John Joe, still whistling after all these years

After the deplorable attacks on Tyrone referee Martin Sludden, following his serious human error in the last minute of the recent Leinster senior football final, you would imagine that no right-minded person would contemplate a career as a Gaelic games referee. However, for John Joe Brady, it's a case of '44-not-out', as the affable Milltownpass club chairman is more than happy to keep on whistling around the GAA grounds of the Lake County after a remarkable stint as a leading match official, which commenced way back in 1966.Like many a man before and since in all types of sport, John Joe stumbled into the often-thankless, but absolutely invaluable, role of refereeing totally out of the blue, when requested by one of the county's greatest-ever servants in a variety of capacities, the still hale and hearty Paddy Flanagan. Back in 1966, 17-year-old John Joe was club secretary in his native Rochfortbridge with the local St. Mary's club. After playing in a 1pm throw-in minor game in Cusack Park, Paddy called him into the County Secretary's office and handed him a railway whistle belonging to the late Minor Board chairman, Owen Dalton and asked him to referee a junior championship match between Tubberclair and Streamstown in Ballynacargy, with the addendum that "you'll get me out of a hole and I'll never ask you again". Moynihan Park was not long opened and John Joe duly obliged by taking charge of the game in the afternoon. "I mustn't have been too bad," he recalls, "as the following Thursday I received two postcards from Paddy - one was a fixture that St. Mary's had and the other was to ref another game somewhere else." The rest, as they say, is history, with quite a bit of geography thrown in, as John Joe commenced a long and illustrious career as a referee in Westmeath and as an umpire ("as important a job as the ref himself") with noted inter-county referee, Pat Casserly, throughout the length and breadth of Ireland.Initially, "an unwritten law" came into being whereby Paddy Flanagan asked John Joe to referee the second game of a double-header after he had played for St. Mary's in the curtain-raiser. Despite playing football for St. Mary's and later Milltownpass, hurling for St. Brigid's, working for a while in Dublin and rearing a family, John Joe has officiated continuously for almost four-and-a-half decades now. "It became an automatic Sunday outing and that was it," he reflects with a smile. In the 1960s and 1970s, communication systems were very primitive compared with nowadays and, together with the absence of a formal Referees' Association, it was inevitable that there was a haphazard element to refereeing, but John Joe invariably enjoyed the experience, even when called into action at very short notice, be it for underage or adult fixtures.Gradually John Joe advanced up the ranks and he has the proud record of playing and officiating in county finals in all grades of football from under-16 right up to senior - while joking that his only appearance in a ladies' final was as a referee in the late 1970s! His first final was at under-16 level (ironically, again in Ballynacargy) and, to this day, John Joe remembers being brought into the Lake County Hotel by Killucan mentor, the late Christy Smyth (whose son Donie had starred in the final) for a post-match meal, which was "a big treat at that time". During John Joe's early days as a referee, leading national officials were usually asked to take charge of the showdown for the Flanagan Cup e.g. the Wicklow duo of Eamonn Moules and Jimmy Hatton. It was therefore a particularly prestigious honour for 22-year-old John Joe Brady to be appointed to referee the 1971 Westmeath senior football final between Athlone and Moate. A measure of his dedication to his task was that John Joe cut short his honeymoon in the UK to take charge of the whistle on September 12th that year, having been informed of his appointment by Paddy Collins at the reception for his wedding to Milltownpass native Mary Whelehan in the Lake County ! Indeed, John Joe smirks when recalling that he and Mary came back to Mullingar from Scotland via the North "in the height of the troubles" to referee the showpiece occasion (he also was the man in the middle 18 years later, when Rosemount defeated Athlone).Space restrictions mean that the array of 'funny incidents' from John Joe's career can't be fully documented in this column. Many years ago, suspicion of impending requests from club mentors to, let us say, 'alter' match reports were invariably prompted in those telephone/fax/mobile/e-mail-free days by the arrival at John Joe's house of "the car", usually around 7 o'clock in the evening, "with club officials accompanying the player sent off pleading for leniency". The specifics of one such incident following a major game are naturally not for printing, the culprit at the time having given John Joe "the famous stare", followed by a statement that "it would take better man than you to send me off". Indeed, it wasn't always a case of the officials looking for clemency, as having a player suspended could relieve the selectors of the burden of having to drop a player as tentatively planned! With age-limits being less stringently adhered to many years ago, John Joe often had suspicions about 20-year-old minors and the like. Also, answers such as "Mickey Mouse" and "Joe Soap" have been given to him by players he wished to book. He loves the true story of a fellow-referee who was given the name "St. Peter" when he was sending off a hurler of renown. "Right, St. Peter", replied the ref, "will you guard those gates over there till the game is over?"While accepting that players and spectators (mainly parents at underage games) will inevitably quibble about the refereeing standards, John Joe rightly points out that many of the greatest "motor-mouths" simply "don't know the basic rules", alluding to specifics like "showing the ball" not being a free. He is also unhappy at the new trend of trial-by-television in inter-county games, particularly on RTÉ's flagship programme, 'The Sunday Game'. One rule change that John Joe would relish is the introduction of the "straight pick-up off the ground" which works so well in the ladies' game as "the pick-up is not the art it was 40 years ago and it is only encouraging fouling".Despite stating, tongue-in-cheek, that Mary never forgave him for the interruption to their honeymoon almost 39 years ago, as well as having "the lovely job of washing my referee's gear", the Bradys are the proud parents of Helena, Maeve, Fiona, Paul and Gary and grandparents to eight budding referees!Moments before this interview took place, Michael McHugh handed John Joe an envelope outside Cusack Park with details of his next assignment with the whistle. Despite the inherent difficulties of the job, John Joe Brady concludes philosophically: "I've been lucky to have had a very good working relationship with all clubs. There are a lot of people in wheelchairs and graveyards who'd gladly swap with me the next day I referee." And so say all of us!