Con and Gerry: the Garda and the Journalist

Con Crowley, the late father of Carrie, whose acting prowess has helped catapult ‘An Cailín Ciúin’ into Oscar contention, was a man of many parts, whose fine tenor voice adorned many De La Salle Society musicals.

Remembered as a popular police pointsman at the busy Car Stand junction in Waterford city in years gone by, Con was also a fantastic footballer and an accomplished GAA referee, who once took charge of an All-Ireland semi-final. While a young garda stationed in Cappagh after the war, the Bandon native played football for Dungarvan and Inch Rovers over the Cork border, winning a Munster junior title with Waterford in 1948.

After being transferred to Adelphi Quay, Con went on to county senior successes with Mount Sion in the fifties and captained Waterford from centre-back to a shock home victory over Kerry in 1957. Gerry McCarthy from Kilmeaden, whose own parents came from the Rebel County, was the Deise’s hardy goalkeeper that day in the Sportsfield and believes “If the appointed referee, Seán Cleary from Clonmel, had turned up, we might not have beaten Kerry at all.”

He recalls: “It was a scorching hot day. The dressing room in those days was a shed with tarred walls and a corrugated iron roof. We looked out the door and saw the ref, Seamus Hogan from around Tipperary town, and knew we might get away with a few things.” And they did, including Jim Timmons shoving the Kerry keeper, ball and all, over the line for an equalising goal. Having got two cracked ribs from ‘Pop’ Fitzgerald, Gerry had little sympathy. The rest is history.

Having doubled as a referee himself before becoming a sports journalist, the Blacknock native proudly says he never sent anyone off, reasoning it’s hard to show someone the line “for something you’d do yourself.” Knees and butts of hurleys in the back were commonplace then, but supporters could be worse. He was assaulted by spectators on three occasions, “including a woman with an umbrella!” Fights among fans were routine, as was taking the odd regulatory liberty.

In 1960, while working with Cuchulainn Press in Drogheda, Gerry — who later joined the ‘Irish Press’ in Dublin and did a long-running column for the ‘Sporting Press’ under the penname “Tom Kelly” — played for Louth as “Brother Dermot from Ardee”, having been plucked from his reporting perch by his boss.

Con Crowley was in charge the day an actual Christian Brother called Pat O’Connell helped De La Salle deny the Kill footballers a first senior county title in 1958. The brilliant Kerryman (who’s alleged to have later confirmed suspicions that he was an “illegal”) kicked two monstrous frees in time added-on to force a replay, which John Barron’s men went on to win.

The crucial extra minutes were clocked up after Con, a great man to direct traffic and a model of integrity always, had to usher back over-excited Kill spectators who’d converged around the lower goal in Fraher Field, ready to run on.

And refs reckon they have it tough now.