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Tomas O’Se. File Photo.
IN the latest nugget to come out of Tomás Ó Sé’s new autobiography, ‘The White Heat’, the former Gaeltacht clubman tells of the time Kerry and Cork players came to blows in a rebel held pub.
The story gets all the more interesting when you add in Mick Galwey and former All-Black, Dougie Howlett into the mix.
Ó Sé says about the late night donnybrook; “We beat Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final and the following night myself, Tom O’Sullivan, David Moran and Kieran Donaghy went back to Cork and had a few pints.”
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“When we walked into Reardons, the whole Cork panel were inside there after a day of it and Doug Howlett, the All Black signed by Munster, was with them.”
“We went to a corner by ourselves, because we didn’t want to be raining on anyone’s parade.”
“We came across Mick Galwey in there, had a bit of craic, a couple of pints. Grand.”
“When we came out onto Washington Street, yours truly heard some noise coming from the Courthouse Bar over the road. I knew the barman so I suggested we go there.”
“But the barman, Mike, said ‘Look, the Cork lads are in there’.
“I said ‘sure there’s no problem’.
“In we went. I knew straight away it was a mistake, though. I saw the bottle of whiskey up on the counter. Trouble.”
“Between the jigs and the reels, myself and Derek Kavanagh got into some pulling and dragging. I had a lovely jumper and that was the major casualty from the evening.”
“It was all handbags really. The funniest thing was that Doug Howlett jumped off the chair and was ready to get stuck into the ruck only for Mick Galwey to tell him to sit the fuck down or he’d have the head taken clear off his shoulders.”
“The following day, things were sorted sharpish.”
“I was sorry because I’d have got on with Derek’s brother, Larry and all the Nemo lads. I got a buzz from Derek the following day and it was all sorted out straight away. No problem.”
“The stories that went around Cork after were far better than the reality.”
Tomás Ó Sé will sign copies of his book in Eason’s Tralee at 3pm on Saturday.
