Hurling & Camogie

Hugh Dorrian: a living legend for Ballygalget, Down, and Ulster

One of Down and Ulster's greatest ever hurlers, Hugh Dorrian of Ballygalget. <br />Picture by Hugh Russell
One of Down and Ulster's greatest ever hurlers, Hugh Dorrian of Ballygalget.
Picture by Hugh Russell
One of Down and Ulster's greatest ever hurlers, Hugh Dorrian of Ballygalget.
Picture by Hugh Russell

'HOW'S Hugh Dorrian?'

He was - and is - great. A great of Down and Ulster hurling, and of Ballygalget, of course.

Wherever the green and whites of the Ards hurling scene go, people of a certain vintage pose that preliminary question. You could fill these two pages, and more, with people paying tribute to Hugh, but the man speaks for himself, just as his playing record did.

Although very little gets past him - again, just as in his playing days - he has plenty to say. He's not as mobile as he was then, when starring in several positions, or off the pitch as a bus driver, due to a hospitalisation more than a decade ago, but the mind is still razor-sharp at the age of 85.

Coming from a club which couldn't even get a player on the Down team, which itself only competed in the Ulster Junior Championship, the teenage Hugh Pat Dorrian soon proved his worth.

Less than a decade after his county debut as a minor, he was marking arguably the greatest hurler of them all, Christy Ring in 1961.

"Well, I was beside him anyway," he says, with typical dry wit. "He was 40, I was 24. I'd have thought I played against tougher men; fellas that weren't famous, were harder to play against."

Ring at full-forward got 2-1 - "I blame myself" - says Hugh, in a 3-13 to 1-2 Munster victory over Ulster at Casement Park in the Railway Cup semi-final.

Dorrian also marked other legends, such as Kilkenny's Eddie Keher, and 'Babs' Keating of Tipperary, but insists "they were just humans like the rest of us."

Asked about his toughest opponents, he replies: "To me they were all good - or bad, whatever way you want to put it. The big names, you might miss a night's sleep or two thinking about them!

"Ring was my idol when I was a young fella, and I got the chance of playing against him. I thought he was a very bad personality on the pitch."

Further exploration of that was interrupted by his good friend Tony McCloskey from Portaferry, who was making his weekly visit, noting that I was 'wearing the Portaferry colours'; I had to point out that there was also some red on those particular socks.

That's the Ards, friendship and rivalry intertwined.

As Hugh notes, "Ballygalget club started along with Ballycran to compete with Portaferry." The established force on the peninsula helped the fledgling outfits, both set up in 1939, and by the mid-Fifties, when Dorrian was in his late teens, the trio had overtaken the traditional powerhouses of Kilclief, Ballela, and, to a lesser extent, Clann Uladh of Newry on 'the mainland'.

His own hurling memories begin with a pitch known as 'the ring meadow' but that wasn't a tribute to the Cork icon: "The first hurling match ever I saw was in that field, called 'the ring meadow', there was a water pool in the middle of it. They played in it for a few years, then moved on, then the club went out of existence. Finished up buying it. Benny Crawford, Tom O'Connor, great men, built the club."

Portaferry club owes much to Ned Purcell, an agricultural/horticultural inspector from Tipperary, who influenced them from 1917 to 1927 to the extent that they eventually took on the club colours.

Ballycran, having as its co-founder Frank McKenna, Master of St Joseph's PS there, opted for Kilkenny's black and amber, in tribute to his great friend Lory Meagher.

As for Ballygalget, "I heard it said that we took the Limerick colours because they were the top team in the Thirties, Mick Mackey and them."

The two new clubs' first match was against each other, 'Cran winning by two goals to no score, and the rivalry continues to this day: "Ballycran would be our biggest rivals. Portaferry would be the hurling team to beat."

Make of that what you will.

"As Michael O'Hehir used to say, there was no quarter asked or given. That's the Ards hurling."

Born in 1936, Hugh was one of eight children, three girls and five boys, the third child and second boy. His father was, he quips, among "A shower of football men, Slans Football Club." That was actually soccer, but "they played a few Gaelic [football] matches way back then."

Home was at Ardkeen, a three-mile walk to school, but that's how he learned his hurling, with improvised playing equipment:

"We played hurling going to school, played with whin roots, pulled them out of the hedge and played a kind of ground hurling. Played backwards and forwards - we were nearly two hours getting home.

"There were sponge balls mixed with cork, some you made yourself. There was a wee syrup tin, it kept its shape."

The club was initially known as Newcastle Mitchel's, due to hyper-parochialism: "It started over there, at Newcastle townland, the east.

"Ardkeen and others were the opposite side of the parish. The PP at that time suggested the whole parish get involved, so that's why."

