Iconic players that are identifiable by first name only

Ando's Saggy Bottom

Some GAA charactershave transcended the sport or achieved such success that you only have to mention their first name and everyone knows who they are:

Micko
Paidi
DJ
Henry
Jimmy Barry
Sean Og

Any others?

ANXIOUS

Jayo

Max Power

Lar

premierstone

Pete Campbell wrote: »

Some GAA charactershave transcended the sport or achieved such success that you only have to mention their first name and everyone knows who they are:

Micko
Paidi
DJ
Henry
Jimmy Barry
Sean Og

Any others?

Babs, Nickey and Lar from a Tipp perspective.

Corkbah

donal og

Grudaire

Setanta...

But he cheated by picking an unforgettable name :P

MfMan

To really transcend the sport you have to be known by your surname; Purcell, Ring.

DazMarz

Berno

Clucko (a bastardisation of his surname, but how and ever)

and then we have the Dublin player whose initials are used that have the unfortunate connotation connected to an illicit drug; Michael Darragh McAuley; aka: MDMA (which is the chemical name for Ecstasy).

manofwisdom

Then you have a few players known by there nicknames (the gooch, the bomber,the star) or maybe it's just a Kerry thing?

ceegee

Generally speaking it comes down to your name and its popularity rather than them transcending the game. You could win 15 all irelands but if your name is Pat or John then you wont be referred to solely by your first name.

Clareman

In Clare I suppose Seanie, Ollie, Frank of Jamesey would be the big ones.

Realt Dearg Sec

Clareman wrote: »

In Clare I suppose Seanie, Ollie, Frank of Jamesey would be the big ones.

Which kind of undermines ceegee's point.

Clareman

Besides Frank, they are are nicknames really I suppose.

Davey would be another 1 you could add to the list.

phkk

And surnames; Cody, Loughnane, Daly, Mullane are some I can think of

Clareman

Lohan and Lynch. Also a few nicknames that hang on Sparrow, Gilly, Fingers and Dalo

WumBuster

If you mention John around Waterford you need to add the person's second name to indicate that you arent referring to John Mullane. Even if it's your brother. fact....

Fr Tod Umptious

Willie Joe

Swiper the fox

MfMan wrote: »

To really transcend the sport you have to be known by your surname; Purcell, Ring.

I'd say if you asked the crowd at any provincial or all-ireland final (outside of Connacht) who Purcell was less than 5% would tell you, not too many more if you gave the first name also, he's no Ring anyway.

MfMan

Swiper the fox wrote: »

I'd say if you asked the crowd at any provincial or all-ireland final (outside of Connacht) who Purcell was less than 5% would tell you, not too many more if you gave the first name also, he's no Ring anyway.

Anyone with even a half-decent knowledge of GAA knows who Purcell was. Football's equivalent of Ring.

Tombo2001

MfMan wrote: »

Anyone with even a half-decent knowledge of GAA knows who Purcell was. Football's equivalent of Ring.

Really?


Edit: That is to say, not he is not football's equivalent to Ring.

That would be Mick O'Connell in my book. Or more probably, there is no equivalent to Ring in football terms.

I'd see Purcell along the same lines as names like Gunner Brady or Sean O'Neill or Jimmy Murray, or probably Peter Canavan in recent years.....great player on a mid-ranked team that stepped up to become top dogs for a short period of time.

Tombo2001

Duxie

ceegee

Clareman wrote: »

Lohan and Lynch. Also a few nicknames that hang on Sparrow, Gilly, Fingers and Dalo

Lohan wasnt instantly recognisable by surname alone in his own full back line let alone GAA in general.

Clareman

ceegee wrote: »

Lohan wasnt instantly recognisable by surname alone in his own full back line let alone GAA in general.

Frank is Frank, Brian is Lohan

Realt Dearg Sec

Clareman wrote: »

Frank is Frank, Brian is Lohan

Well said. If you say Lohan, everyone knows who you're talking about. I play with enough Claremen to know that much.

ProudDUB

MfMan wrote: »

Anyone with even a half-decent knowledge of GAA knows who Purcell was. Football's equivalent of Ring.

Yeah, but this thread isn't about the GAA players/managers who are well known to people with a "half decent" knowledge of GAA. It is about players whose skills, fame, success etc etc are so transcendent they are well known to "everyone" by first name alone. Everyone is EVERY ONE, not those people who have a specific knowledge of the GAA.

Take Katie Taylor or Brian O'Driscoll or Rory McIlroy, for example. Everyone on the island knows who they are, regardless of their knowledge of boxing, or rugby or golf. I know who the folks mentioned in this thread are because I have an interest in the GAA. However, that's just me. Not everyone on this island is into the GAA.

