He was fond of an aul’ dig was Páidí.
Dublin versus Kerry has given us some wonderful moments over the years. Not all of them have been stirring fight-backs, flashes of individual brilliance or memorable scores.
Every now and then, a man from either side would step up and give his opposite number a fearsome clatter. Most of the best/worst stuff, we are told, arrived before there were too many TV cameras to worry about.
Such was the case when Kerry met the Dubs at Croke Park in a league match in the early 1980s. It is recounted in John Scally’s book ‘Blood, Sweat, Triumph and Tears: Tales from the GAA’.
Scally recalls a conversation with O Sé about that league encounter and the Kerry man’s succinct response to a jibe about being from the sticks. He writes:
“Páidí was marking what he described to me as a ‘prominent Dub’ who turned to him in his finest city accent as they took their positions and said, ‘Ye boys probably came up here on a tractor’.
“Páidí said nothing but he waited until the national anthem and checked that the ref was looking elsewhere and then he recalled to me, ‘I bursshted him with a box. He was on the ground calling for his mammy and I turned to him and said – ‘Jaysus Christ, you look like a lad that was knocked down by a tractor!’.”
That sounds like the O Sé we knew and loved.
Dinny Allen knew all about getting ‘burssht’ too.
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