PJ's passing evokes GAA memories
P.J. Walkin was hugely regarded in his native Ballina and will be sadly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.
North Mayo has lost one of its great GAA enthusiasts with the passing of Ballina man P.J. Walkin, who represented his county in both football and hurling before injury cut short a promising sporting career.
One of a family of eight – seven sons and one daughter – P.J.’s parents, Paddy and Kitty Walkin, ran a public house on Tone Street in Ballina, a place that would remain close to his heart all his life.
The Second World War was at its most deadly when P.J. was born on May 24th, 1941. The pages of the were filled with ‘war news’ that summer. P.J. was just ten days old when the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on the North Strand in Dublin, killing 28 people and causing palpable fear across the country. On the same day, the announced that James Stephens Park, the home of Ballina Stephenites, was to be used as an exercise ground for the Local Defence Force, a national volunteer reserve army formed to defend Ireland against potential invasion.
P.J. and the rest of his generation grew up in an Ireland where money was scarce and basic commodities were still being rationed long after the war had ended. Yet it was far from the grim existence now portrayed in some history books. P.J.’s abiding memories were of a loving childhood in a close-knit family and community – the Walkin family moved from Tone Street to Humbert Street – and the camaraderie of Ballina’s sporting scene in the late 1940s and 1950s.
P.J. was an impressionable youngster when Mayo’s senior footballers won back-to-back All-Ireland titles in 1950 and 1951, and the exploits of that all-conquering team were to create memories that lasted a lifetime. The All-Ireland champions held their training camp in Ballina in the summer of 1951 with the players staying at The Grove boarding house on Kevin Barry Street, which became a favourite haunt for P.J. and other football-mad boys desperate to meet their idols.
Ballina’s football scene in the 1950s centred on the legendary town leagues and P.J. soon followed in the footsteps of older brothers John and Tony by lining out with the Fitzgeralds team in these fiercely contested local derbies. He was just 16 when he lined out for the Fitzgeralds senior team in the Town League in the autumn of 1957, playing alongside the great Willie Casey, as well as men like Eamonn Waters and P.J. Downey, to name but a few.
The Town Leagues were not for the faint of heart. P.J. featured on a Fitzgeralds team that defeated arch-rivals United in the Town Minor Football Final in James Stephens Park on a bitterly cold January day in 1958.
“The brand of football displayed was the toughest and the roughest seen in the town for some time,” wrote the . “Both sides knew the importance of winning and in their anxiety often mistook a player for the ball!”
The reporter did note, however, that a little football broke out in the final 15 minutes, with Fitzgeralds taking the title by 1-5 to 0-5.
The games might have been fiercely fought but friendships were made in those years that endured for the rest of P.J.’s life.
P.J. was also an accomplished hurler and made his debut for the Ballina Stephenites senior team aged just 16. He played hurling for Mayo in a Connacht Junior Championship match against Leitrim in James Stephens Park in May 1959. Remarkably, he also played in the curtain raiser, which saw Ballina Stephenites take on Ardnaree in a junior football clash.
Selected to play on the Mayo minor football team in the summer of 1959, P.J. featured in victories over Sligo and Leitrim, partnering Joe Langan at midfield in a side that included talented colleges players like Micksey Clarke and Jimmy Hennigan, from St Nathy’s, and Patsy Sheridan, from St Jarlath’s, as well as Ballina's Stanley Rowe. However, their quest for a Connacht title came to an end on a sizzling August day in front of 20,000 spectators in Markievicz Park in Sligo as an equally talented Galway side proved too good for the Mayo youngsters. The Galway team included Noel Tierney, Cyril Dunne and Seamus Leydon, who would all go on to become household names in the Tribesmen’s great three-in-a-row All-Ireland winning senior team in the mid-1960s.
The late 1950s and early 1960s was the golden age of colleges’ football in Connacht. The Connacht champions featured in six successive All-Ireland Finals, with St Nathy’s winning in 1957 and St Jarlath’s picking up Hogan Cup titles in 1958, 1960 and 1961. St Muredach’s College in Ballina also had a fine team during this period and P.J. featured on a team that recorded a celebrated win over favourites Summerhill College from Sligo in the winter of 1959 before bowing out to St Nathy’s in early 1960. By then, P.J. was ineligible to play due to age restrictions, with the noting that the St Muredach’s team badly missed his “cutting midfield play”.
In September 1960, P.J. was selected to play for the Mayo senior footballers in a challenge game against a team from Toronto in Canada that consisted of Irish emigrants, among them Joe Kilroy, from Newport, who had starred in the green and red in the 1940s. The game was played in James Stephens Park, and the Mayo team was selected from four clubs – Ballina Stephenites, Castlebar Mitchels, Ardnaree and Charlestown. P.J., who usually played at midfield or in the forwards, lined out in the unorthodox position of left half-back, alongside Jim Fleming and P.J. Lacken.
“Mayo’s victory was mainly due to the remarkable display given by the half-back line,” reported the . “Owing to the fact that their colleagues at midfield were forced to play second fiddle at times, more work was thrown onto this trio. Despite this handicap, all three came through with top marks…”
Having just turned 19, P.J. was on the cusp of a promising intercounty career, but sadly it came to an end in James Stephens Park a year later when he suffered a cruciate knee injury, forcing his retirement from the sport he loved and excelled in.
In the absence of football, golf became a lifelong passion. He was a founding member of Enniscrone Juniors Golf Club and remained closely connected with golf societies linked to Mayo GAA and the Mayo Green and Red Trust, always keen to support county causes. He was deeply involved with St Murdeach’s Past Pupils' Golf Society and later with the Knights of the Road Golf Society.
It was during her time working in Moylette’s in Ballina that P.J. met Jean Gilmartin from Rosses Point, Sligo - a meeting that would change his life. Their romance blossomed in an age when dance halls were at the centre of social life, with the famous Pontoon Ballroom a favourite haunt. P.J. was known as a great dancer, light on his feet and always ready to take to the floor.
The couple spent time running his Aunt Kevaney's pub in Attymass - currently 'An Sionnach Rua' - between 1970 and 1978, before later working with Glen Abbey.
His working life reflected the changing fashion industry story of the west of Ireland. He was a commercial salesman for Fruit of the Loom, Christian Dior, Spence Bryson and Derek Michael, names that recall an era when he built lasting friendships with colleagues on the road as he travelled the highways and byways of Ireland.
A genial man with a disarming personality, P.J. loved nothing better than to discuss the highs and lows of Mayo football, whether it was the club or intercounty scene. The childhood passion of the early 1950s burned as brightly as ever – as those who debated football matters with him in the Post House in Ballina in recent years would testify!
Above all, P.J. was a community man - loyal, generous with his time, and deeply rooted in Amana Estate, Ballina, where the family home had been for the past 45 years. His life was defined by family, faith, friendship and football, and the huge crowds that attended his funeral in Ballina last week were testament to a life well lived in the service of his family and his community.
P.J. was predeceased by his adored wife Jean, his parents Paddy and Kitty Walkin and his brothers Tony and John and the deceased Gilmartin family Sligo.
He is survived by his children Alan, Garrett, and Sinéad, his adored grandchildren Conor, James, Sean, Jean, Evan and Molly, his partner Kathleen, daughter-in-law Jacqui, son-in-law Aidan, Alan’s partner Naz, his sister Maura Gannon, brothers, Gerry, Eamon, Shamus, and Vincent, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and his wide circle of friends.
May he rest in peace.