I know of a lot of people whose main areas of sporting interest are golf, tennis, rugby, soccer etc etc. They wouldn't have a bulls notion of who half the people mentioned in this thread are. The footballing ones (Berno, Clucko, Heffo, Micko) probably, because football is always in the media thanks to the Dubs, but most of the hurling people mentioned? Not a chance. It's very, very sad, but that's just how it is for a lot people who don't come from a strong GAA background, or one of the hurling obsessed counties such as KK or Tipp.

elefant

Ja

Strongbow10

Frankie

CorkWalsh2012

Cads, Walshie, Noelie, Quirky, Shieldsy, Hoggie and The Rock would be the Cork ones. Don't know, maybe its just a Cork thing

iDave

In Meath everyone knows who Ollie is

nice_guy80

Donie

Frankie

Swiper the fox

iDave wrote: »

In Meath everyone knows who Ollie is

Ollie Murphy? You're setting the bar quite low there!

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Donie

Frankie

Roscommon? This thread is going to the dogs

CorkWalsh2012 wrote: »

Cads, Walshie, Noelie, Quirky, Shieldsy, Hoggie and The Rock would be the Cork ones. Don't know, maybe its just a Cork thing

???Thread gone to the dogs, further proof

Strongbow10 wrote: »

Frankie

Who's Frankie, I'd say every county in Ireland has at least one.


Look at the first post and then ask yereselves do these guys deserve a mention in this thread.

locked

Joe

ceegee

The vast majority of people mentioned have no place in this thread. Theres been two ollies already ffs. And Canning is probably better known than either one. Its supposed to be people identifiable by first name by everyone not just in relation to your local team. And being known by your surname/nickname is hardly the same thing.

North Cork Star

In Hurling- Sean Og, Donal Og, Ben and Jerry, Teddy and Jimmy Barry (Cork), Henry DJ, JJ and Tommy (Kilkenny), Joe, Ollie and Sylvie (Galway), Ken, Tony and Dan (Waterford) , Lar, Babs and Nicky (Tipperary), Brian and Frank, Anthony, Davie and Jamesie (Clare), Ciaran and Gary (Limerick) and George (Wexford).

In Football- Micko, Paidi, Mickey Ned, Pat, Colm (Gooch), Maurice and Moss (Kerry), Teddy, Jimmy Barry, Noel, Tony and Larry (Cork), Bernard and Jayo (Dublin), Peter (Tyrone), Stevie (Armagh), Jim (Donegal), Padraig and Sean Og(Galway), Mattie (Wexford), Dermot (Roscommon), Dessie (Westmeath), Graham (Meath), Paddy (Derry) and Declan (Tipperary).

Bizzum

John 3:7 Legend.;)

premierstone

premierstone wrote: »

Babs, Nickey and Lar from a Tipp perspective.

Eoin, Johno, Paidi also and possibly Brendan in some quarters.

paul71

It is going back a long a long way but 2 famous names in Meath football were simply.

"The Red" and "Paddy the hands"

pickarooney

Pete Campbell wrote: »

Jimmy Barry

Barry-Murphy is his last name.

Does 'Jacko' count?

Jimmy Iovine

Paul

GoldFour4

I don't think any player falls into this category to be honest. Unless it's a conversation of absolute die hards, there will always be somebody who doesn't know what your talking about.

mccarthy37

Dan the Man

Lapin

Nudie

Deise Tom

Ken or Dan in Waterford, Nickey in Tipperary, Henry and DJ in Kilkenny, Jimmy Barry in Cork, Jack O or Paudi in Kerry,

Jimmy Iovine

Another one I thought of is Peter.

jacool

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Really?


Edit: That is to say, not he is not football's equivalent to Ring.

That would be Mick O'Connell in my book. Or more probably, there is no equivalent to Ring in football terms.

I'd see Purcell along the same lines as names like Gunner Brady or Sean O'Neill or Jimmy Murray, or probably Peter Canavan in recent years.....great player on a mid-ranked team that stepped up to become top dogs for a short period of time.

Not to de-rail the discussion, but yeah, really.
Anyone reading in here would know the "terrible twins".
I'm not equating him to Christy Ring by the way, just saying he'd be well known, if not just as "Sean" perhaps.

munster87

Darragh as in O Sé

Realt Dearg Sec

munster87 wrote: »

Darragh as in O Sé

Uh...you might have missed the point of the thread there...

munster87

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Uh...you might have missed the point of the thread there...

Just because I'm not sure if it is just in Kerry he is so easily know by first name alone or if the rest of the country would know straightaway? But down here it works!

LeoB

Tyson... Tommy Dowd
Dully..... Kieran Duff

paul71

The thread is going a couple of weeks now and to be absolutely honest if you go by first name only first name, exclude nicknames and surnames there is only one player who meets the criteria on a national not county scale and that is Paudi.

Realt Dearg Sec

paul71 wrote: »

The thread is going a couple of weeks now and to be absolutely honest if you go by first name only first name, exclude nicknames and surnames there is only one player who meets the criteria on a national not county scale and that is Paudi.

By that criteria I would have said Sean Og would have a better claim than Paidi. He was, and probably still is, a better known hurler than Henry.

...as in Shefflin.