Kerry Trainers

Paddy O'Callaghan who represented Kerry in the Ras Tailteann remembers Dr. Eamonn O'Sullivan


by Weeshie Fogarty

 When I first met Dr. Eamon O'Sullivan, I had just been appointed a delegate from my club, the Killarney Athletic and Cycling Club, to the Kerry County Board of the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland, the N.A.C.A.I., which at that time was a 32 county organisation, which had been set up by the G.A.A. approx. 50 years previously. Dr. Eamon was chairman of the County Board and had been chair of the Provincial Council and also he had been chair of the National Organisation.

We became very friendly and often travelled to meetings together, when we had great discussions on the topics of the day, especially athletics and cycling.  We had great discussions about the split that had taken place in Athletic which led to the N.A.C.A.I. being banned from 1973.  Dr. Eamon's very strongly held views that there was no place in cycling or Athletics for Politics came across to me as a guiding principal that has stayed with me all my life.

I learned a lot from those discussions, which took place between us, and they were of enormous benefit to me as I, with others, tackled the problems that had killed cycling for many years.  I joined the executive of the National Cycling Association, the N.C.A., and became International Secretary and went on to become National President. In my capacity as International Secretary, I was responsible for getting N.C.A. teams invited to participate in multi-stage cycling events in France, after an absence of 15 years approximately.

It was at one of those events that I invited a team of cyclists from Russia to come to Ireland to compete in the Rás Tailteann.  The invitation was accepted and during that event in 1978 I was invited to go to Moscow to discuss the problems which were stagnating cycling in Ireland, with Mr. Susyev, who at that time was President of F.I.A.C/F.I.C.P.  The international governing for cycling both amateur and professional, in the world. Needless to say, this invitation was accepted and the meetings led to the resolution of the problem, i.e. the acceptance of one body representing the 32 counties of Ireland, a body, which every cyclist in Ireland could join.  Dr. Eamon would be proud of me. What he told me during all those meetings and all those journeys helped me enormously during all the negotiations, which went on.
I became Vice President of the new body, the F.I.C.,  which was set up to administer cycling in all Ireland. I continued my role of International Secretary and I became Treasurer of the new organisation, a position I hold for 8 years.

The Federation of Irish Cyclists, the F.I.C. is now known as Cycling Ireland and I am no longer involved, but I am, at the time of writing, President of Cycling Munster, the Provincial body. Maybe sometime in the near future a trophy can be presented to some category at the Provincial Championships to commentate and honour Dr. Eamon O'Sullivan and help a new generation to understand and get to know this remarkable man.  Also, maybe the G.A.A. might consider a bust of Dr. Eamon within the grounds of Fitzgerald Stadium. Surely a long overdue tribute.

Eamon's interest of course, was in Gaelic Games and in the G.A.A.  He spells out in great detail his involvement with what is our national sport, in his biographical account of his life contained elsewhere in this book. But what I tried hard to understand is the fact that he trained successful Kerry football teams from 1924 up until 1964, that is forty one years. I know that for various reasons, he dropped out during that period for short periods of time, but it is still a remarkable achievement. Also during that period, he was R.M.S. of a hospital that housed over 1000 patients.  He wrote books on psychiatry. He played bridge, and for good measure, he built Fitzgerald Stadium; and I mean that he actually worked with all the other people who were involved in the construction of the stadium including raising the finance necessary for the job, a truly remarkable man.

I do not agree with the notion that Dr. Eamon is forgotten or that his contribution to the social and sporting life of Kerry is no longer relevant.  In my list of the 10 most influential Kerrymen ever, he, to my mind, would always be high on that list.  He was a fine gentleman, a great Kerry man, a great Irishman, and a great friend.

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