Tributes paid as James McCartan Snr, the King of Down football, is laid to rest

Tuesday 17th August 2021

DECLAN BOGUE Irish Examiner , Pictiure Brendan Monaghan TUE, 17 AUG, 2021 

“In the great days of old, they came to see James McCartan,” began Jack Devaney, Down County Board chairman in his eulogy to the King of Down football at his funeral mass in St Mary’s Church, Burren on Tuesday.

“From all corners, they followed with the expectation and the excitement of a player, and of a team that captured the imagination of that time and of the ages since.

“These were the men that transcended boundaries and beliefs in their halcyon summer and autumn Sundays of long ago.

“Today even, people here and beyond who do recall, can see them still.”

It began a spine-tingling address from Devaney, to follow a touching tribute from his son, Dan.

The mass was led by Canon John Kearney and as per the wishes of his family and Covid regulations, the family home was private with numbers in the church, which included GAA President Larry McCarthy, limited.

The reach of James McCartan Snr has always been nothing short of astonishing.

If anything could act as a barometer for the respect and enduring appeal he held, it was the launch of his autobiography; ‘James McCartan – The King of Down Football’ with co-author Seamus McRory in November 2010.

The book was launched by his former Kerry adversary Mick O’Dwyer, and speakers on the night included the late Dr Maurice Hayes and the later Ulster Council secretary Danny Murphy.

However, such was the crowd that turned up, it took over an hour to begin proceedings. Over 1,000 people packed the Canal Court Hotel in Newry. Among them were his former teammates as well as opponents from the Offaly and Kerry teams they beat in the finals of 1960 and ’61. That night can be taken as a true reflection of his popularity and enduring appeal.

His working life was busy as managing director of Tullyraine Quarries and owning a pub in Donacloney village. And still as his son Dan said, ‘Everything stopped for football. Lies were told, stories were spun, all so he could get to a match. And his mood was reflected by how well the red and black were doing at that particular time.’

The pub was often populated with contemporaries from the greyhound racing world. James Snr became an accomplished trainer and won the 1978 Irish Cesarewitch with his greyhound, ‘Gullion Lad.’ It can be said that the McCartan family have been front and centre of all the great days for Down.

When they came with the great team of the ‘90s, it was his son, James Junior who was a key forward with an outrageous confidence that led him to quip to reporters keen to ask what it was like for him — just out of his teens — rooming with a legend like Jack O’Shea on Compromise Rules duty, answered back that they should ask Jack what it was like to room with James.

But the foundations lay with James senior, in particular with that half-forward line with Sean O’Neill and Paddy Doherty either side of him that showed what was possible in 1960, a year in which James Snr won the Texaco Footballer of the Year, taking the honour again the following year.

Within the Mass booklet at his funeral, a list of his footballing honours were listed, too long to go into detail here, but as well as the two All-Ireland senior medals there were five Ulster titles, a place on the Down team of the Millennium, three Railway Cups and county titles with Glenn and Tullylish. As a manager, he brought an All-Ireland Under-21 title to Down in 1979 and a senior Ulster title in 1978, as well as league titles in three different divisions and a Junior Championship with Tullylish.

“The teams from 1960 and 1961 are iconic figures in this county. They inspired others after them to greater things. And still today, instill and inspire hope from within. Their legacy is a central and enduring part of our heritage,” continued Devaney.

Those great memories will never fade. Their great deeds and achievements will live on. In the mind’s eye, all of those men will never grow old. The rest of us simply have the pleasure of living and knowing them...

“But all of those accolades only tell a part of the story. There was a man who once wrote that ‘life is a quarry. Out of which we are to mould and chisel and complete a character.’

“It was almost as if he wrote it about James. This was a man whose life and his character was moulded and chiselled from the quarry of Tullyraine, from the farming fields of County Down. From the friendships that were forged, from the journeys taken, from the greyhound tracks, and all of the great arenas that he graced.”

He continued: “Where football games were talked and played, where arguments were raised and settled and where the odd unrepeatable word about the county board was probably uttered.

“All of these things make a man and much more.

“Right to the very end, James McCartan was unbreakable. Stubborn. Argumentative. But seldom wrong.

“What endures beyond him is his warmth, his generosity, and his humour.

“And the best of the man is what is left in the people he leaves behind.

“So farewell, mighty James McCartan. King of Down, whose name will always be remembered where games are played and where the red and black is worn. Whose fire and flame for football and family and all the great things of life shall never, ever be extinguished.” 

As Conor Deegan put it after the funeral mass: “James and his teammates made dreams possible”