Great to have Michael Walsh on the show this morning reviewing the papers. Two All Stars to his name Michael played in goal for Kilkenny senior hurlers on many occasions and empathised with Shay Given last Sunday in Poznan. Still though he agreed that though a recipe for heartbreak he loved being in goal.
He and I remembered an occasion in the early 1990s when the Waterford Dublin train was stopped specially for me, a green young reporter, at my home station Thomastown. The train was carrying Christy Heffernan and his South Kilkenny Colleagues to Croke Park for the All ireland final. Nicky Brennan was Kilkenny GAA County Chairman at the time and he organised the special stop. In Kilkenny City we picked up the rest of the team and Michael’s Dad, the legendary Ollie Walsh. I sat very meekly at the end of the carraie having been told by Nicky ” you’re grand now but don’t approach Ollie- he doesn’t like interviews”! I did get to do an interview with Ollie a couple of days after that All Ireland when he took a call from me at The Sportsman’s pub in his native Thomastown where they were celebrating the victory with a pig’s head and a couple of pints of stout!
