Renowned Tipperary hurling goalkeeper and newspaper columnist John O'Grady has passed away

The death of former Tipperary hurling goalkeeper John O'Grady has been widely mourned.

93-year-old John was equally well-known as Cúlbaire, the pen name under which he wrote a weekly GAA column for the Tipperary Star newspaper for many years.

John first played hurling at club level with Moycarkey/Borris and joined the club’s senior team as a 16-year-old. He also lined out with Thurles CBS in the Harty Cup and earned selection on the Munster Colleges team.

As a university student in Cork, he played in the Fitzgibbon Cup with University College Cork and also earned inclusion on the Combined Universities team in 1952 and 1953 - a feat also achieved by Pat Stakelum, among other notable Tipperary players.

After leaving university John O’Grady played with the Blackrock club in Cork, lining out in the 1954 final defeat by the Christy Ring-led Glen Rovers, before ending his career with Moycarkey/Borris in 1967.

John first played for Tipperary during a three-year tenure as goalkeeper with the minor team. He won his first All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship medal in 1947 before captaining the team to the title two years later in 1949, when he became the first player to receive the Irish Press Cup, which to this day is still presented to the All-Ireland minor hurling champions.

He played 12 championship games with the Tipperary minor team, losing only once.

His progress to the senior team was delayed due to the dominance and excellence of Tony Reddin between the posts. However, he lined out in a tournament game with Cork in 1953 and after Tony Reddin’s retirement in 1957, John impressed in a series of club games and inter-county trials and was called up to the team in 1958.

Later that year he won a Munster senior hurling medal before lining out in goal in the 1958 All-Ireland final defeat of Galway.

He served as Chairman of Moycarkey/Borris and was club president at the time of his death. He joined the teaching staff of Thurles CBS Secondary school in 1955.

In an online tribute, the Moycarkey/Borris GAA club said that his "hurling intelligence and writing prowess in the Tipperary Star was treasured by the GAA community everywhere".

John, who passed away on Friday at Acorn Lodge Nursing Home, Cashel, is survived by his wife Ann (née Treacy), sons Martin, Sean and Brian, daughters-in-law Tara, Gina and Maria, grandchildren Juanita, Katie, Calum and Rory, Billy and Max and their mother Susi, great-grand-daughter Ellen-Rose, nephews, nieces, brother-in-law Denis, sister-in-law Mary, cousins, former colleagues and pupils of Thurles CBS, neighbours and a wide circle of friends, to whom sincere sympathy is extended.

John's remains will arrive at the Cathedral of the Assumption, Thurles tomorrow, Monday, December 9 at 10.30am for Requiem Mass at 11am.

Burial will take place afterwards in Killinan Cemetery, Thurles.

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