Yet even with more people involved, Ballygalget struggled to achieve senior success. The club moved home a few times, until "around 1947, A crowd of McGrattans, and Joe Smyth, my brother-in-law, pulled a club together. Smyth actually built the team and demonstrated the moves that he saw in the south, that's where he got the information. He went to all the top matches down south."

Ballygalget's reputation for fearsome full-back lines stems from then, says Hugh: "That was going back to the man at the start, Joe Smyth. If anybody got by for a score, by God he deserved it."

Although Ballycran flourished, breaking the dominance of Kilclief and Ballela by winning the Down SHC in 1949 (and again in 1953, 1957 and 1958) 'Galget could not get their hands on the Jeremiah McVeigh Cup - not even when they did eventually win a senior final, as Hugh recalls.

Having lost both the 1955 and '56 finals to Kilclief - the last successes for that club - and then the 1958 decider to the new champions Ballycran, Mitchel's finally made their breakthrough in 1959.

"We beat Ballycran in the semi-final, Portaferry in the final. Ballycran were the champions - but they didn't bring the cup for the final, so there's no cup in the photograph. We got the cup from the county meeting about a month later."

By then, Hugh Dorrian was already an Ulster player, although his run of three consecutive Inter-pro appearances had ended that year as the northern province were deemed 'not good enough' after a thrashing by Leinster in 1958, 8-10 to 3-3.

Getting recognition as a Ballygalget player hadn't been easy either, even within the county.

"I'll tell you a wee story. We couldn't get a man onto the county team but around 1950 the park [St Patrick's Park] in Portaferry opened and Wicklow came to play in a National League match.

"The Ballygalget crowd dressed up in the yellow and blue colours [of Wicklow] and the chairman gave a wild speech about why we were doing this. Word got out that [lack of representation] was the reason. They started to put our men on." Importantly, he notes that "Portaferry were wearing blue at that time."

As seemingly all hurlers do, he has a nickname: 'The Cur'. Not derived from his dogged defending, as he - eventually - explains:

"Where'd you get your information?!... My grandfather stayed with us and we had a wee garden, he grew peas and stuff. I would have juked in between the furrows and got these peas. He'd have seen the peas shaking and he knew - he'd have shouted 'Go on, you cur, you!' That's how I got that name.

"I suppose I got called it on the pitch too."

His first match for Down was "in Lurgan, against Armagh, and we beat them eight or nine points.

At the age of 20 he helped Down win the 1956 Ulster Junior Championship, first overcoming bogey team Antrim, then defeating Donegal in the decider.

Joe Mullan, the long-serving Down Hurling Board Secretary, celebrated that victory in song, including the line 'And the goalie, Hugh Dorrian, who was oft in the fray.'

Yes, Hugh started out as goalkeeper: "I was keeping goal for the simple reason I was always too small. I was only 5'7-and-a-half."

There weren't many other celebrations, he laughs: "I would say it wasn't even in the papers. Not even the Chronicle…

"That gave us the right to go to Kerry - and get well stuffed." Indeed the Kingdom won by five clear goals in Tralee, 7-6 to 2-6.

In those days, the county team was overseen by "Dan Doran of Ballela and Master (George) McKeown of Liatroim, and some from the Ards clubs."

On the club scene, "we travelled 15 times across on the ferry in a season, but then football took over in the Sixties" on 'the mainland' after Down's breakthrough win of 'Sam Maguire' at the start of that decade.

The intensity surrounding hurling on the Ards increased, going overboard on occasions - such as when the 1962 county SHC final between 'Cran and 'Galget had to be abandoned.

Almost 60 years on Hugh is still reluctant to comment. A hard stare worthy of Paddington Bear, then a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I think we'll let that one sleep… Not talked about.

['Bloody Sunday' murmured Tony McCloskey in the background].

"The clubs got together, decided that somebody was going to get killed," explained Hugh.

The three-way split continued in Down dressing rooms, but the players pulled together to win more Ulster Junior Championships, in 1960, '62, '64, and '67.

By the turn of the decade, Hugh Dorrian was wearing number three. "I wasn't big enough to play out, but after a few years it was decided I'd go out to full-back. As a goalkeeper I was able to study the play."

1964 was the big year, when Down won the Junior All-Ireland. Dublin dual star Des 'Snitchy' Ferguson, himself a Down native, had an input:

"He took us over to Downpatrick one night and showed us how to mark. I'll always remember this, he said 'The only way a forward should get by a back is on his knees'.

"'Hooker' McMullan, Charlie, he says 'Oh, but, Dessie, that would be a free.'

