One of the wisest football voices that Clonmel has ever heard has been lost

The recent passing of Chris O’Regan saw both Clonmel Town FC and the town of Clonmel once again lose more than they can both afford to lose.

Chris passed away peacefully after a struggle against cancer that was prolonged by a characteristic refusal to let his spirit deteriorate along with his body.

To those of us who knew him well, his loss is about as sore as any could be. But there is some easing of our grief in the knowledge that few men ever had such capacity for warming and delighting their fellow human beings without being physically in their company.

Many will remember the uncompromising left back. The long black hair, a real footballer, proper old school, aggressive when he needed to be.

As a player, Chris O’Regan was never in danger of being mistaken for a dummy; on the rare occasions that opponents did, they left with their legs just about intact but with their self-esteem in tatters.

Chris has been a hero twice in his life. Firstly to the hundreds who thrilled to his inspired performances on the field, and at the same time to thousands of young players he coached during and long after his playing days were over, and this is what he will be best remembered for.

As a mutual friend Kenny Condon said to me, “his real legacy is impossible to calculate, the values that he instilled into countless children. They all thought Chris was preparing them for football but he was in many ways preparing them for life”.

His other legacy was his commitment to a warm sense of family. He was devoted to all of his family; his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grand nephews and grand nieces, but especially to his beloved mother Betty.

The pain of his death will dig deepest into theirs and Betty’s heart. They will find some solace and comfort in the knowledge of how much Chris’ kindness and genuine love for his friends and family was appreciated by everyone who came in contact with him.

His commitment to schoolboys football and coaching will never be surpassed. He did more in his lifetime for the physical and mental well-being of young people than those who are paid large sums and elected to public office will ever do in ten lifetimes.

He worked in The Clonmel Arms Hotel. Chris had an agreement to come into the hotel at 3am to do his work on a Friday and Saturday night, so that he could get time off to attend his schoolboy matches, and in later years as manager of St Martin’s, where he convinced grown men to believe that there could be glory in a boys’ game.

He proved he could coach at any level. Players, young and old, only heard a voice of comfort and encouragement. He had a gift of making all who came in touch with him feel they mattered. He had a natural respect for other people’s feelings.

Just sitting with Chris, talking to him about football, did more to rekindle my old deep enthusiasm for football than half a dozen afternoons or evenings watching the swirl of incoherent energy on Sky or BT that is the predominant language of football as we now know it.

The tactic boards and licences now needed to coach were all in Chris’ head 50 years ago. His own authority about the game had grown like a tree for those 50 or 60 years, and if that acquired wisdom was passed on too bluntly for some tastes, well, tough.

Chris always believed the cups and medals will only follow if you get the bread and butter values right. He coached the basics, pass and move, that you live and die by your first touch and teamwork. Chris O’Regan was the coaches’ coach.

Chris had no coaching badges, he used his brains. He used his heart too, it was as big as the town of Clonmel.

He wasn’t self-important but phoneys didn’t flourish either. No player was allowed disrespect a Clonmel Town jersey, irrespective of age or stature. His teams, through the quality of their football, made huge statements about his values.

Not everyone agreed with Chris, and it is fair to say there were no grey areas. If he felt you were wrong, he told you and you just had to stand there and take it, whether you liked it or not. However it was a trait I richly admired in him.

I, of course, admired him as a player and a coach but not once did he compromise his beliefs for the sake of getting on with people who can only get along when they agree. Those who bluff and swank their way through football and life should have turned a corner and kept walking if they saw Chris up ahead.

There were people who thought they could talk Chris O’Regan under a table about football but if they had to explain what they were talking about, they would be under it. He could identify a really good player from an ordinary one.

Clonmel owes Chris O’Regan more than a round of applause. People who are more intelligent than me need to honour this great man for the immense work he did with young people for almost 50 years.

I have said, not with my tongue in my cheek, that we should build a statue to him. He will always be the coaches’ coach. The man who inspired, comforted the troubled and troubled the comfortable.

His coaching methods were direct, though he had so little time for coarseness that he wasn’t heard swearing unless he was obliged to quote someone else.

That coaching voice and expertise is gone now and we will never witness it again. We have lost one of the wisest and most entertaining voices Clonmel has ever heard in football.

Using someone’s words to praise somebody we know is bound to be a wild risk, but I will take a chance. Invoking a line from Sir Thomas Moore,
“Fight on my men”, says Sir Andrew Barton,
“I am hurt,but I am not slain;
“I’ll lay me down and bleed a-while,
“And then I'll rise and fight again”.

Finally to you, Chris. Like you did in your playing career, you fought and battled your illness until the final whistle was blown. Sadly, it blew for the last time on Thursday, January 5, 2023.

It’s now time to take your ease. Your work is done.

Rest easy Chris.

- Muiris Walsh