GAA sports icon Marty Morrissey on this summer’s triumphs and tragedies as he heads to Spain with fans for ‘The Marty Party’

He’s regarded as ‘the voice of Gaelic games’ that generations of GAA fans have grown up with as the soundtrack to some of their most memorable sporting moments in football and hurling.

Marty Morrissey has become an icon, not just in sports broadcasting but also as a celebrity entertainer who has strutted his stuff on Dancing with the Stars and attracted hundreds of fans to Spain for a week of music and fun in the sun at ‘The Marty Party’.

In October, Marty will return to Calpe in Spain to host his famous party that this year includes a night of Irish Eurovision songs sung by the actual winners Dana, his pal Johnny Logan, Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh and Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan.

“I love music and dancing, even though I can’t do either, and I love people, so this week away in Spain ticks all the boxes for me and now that the GAA championships are over I’m really looking forward to it,” Marty says.

As a GAA commentator, Morrissey this summer presided over one of the most thrilling All-Ireland football finals of all time and one that will go down in the sport’s annals for its historic significance.

After 75 years of heartbreak and tears, Mayo finally got their hands on Sam in a thrilling clash with Kerry.

“With all due respect to Kerry, it was the fairytale ending at the end of a wonderful championship this year,” Marty says looking back on the various encounters.

“We saw Westmeath winning Leinster, we saw Roscommon winning Connacht, Armagh finally winning Ulster and Wicklow winning the Tailteann Cup.

“Every one of these stories has their own backstory of meandering through heartbreak to suddenly lift the cup.

“Mayo were being written off by so many people and I genuinely thought they had a great chance. Now, I didn’t know whether they’d win or not, but I just thought they might have a chance.

“I think with Andy Moran in charge he accentuated the positive from what I can gather from the players… ‘have a go, enjoy it.’ He gave the teenagers the freedom to express themselves.

“Mayo also took advantage of the two point rule, which I think is a big addition to the game.

“It’s a championship and a year in football we’ll never forget. What the football review committee did under Jim Gavin was bring the love of football back with the changes and alterations they made.

“Football was deteriorating before our eyes, the football that I fell in love with as a child was changing and evolving and becoming boring.

“Now we have a game, we have rekindled the love and the passion for Gaelic football. And Gaelic football, in particular, had a most wonderful season.”

However, GAA followers and the Irish nation was left shocked and saddened last month when Donegal football legend James McHugh from the 1992 All-Ireland winning team and his beloved wife, Noreen, both lost their lives after a road traffic accident involving their car and a van. Mr McHugh died at the scene while his wife, Noreen, later passed away in hospital.

Morrissey, who was a friend of the couple through his job as a GAA correspondent, attended the wake and described the scene as “heartbreaking.”

“I never saw two coffins beside each other before and I never really want to see it again because it broke my heart to see James and Noreen there,” Marty says.

“My friendship with the McHughs goes back a long time. Mark, their nephew who guided Westmeath to a Leinster title this year, sent me an interview I did with James and his brother Martin when I started in RTE.

“Noreen and James were inseparable in life. They fell in love when they were teenagers in school and they did everything together… just great, great people, very kind and very loving. They were very kind to me over the years.

“Noreen was the secretary in the local school and the life and soul of all those young people over the years. She knew the keycode for every laptop, she was the epicentre of school life.

“Noreen’s sister brought me into the house on the Friday night of the wake and they were so welcoming in their moment of grief.”

Marty’s own mother, Peggy, also died tragically in a car crash in December 2021.

“Car accidents change everybody’s lives,” he says. “I miss my mother every day and she’ll be gone from me in December for five years. Even after all this time I still think of calling her.

“We have great friends in Mayo and after the All-Ireland football final this year I thought of ringing my mother to tell her, ‘Mayo won, mom!’ But of course there’s the reality that she’s not here anymore.

“We all experience bereavement, it’s the life cycle and people rally around you. But when everybody goes away and you go back to the house and there’s nobody there and the silence is deafening, that’s the hard part.”

He’s proud of the fact that The Marty Party in Spain has helped people through difficult times. “I’ve had correspondence from some people who said that on the trip they felt a great sense of joy and belonging,” he says. “It brought them out of their shell and they met new friends. It’s a week of music and fun and chat and they’re in a little bubble where they can forget whatever is going on in their lives for a week.”

The Marty Party takes place in Calpe, Spain, from this October 1 until October 6 with a line up that also includes The Whistling Donkeys, Sean Keane, Liam O’Connor, the Newbridge Gospel Choir and more.

To book remaining places call Deirdre from Killester Travel on (085)7539038.