Who are the great GAA dual players?
Part of a bygone era.
We, of course, recognise that the dual player is still alive and well at club level as the likes of Gary Brennan or the 2016 Slaughtneil team prove, but the demands of the modern intercounty game seem to be killing off the dual player entirely.
We've tried to include a few non-Cork people in this list just to make life a bit more varied for you all. Tell us if we've missed any (we know we probably have, and you will).
Jimmy Barry Murphy (Cork)
Five All-Ireland hurling titles, ten Munster hurling titles, two Munster football crowns and one football All-Ireland, in 1973. Oh, and two All-Ireland clubs in each of hurling and football as well as a plethora of Munster/Cork club titles, National League titles, Railway Cup medals and underage titles. Go to his Wikipedia page. You'll be tired just reading through all his honours.
Paddy Mackey (Wexford)
Between 1907 and 1918, Mackey played football for Wexford with distinction and won four All-Irelands as well as six Leinster titles. He started hurling six years into his football career and picked up Liam McCarthy once, winning two Leinster titles. And the best part was that he was nicked from Kilkenny. According to the 'Irish Times' last year, one Gus O'Kennedy invited Mackey to live with him in Wexford until he was eligible to play for them.
Briege Corkery and Rena Buckley (Cork)
This pair absolutely raked in the medals over the years in both football and camogie, with an accumulative 36 All-Ireland medals between the two of them. They can also both 16 (Corkery) and 10 (Buckley) All-Stars across both sports. Madness.
Liam Currams (Offaly)
(Liam Currams third from the left at the back)
Won an All-Ireland in hurling and football as well as three Leinsters in football and two in hurling between 1980-1986 and he remains the only Offaly man to hold Allstars in both codes.
Teddy McCarthy (Cork)
Between 1985 and 1996 McCarthy won two All-Irelands in both hurling and football as well as six Munsters in football and three in hurling.
Des Foley (Dublin)
(Des Foley fifth from the left at the back)
Foley is the only player ever to play in two provincial Railway Cup games on the same day (1962), winning both at a time when the Railway Cup was an important event. He lost an All-Ireland final for the Dubs in 1961 and captained the Dublin football side that beat Galway in the 1963 decider.
Denis Coughlan (Cork)
(Back row, furthest on the right)
Coughlan was part of the same great Cork side as Barry-Murphy and Commins and between 1965 and 1980 picked up five All-Irelands (four in hurling, one in football) as well as ten Munsters (four in football, six in hurling). Two All-Ireland club hurling titles as well as a Munster club football title means a fairly cluttered mantlepiece.
Alan Kerins (Galway)
His spell with the Galway footballers may have been short, but he managed to squeeze in an All-Ireland football final in 2001. An All-Ireland club in each code with Salthill-Knockncarra and Clarinbridge as well.
Jack Lynch (Cork)
In an inter-county career spanning 1936-1950 won five All-Irelands and seven Munster titles with Cork as well as seven Railway Cup titles and was named on the 'Team of the Millennium' for hurling. He managed to squeeze in an All-Ireland title in football, two Munsters and a Railway Cup before going on to serve two terms as Taoiseach.
Geoffrey McGonigle (Derry)
Look, we can't all be from Cork. Big Geoffrey McGonigle gamely togged out for Derry and his club Dungiven from the early nineties until the mid-noughties . He won a couple of Ulster senior hurling titles with Derry in 2000 and 2001, a provincial football title in 1998 (setting up the bould Joe Brolly for the crucial goal in the final) as well as an Ulster title in football with Dungiven. But what really makes Big Geoffrey one of the greats is perhaps the fact that he was a big man with a deft touch and a deceptive turn of pace; a throw-back. We're perhaps guilty of romanticising here, but it's a short life.
Ray Cummins (Cork)
(Ray Cummins lifts Liam McCarthy)
Between 1967 and 1982 Cummins picked up a tidy collection of Celtic Crosses, with an All-Ireland in football and four in hurling as well as nine provincial gongs in hurling compared to three in football. Won a Sigerson and a Fitzgibbon as well.
