O'Hehir the voice of sport for six decades

MICHAEL O'HEHIR, the renowned radio and television sports commentator died in Dublin yesterday aged 76. O'Hehir had been in poor health for a number of years after suffering a stroke in 1985.

While he was best known for his commentaries on GAA matches and horse racing, Michael O'Hehir was also Head of Sports Programmes at RTE and had a spell as manager of Leopardstown Racecourse. His expertise was recognised by the BBC and by American television networks who employed him regularly as a commentator.

Michael James Hehir (it became "O'Hehir" after RTE translated it into Irish) was born in Glasnevin, Dublin on June 2nd, 1920. Both his parents came from Clare and his father, James, was active in the GAA.

He attended the local St Patrick's National School and the O'Connell school. Frequent holidays in Clare gave him an understanding of Irish rural life that stood to him afterwards. He spent one year as a student of electrical engineering at University College Dublin, but he was already working in sports commentating and journalism and did not finish the course.

As a schoolboy of 18, he applied for a test as a commentator with Radio Eireann and was given with five others, a five minute microphone test during a football league match. Dr TJ Kiernan, Director of Broadcasting at the time was so impressed that he had Micheal O'Hehir go on to cover the second half of the match.

Two months later, on August 4th, 1938, he made his first broadcast - the All Ireland football semi final between Monaghan and Galway. He went on to commentate on the other semi final and that year's final between Galway and Kerry. The following year he covered his first hurling final.

Sports broadcasting was still relatively new in Ireland and Michael O'Hehir's voice became synonymous with radio coverage of GAA matches. His Sunday afternoon broadcasts were very important in the 1940s and 1950s as people gathered around a radio to hear him.

He covered virtually all major GAA matches from 1938 until 1985 when illness prevented him from covering his 100th All Ireland final. One of the most unusual was the 1947 Cavan Kerry football which was played in New York. The match ran five minutes over the time for which the broadcast lines to Ireland had been booked and he appealed, over the air, that they should not be cut. The appeal was successful and it caught the imagination of the listening public at home.

In 1944, he joined the staff of Independent Newspapers as a sports sub editor, becoming racing correspondent in 1947. He worked there for 17 years while also keeping up a hectic schedule of commentaries. From 1945 these included racing commentaries for RTE.

With characteristic self effacement, he later described his application to the BBC for work on the Cheltenham Gold Cup as "cheeky as bedamned". But the BBC recognised his worth immediately and by the time he returned to his hotel after the race a telegram had arrived offering him a position at Canal Turn to cover the Grand National. He accepted and covered over 25 Grand Nationals for the BBC, usually at the treacherous Becher's Brook.

Most famously, he was at the microphone in 1967 when Foinavon, a 100 to 1 outsider, emerged unscathed and went on to win the race after a clutch of horses came down at the fence.

When Telefis Eireann was set up in 1961 he was appointed Head of Sports Programmes, responsible for sports coverage both on radio and on the new television service. He worked with the GAA and other sporting bodies to arrange coverage of their events and overcome the nervousness that some groups felt about the new medium.

His work was not confined to GAA matches and racing, or even to sport. He gave a commentary on the 1963 visit of President John F Kennedy to Ireland and covered the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and the "funeral" of Sir Roger Casement when his remains were returned to Ireland in 1965.

Because he was already in the United States, he was asked to commentate on the funeral of President Kennedy following his assassination in Dallas in 1963. Without the resources available to other commentators, he gave an emotional Commentary of almost five hours. This he later described as the most moving and most demanding commentary of his career.

He had, in 1962, been asked by America's ABC television to cover the Washington DC international horse race at Laurel Park. After the Kennedy funeral he was offered a full time job in American broadcasting, but he preferred to remain in Ireland.

By 1972 the initial challenge of his job in RTE had faded and he left to become manager of the newly designed Leopardstown Racecourse. After finding that this position conflicted with his radio and television work, he left the following year to continue writing and broadcasting on a freelance basis.

In an interview with this newspaper in 1984, he said of his work, one thing the commentator should not do is try to dominate the event. He is there to describe the event but he should do it, to my mind, in as entertaining and pleasing a way as possible.

"To me it's a job of work, to go and represent both sides. Represent the spectators if you like, but there is hardly a match that I'm not blamed, by the losers. Nobody ever says I'm agin the winners - I'm always agin the losers."

This perception led to an incident at Navan in 1983, shortly after the violent All Ireland final between Dublin and Galway. About 30 Dublin supporters attacked him in the commentary box and only the presence of an armed detective - there to protect the live microphone - saved him from injury.

Fame had other perils for him too. In 1984 he was acquitted on a charge of assisting in the illegal promotion of a lottery to dispose of Middleton Park in Co Westmeath. The owner of the house received a three month jail sentence for his part in the lottery.

Apart from his professional interest, he was a loyal life long member of the GAA. He refused to be drawn into controversies involving the GAA, such as the question of whether the "ban" should be abolished.

Despite the fact that he was identified with the GAA, he never played Gaelic football, even at club level. He preferred hurling - and played for the St Vincent's Club in Raheny, Dublin. He remained a member and took an interest in the club when his playing days were over: As a mark of the esteem with which he was held in the GAA, a new hurling pitch in Cratloe, Co Clare, was named after him in 1991.

Cork's Christy Ring and Mick Mackey of Limerick were his two favourite hurlers. He refused to compare them, saying that they came from different eras. While he was interested in sport of all types, his greatest love was Gaelic games, with racing a close second.

He was Steward Secretary of the Turf Club and, in this capacity, oversaw many developments in Irish racing. These included the organisation of television coverage of racing.

He did not smoke and never drank alcohol. When the Family Solidarity group was formed in 1984, he was among their patrons. In that year to he was nominated one of the "People of the Year".

Just over two weeks ago he was honoured by President Robinson at a celebration of his career in Dublin attended by family, friends and former colleagues.

In 1948 he married Molly Owens, whom he had met in Croke Park. They had five children, Tony, Mary, Mike, Peter and Ann.