Hurling helmet pioneer Mícheál Murphy's lasting legacy

By John Harrington

For the generation of hurlers who have always worn a helmet with a faceguard, playing the sport without one would be as unthinkable as driving without a seatbelt.

Now only helmets that undergo testing to ensure compliance with IS:355 are allowed under GAA rule, and the Association is currently working on a design of a new GAA-IP owned faceguard which can be monitored and will have to be used by all licensed manufacturers.

How quickly the landscape can change, because hurling helmets with faceguards have only been compulsory at all levels since 2010 and for a long time those who championed them were viewed with suspicion in some quarters.

Change often requires the impetus of a pioneer to give it some initial momentum, and that’s certainly true for the use of helmets in hurling.

Considering the nature of the sport then the advent of helmets was arguably inevitable, but perhaps we would not be quite where we are now were it not for Micheál Murphy.

A fellow Cork native, Derry Beckett, who hurled in the 1940s for the Rebels is credited with being the first man to wear a helmet for hurling, though it scarcely looked like it offered much protection (see below).

But Murphy was the real trailblazer, not just because he wore a helmet himself but because he lobbied for their widespread use and was successful in this venture.

Ground zero for hurling helmets was the 1966 Cork SHC hurling final between UCC and Avondhu when Murphy prompted what the Irish Independent described as “a ripple of slight bemusement” in the Athletic Grounds when joining the fray as a second-half substitute with a white motorcycle helmet on his head.

As is often the case, necessity was the mother of invention. Two years previously Murphy had sustained a serious head injury when hurling for UCC.

“It happened as the whistle went in the first round of the championship against Imokilly,” recalls the now 82-year-old Murphy.

“It was a draw match and as the whistle went I found myself falling.

“It's not clear exactly how it happened, whether it was someone in frustration just banging his hurley or whether it was deliberate, that I don't know, but what it meant was I got a bang over the left temple.

“I found out afterwards that the skull is extremely thin there. I went home and then during the night got headaches and was put into hospital for observation for two weeks.

“I compounded the problem because I was studying hard at the time, something like 12/13 hours a day. The doctor said to me, 'look, take it easy.' That was the only advice I got, 'take it easy now'.

“That cut my studies down to about 10 hours a day and that was what compound of the problem. I ended up getting ‘epilepsy petit mal’, which is not the full-blown epilepsy, but it would mean you lose consciousness in the middle of a conversation and things like that.

“That took a while for me to realize what was causing the problem and then I had to hold back on the studies so I lost about a year, maybe two years”

Murphy was told it would be too dangerous for him to play hurling ever again but he loved the sport to much to leave it behind him and so started experimenting with various types of head protection.

In 1967 he imported a Spalding American Football helmet via his fellow UCC graduate, Des Walsh from Mayo, which he used when playing for UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

That same year as secretary of UCC hurling club he brought two motions on the subject of protective headgear to Cork GAA’s convention – that GAA Central Council investigate the advisability of players wearing protective headgear and that Central Council design or cause to be designed protective headgear for hurling.

It was a move that grated with some hurling ‘traditionalists’, whose attitude was summed up by Irish Press journalist, Peadar O’Brien, when he wrote:

“What are our modern day hurlers coming to? Excuse me while I smile at the idea suggested to the Cork County Board from the UCC club that protective headgear should be worn in hurling matches. Are we developing from a race of men into a race of mollycoddles.”

The motions were defeated, but Murphy was not dissuaded. By now Des Walsh was at Western University in Canada and through him Murphy discovered the Ice Hockey Helmet CCM and got the agreement of UCC President Dónal McCarthy, Secretary Leo White, and Registrar Tadhg Carey to import 18 of them for the upcoming Fitzgibbon Cup campaign.

Six players – Murphy himself, Dónal Clifford, Séamus Looney, Tom Buckley, Henry O’Sullivan and Paddy Doherty wore them for the first time in the Fitzgibbon Cup against UCD which caused a real stir.

“We were lucky that we hit Dublin on a very quiet news day and so we hit headlines in the Irish Press and Irish Independent,” says Murphy.

“Added to that we had a lot of young players who became stars. Particularly Donal Clifford, who was the first guy to play with a helmet with Cork. Then others followed on, Seamus Looney, Ray Cummins, Seamus Looney, Ray Cummins, and players in Limerick like Willie Moore and Pat O'Doherty and there were a few Kilkenny players as well.

“We were lucky in that the helmet was being played with by good hurlers and so that prevented it being seen as a sissy thing.”

Donal Clifford became the first outfield player to wear an ice-hockey helmet in an inter-county match, the 1969 National League semi-final against Tipperary.

That year both Ray Cummins and Clifford wore them in the All-Ireland Final so by now the hurling helmet revolution was well and truly underway.

Murphy now began importing Cooper ice-hockey helmets, the SK 10 and SK100, the latter of which is still the basis for modern hurling helmets in terms of shape and style.

“That’s something I'm disappointed about,” says Murphy. “I think we could have moved things on a good bit.

“If I was playing now I'd wear a lacrosse helmet. While we stayed still, design wise, they improved constantly and have a very good helmet now with a built in facemask and it looks very good and feels very good.

“I think we here in Ireland should be developing our own design because the design should have progressed from what it is.

“We're now something like 55 years out of date because we're still essentially using the same thing. But we'll see, we'll let the market take care of that.”

Prior to the mandatory wearing of hurling helmets with faceguards in 2010, 51% of hurling injuries involved the area protected by the helmet. Since the introduction of mandatory helmet usage, such head and facial injuries have fallen to 5%.

Hurling is a safer sport now thanks to the use of helmets, which is a legacy that the pioneering Mícheál Murphy can be proud of.

“I get a lot of satisfaction from watching young boys and girls playing, because I think many of the small children probably wouldn't have taken up hurling as easily if parents weren't satisfied that their heads were protected,” says Murphy.

“It's great see kids out there waling with a helmet on and carrying a hurley and thinking nothing of it.”