Dominant centre-back during the golden
age of Mount Sion & Waterford hurling
The late, great Martin Óg Morrissey, who died on December 19th, 2024, aged 90.
Martin Óg Morrissey, the legendary Mount Sion and Waterford hurler who died on December 19th (in his 91st year), loved a good story and ‘was never shy in sharing the legend of his own greatness’.
This delightful characterisation, shared by son Eamon at Martin Óg’s Requiem Mass in Ballybricken on Sunday, December 22nd, was delivered with the wit and charm that his father was long associated with.
“Dad was an affable man, who had a great sense of craic and enjoyed his life to the fullest,” said Eamon. “He loved his sporting life, his school, club and county, his dogs and his hunting…but above everything else our father loved in life, he loved our mam (Brigid) and the family they created together.”
Born and reared on Mount Sion Avenue in Waterford City, Óg – as his friends, work colleagues and team mates called him – hurled at the top of the street he was raised on with his older brother Mattie.
Every day after school, the Morrissey brothers happily honed their skills while breaking very few windows, as Óg recalled in his autobiography, ‘Kings For One Day’.
His parents Edward (Ned) and Bridget (Bridie) were natives of Tullogher in South Kilkenny. This blood tie, combined with summer holidays spent at his aunt’s in Ballyhale, naturally led to an affinity with the Kilkenny team of Óg’s childhood, which featured the great Jimmy Langton.
“I really idolised Kilkenny,” he reflected. “It was only at 14 that I got sense…my involvement with the Mount Sion club deepened soon after that and my allegiance changed then.”
The Mount Sion influence proved entirely natural for Óg given both his club and schooling. Brother McGill, originally from Belfast, proved a tremendous influence on Martin Óg and his fellow Under-12 team mates, isolating and developing each player’s individual strengths in a manner similar to contemporary analysts.
Much fun was had playing in the Street Leagues (in the Morrison’s Road team) under the tutelage of Brother Carbery but that hotly contested trophy proved to be the only silverware to ever elude Martin Óg.
But it was during his secondary school years, guided by Brothers O’Brien and Kane, which delivered not only the highlight of Óg’s hurling adolescence – but the “prized possession” of his entire sporting career.
A 3-2 to 1-7 win over St Flannan’s in the 1953 Harty Cup Final at Semple Stadium secured the first and only such title in the history of Mount Sion CBS. The title-winning point was converted by Martin Óg himself, the team captain, from all of 70 metres.
Brigid O’Connor, who would marry Óg in 1957, wasn’t allowed to travel to the final in Thurles. She remembered: “My sister got to go but I was stuck at home. But to give Martin his due, when the team came back to Waterford that night, he brought up the cup to show it to me before he showed it to anyone else.”
A lengthy stint in the colours of the Waterford minor team – and four years on the Munster Colleges panel - led to Óg’s elevation into the county senior panel in 1955.
Between 1957 and 1963, Óg was part of the most successful era in Waterford’s inter-county history, winning three Munster Championships (57, 59, 63), the Oireachtas Tournament (62), the National League (63) and the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling title.
“I’ll always be proud of what that Waterford team won and I can’t imagine I’d ever grow weary of talking about the great hurlers I soldiered with,” said Óg. “But we should have won more.”
His senior club career with Mount Sion, which extended from 1953 through to 1974, remains one of the most decorated enjoyed by anyone who has worn the famed blue jersey. He featured in 15 senior hurling title-winning teams – including the famous nine-in-a-row side (1953-61) and also won five senior football titles.
With the majority of his working life happily spent at Clover Meats in Ferrybank, Martin Óg also enjoyed tremendous success as a trainer.
Having developed young talents at Mount Sion including Pat McGrath and Jim Greene, he crossed the Suir to claim (over two spells) a remarkable junior, intermediate and senior hat-trick with Glenmore.
Óg also coached Ballyhale Shamrocks to a Kilkenny senior title before returning to Glenmore the following year (1987) to win the title again – Glenmore’s first - defeating the Shamrocks in the decider.
Martin Óg’s Requiem Mass at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity Without, was celebrated by Father Tom Rogers PP, who was joined by Mount Sion native and family friend, Canon Brendan Crowley.
“We don’t have a whole lot of heroes in our lives and it’s important that we celebrate and commemorate those that we have,” said Fr Rogers.
“Martin Óg was one of our own, a member of this community, of the wider community of Waterford and indeed the even wider community of inter-county hurling…he was at the very heart of not just his immediate family but for generations as a strong presence in their lives.”
Fr Rogers added: “We all have different memories of Martin: as a friend, as a neighbour, as a hurler you either played with or against, of his beloved Mount Sion club down through the generations…we all have a little piece of him. And I’m sure his family never minded sharing him with us over the years. For those of us who grew up since the last time we (Waterford) won an All-Ireland, myself included, Martin Óg was one of those heroes we looked to.”
Writing in The Sunday Times following the publication of ‘Kings For One Day’, Michael Foley referred to Martin Óg’s “bullet proof confidence that carried him through any turbulence. He (Óg) remembers playing one day when Stephen Greene, an old timer with Mount Sion, stopped Morrissey’s father on the road. ‘Stephen said to him, ‘your young fella there, you’ll be watching him in Croke Park. I was only eight at the time.’”
Among the mourners attending Martin Óg’s obsequies were Waterford City & County Mayor, Cllr Jason Murphy, Kilkenny County Councillor Fidelis Doherty and All-Ireland hurling winning legends Michael ‘Babs’ Keating of Tipperary and Kilkenny’s Willie O’Connor.
Martin Óg Morrissey was predeceased by his daughter Helen, parents Edward and Bridget and his brother Mattie. He is survived by his wife Brigid (Bríd), children Eamon, Frank, Martin, Róisín and Niamh, their partners Val, Shellagh, Kim, Denis and Graham, sisters Bridie and Maura, grandchildren Oisín, Eoin, Dylan, Liam, Harri and Maebh and great grandchildren Chloe and Michael.
Burial took place at Ballinaneeshagh Cemetery. Martin Óg’s Month’s Mind Mass will be celebrated at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity Without in Ballybricken on Sunday, January 19th at 10:30am.
Phil Fanning, who has reported on more hurling fixtures than any other living Waterfordian, stated: “There were few days that Óg didn’t deliver for Waterford. He was an amazing hurler. He had the wristwork that would equal Christy Ring.” What an epitaph. What a man. What a life. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann. Rest In Peace, Óg.
High Kings of hurling: the star-studded Waterford team of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
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