New John Joe statue an adornment on the county

A thing I learned over the last 18 months or so: A lifesize statue is taller than the person it depicts. If the subject hit the six-foot mark, a good statue will be seven. Exaggeration, in bronze or clay.

It’s fitting, though, because our departed idols do take on mythical status. Their deeds become embellished in the telling, like parables. It’s hard, almost, to believe that they once walked the earth like you and I. It becomes a matter, simply, of faith.

Cliché tells us that Gaelic football is a religion in these parts but I wonder what dogma we adhere to. We may see ourselves as the Anointed Ones of Ulster but the doctrine we espouse is in some ways puritanical – for one thing, public displays of homage to the prophets of old are not encouraged.

Yes, the connection to the greatest game is certainly there; Cavan people the world over are renowned for it. It is part of our identity; the places, the stories, the colours, the lore.

Breffni Park, the Polo Grounds, the royal blue and white. More than anything, this is who we are and what we are.

Yet it is a most curious thing that a non-native – The Unenlightened, we’ll call them - could pass through this county and, unless they happen to pass the stadium when there’s a match on, would never know that this thing, this game, is what quickens the pulse, what draws tens of thousands together.

Most of all, that this is a pursuit at which we have excelled – and we take pride in that excellence and the individuals who made Cavan a by-word for it.

There are a handful of permanent monuments on a relatively small scale. Some GAA clubs have named their grounds in honour of former greats and there is a plaque or two but that’s the sum total of it.

The reason for this, I can’t say. Maybe we have preferred to exalt our heroes in other ways but it is striking that in places like Kerry, Kilkenny and Galway, brand leaders in the association, there exist numerous sculptures commemorating those who brought glory to the tribe.

On Sunday, this anomaly will be rectified when a statue of John Joe O’Reilly is officially unveiled in the Market Square in Cavan Town. It is the culmination of almost two years of graft and fundraising. It will be a Marty party; there will be All-Ireland winning captains agus cúpla focail ó Larry McCarthy. It should be a day of days, seven decades on from one of the darkest ones.

Why, when the John Joe O’Reilly Memorial Committee got together, was it decided to erect a statue? Well, a statue is public, it’s permanent, it’s bold and proud. While there is a “wow factor”, a good one is classy and not gaudy and a great one is breathtaking. Above all, though, a statue will out-live us all, providing a perpetual marker to reflect the significance of the status of the person it depicts.

Why, then, John Joe O’Reilly? This was one of the earliest questions raised when the committee met online in February of 2021. It was unanimously agreed that there was no more apt subject for the first GAA statue in the province.

His achievements are well-documented but the bare list of medals does not come close to illustrating the iconic status he held, in life and death. Had he never played football, as the youngest Commandant in the history of the Defence Forces and a man ear-marked as a future Chief of Staff, his short life, which chimed with the turbulent early decades of the Free State, would have been extraordinary.

That he did, and scaled such heights, added the glory; that he was cruelly taken away aged just 34, the pathos.

In the iconography of this county, sporting and otherwise, John Joe resides on a plateau of his own. Think of the photos, the relics: John Joe O’Reilly of Cornafean, Cavan and the Curragh, marching, shoulders back, in a pre-match parade. The broad smile, Sam under his arm. The funeral cortège.

He was, truly, a national figure, too. While “greatest ever” team selections are by their nature arbitrary, when the GAA chose their Team of the Century and Team of the Millennium, the number six was never in doubt.

“All Ireland knew him as John Joe,” noted the Gaelic Sportsman magazine at the time of his passing.

“He was,” historian Eoghan Corry has written, “a representative of the new nation, which was only a couple of years old.

“He was a member of the army during the Emergency and captained the winning team in New York in 1947 and again in 1948. Four years later, he was dead. All the aspects of the legend came together.”

That’s not strictly correct; in my opinion, the final aspect comes together today. For the longest time, we have honoured our greats here in Cavan in story, song and poem only. Now, we have a worthy monument, something to rival anything, anywhere.

Why the Market Square? It is, or at least was, the commercial hub of the county town, which is itself at the geographical heart of this county. It is a landmark, a place where people converge. It could not be more public. John Joe’s wife Olive lived nearby on Town Hall Street after his passing, where she ran a shop. All the aspects of the legend…

John Joe O’Reilly was taken away too soon but, 70 years to the day, this magnificent piece, an adornment on the county, will be revealed. Seven feet tall, bronze on a limestone plinth. Larger than life. And as it stands, so he will be remembered.

“So long lives this,” as the sonnet goes, “and this gives life to thee.”

Postscript

As a member of the committee tasked with erecting this statue, the last 21 months have been an adventure through which I have made new friends and learned so much.

However, none of it would have been possible without the work of Arthur Sullivan, Lochlann Egan and Jimmy Finlay.

I would like to put on record, and I’m sure I speak for all of the committee, our appreciation for the gargantuan work the three of them put in and what they have achieved.

The county owes them a debt of gratitude.