: an all-powerful
potentate with palaces and
vast armies and thousands
of minions and scores of
nubile handmaidens. One of
the pharaohs, perhaps, or a
Roman emperor; granted,
the two men in question
weren’t exactly pillars of
society, but - let’s face it -
being Nero or Caligula or
whoever must have been a
blast. Julius Caesar too, give
or take his ill-advised venture
into the Forum on the Ides of
March; all that crushing of the
Germanic tribes and literary
waxing about how Gaul was
divided into three parts.
Or, say, Napoleon, at least
until around teatime on the
evening of June 18th 1815.Here’s a job I wouldn’t have
minded either. Doing what I
do now but doing it back in
the 1930s. Imagine having
been a hurling writer eight
decades ago. Imagine the
famous matches one would
have attended.Imagine an All-Ireland final
that consisted of not one,
not two but three parts.
Imagine an All-Ireland final
that featured Tull Considine.Imagine an All-Ireland final
that took place in Killarney.
Imagine an All-Ireland
final that took place amid
thunder and lightning on
the afternoon of the day
World War Two broke out,
with the noise from the skies
apparently leading some
spectators in Croke Park to
believe that Dublin was being
bombed by the Luftwaffe.Imagine numerous All-
Ireland finals that featured
Lory Meagher. Imagine
numerous All-Ireland finals
that featured Mick Mackey.
Imagine being Pádraig
Puirséal, the future GaelicA question beloved of small boys of all ages. Who or what would you like to have been in a
past life?
THE CAPTAINS, THE KINGS AND THE DOWNPOURS by Enda McEvoy
GAA WRITER PÁDRAIG PUIRSÉAL
AND ONE OF HIS BOOKS,
‘THE GAA IN ITS TIME’