"Ferguson said 'If you're going to be chicken-hearted about things, forget about All-Irelands.'"

Instead, Down claimed an All-Ireland to remember.

Beating Cavan was expected, of course, 7-11 to 1-3 - but then they scored even more against Antrim in the Ulster Final, 9-7 to 4-7, with Dorrian, now at centre half-back, among the goals.

"Charlie McMullan was the captain, we got a free, and he said 'Go up and have a go'. I said 'Charlie, that's a bit out'. Antrim had three men on the line, so I got the chance and took it. If you had a hard enough shot you could have a go."

Hugh netted again from a 21-yard free in the All-Ireland semi-final, this time a crucial goal against Roscommon, with the 'Frontier Sentinel' newspaper reporting: 'Hugh Dorrian sent in a rasper which was partially stopped by a Roscommon defender, but, such was the power of the ball that it went through to the back of the net.'

Once more Down fired nine goals in the 'home' final against Kerry, triumphing by 9-5 to 2-7, but they still had to defeat English champions London, the holders, who had also won in 1959 and 1960.

Down started superbly, Ballygalget wing-forward Danny Crawford gaoling in the second minute, but the hosts recovered to lead, and visiting right corner-back Paud Braniff had to go off injured.

However, goals from Ballycran corner-forward Seamus Fitzgerald and late on from skipper Charlie McMullan of Portaferry - straight from a 21-yard free - secured a 3-2 to 1-3 victory.

The match report by 'Cuchulainn' declared that 'Hugh Dorrian was undoubtedly the mainstay of the defence at centre-half back. It was from this position that many of the attacks were set up.'

Hugh enjoyed the win, and the celebrations, but not the English capital, even though he didn't spend much time there: "Seen enough of it. It's a very big place…

"The place we played in was New Eltham. We flew, left Belfast on Saturday afternoon, arrived in London five o'clock, then slept. Over to New Eltham at 11….then flew back on the Sunday night."

This time there were appropriate celebrations, with well-wishers gathering from the Belfast Road to Newtownards, with the team going on to Nun's Quarter chapel, near Kircubbin, before meeting up for a parade, and down to Portaferry.

A big achievement, obviously: "Well, we thought it was anyway. We were the first hurling team to win an All-Ireland over the border."

He played on with Down until around 1970, even moving to full-forward late in his career, then managed the county - at which he chuckles ruefully:

"They would neither lead nor drive. You went away for matches and they were in pubs and stuff. Hugo O'Prey and I were Pioneers, never got involved, but as the years slipped on they were different animals, the players.

"In my day very few [drank alcohol]. The day we won the [Down] championship, 1959, there was only one man that wasn't a Pioneer on the team. Ah, well…"

He recalls his playing days fondly, but is no narrow-eyed nostalgic: "I look at all type of sport on television, but there's only one sport, and that's the crash of the ash.

"Modern hurling is brave and good, I like that Limerick team, they've gone to another level. It's different to the game we played.

"I remember playing against Leinster and they got a free. Paudge Kehoe of Wexford took it, I blocked it, and there was a race between the two of us for to get the ball.

"A boy who played for Kilkenny, big fella, before I got to the ball, he lifted me straight up into the air. The referee just put a mark in his book and smiled at me, that was it. Those were the good old days. But it was definitely a great game years ago."

His penultimate Ulster appearance, his 11th of a record 12 for a Down man, brought a victory at last: "We beat Connacht in a preliminary game, in Galway, then played Munster in the semi-final - annihilated.

"They took half of the team off at half-time because they were playing football in the second match. We were well scundered in the first half anyway!"

Still, Hugh Dorrian and Down punched above their height: "When I was a youngster, my big ambition was to play in Croke Park and I thought I would never get a chance to play at Croke.

"I played seven or eight times, Railway Cup and Junior Championships. Happy enough.

"As I was saying to [grandson] Oisin one night, what the Ards peninsula has offered to the GAA shouldn't be forgotten about."

His mobility is limited now, but he's still grateful for life and family, especially after the passing of his wife of 58 years, Pauline.

"I started to collapse 12 years ago, I was going to the Royal to see Dr Watt. I was in for nearly a year, a growth near my spine had buggered me up completely. Fair play to them, they've got me so far, so I'm very thankful. A lot of fellas came to see me and they're not there any more."

His voice catches a little when he says: "I haven't been into the club in years… I still look at it coming up the road sometimes and think of the great times I had."

Hurling remains his life.

Other interests…? Long pause… "No."

Grandson Oisin [Dorrian], who kindly arranged this interview, prompts him about his love of reading Irish history, and Hugh reveals his hero was Michael Collins, 'the big fellow.'

The short fellow from Ballygalget is some man too.