MARTIN Walsh is one of the great characters of Irish (and particularly Limerick) rugby, and so his honorary life membership of the Munster Association is entirely fitting.

He was bestowed with the sporting honour at an enjoyable function in Cork last week.

Martin played rugby in the second row for Bohemians but he really came to the fore as a top class senior referee, and later a referee’s assessor.

There are many stories told about Martin, all true, and all humorous.

On one occasion, he was playing for Bohemians, and the front row was getting a bit of stick from the opposition—one of the opposing props had hit Bohs hooker, Corrie Ward.

“Don’t worry, Corrie,” said Martin. “I’ll sort him out in the next scrum.” Down went the scrum, and Martin shouted out “I’m coming through Corrie!” before unleashing a haymaker of a punch.

There was a loud shriek as Corrie clasped his bloodied nose. Martin had got the wrong man. Well known auctioneer Corrie holds no grudges to this day…

When Martin hung up his playing boots he took up refereeing and became one of the best in the business.

I remember playing for Old Crescent against Garryowen in the mid-1970s at Rathbane when Martin was in charge.

The game had a bit of ‘needle’ in it, as most Crescent and Garryowen matches had back then, and after five minutes there was a punch-up between the two packs.

It was ‘handbag’ stuff—the first punch went in, followed by the second and third, and then the players, Keystone Cops fashion, looked around for the ref to blow it up.

Martin stood on the halfway line and blew his whistle. Ever the mannerly gentleman, Martin said: “When you’re ready gents, we will get on with the game.” There wasn’t another punch thrown.

Marty will probably kill me for recalling the most famous story told about him, concerning a game in Dooradoyle between Garryowen and Dublin University.

Now, Martin is a proud Dublin man and has never lost his Dub accent, but the ‘D4’ University scrum-half got on Martin’s wick from the kick-off.

He was one of those know-alls and kept questioning big Marty’s decisions.

Martin penalized the young upstart on three occasions for crooked feed at the scrum.

Eventually the young man’s temper was close to boiling point and he deliberately put the ball into the Garryowen scrum. Martin blew the whistle for the penalty.

The scrum half, his face a bright red, shouted at the ref.

“What was that for now?” he demanded.

“Acting the b*****ks,” replied a defiant Martin.

Another true story also happened in Dooradoyle, which is just down the road from Martin’s home.

A huge crowd had turned out to see Garryowen and Shannon play in the league. It was a wet day and the scrums kept going down and Martin kept blowing his whistle.

Eventually, the big man had enough and after another collapsed scrum he made the six front row men line up and face the crowd.

“Gents,” Martin said, “these nice people have paid good money to watch a game of rugby, not to watch you guys on your backsides all day. Now stay up or I’ll send you all off”. Garryowen’s Declan ‘Ben’ Madden will verify the story.

When Marty was nearing the end of his referring career he was in charge of a Cork Constitution and Dolphin Cup match in Musgrave Park.

It was a close match but Con’s chief supporter Noel ‘Noisy’ Murphy was running up and down the Sunday’s Well side of the ground shouting at Martin that Dolphin were offside all day.

Eventually Martin had his fill and during an injury break, with Dolphin on Con’s 22, he leant on the small wall that bordered the pitch. Murphy was just three yards away from him.

“Noel,” said Martin, “wouldn’t this be a lovely place to give a penalty.” Big Marty didn’t hear another word from Noisy for the rest of the match…

Martin loves the fun side of rugby but he was an excellent referee and always played advantage whenever possible.

He is still involved with the referees and his honour is richly deserved.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment