IT’S not quite Mick O’Connell, but it isn’t far off.
The Kerry legend, a farmer and fisherman who lived on Valentia Island, used to row over to the mainland before and after training during 19 years in the famous green and gold – becoming one of the most decorated, most revered players in the Kingdom’s history.
Circumstances have led Portaferry to inadvertently channel some of that energy ahead of Sunday’s Ulster final showdown with Sleacht Néill.
Days before beating Ballygalget in a one-sided Down decider, normal service on the Strangford ferry was suspended for five weeks to allow for essential works to slipways.
Civil engineer Tom Murray, the Portaferry full-back, was part of the team working to ensure the project was completed as smoothly as possible – only for team-mate Daithi Sands to pop up on BBC News, lamenting the timing as supporters faced a road trip around the Ards peninsula to Newry for the county final.
“I was giving Daithi dogs abuse for going on and slagging me off,” laughs Murray.
“The week of the county final I was starting work at 4am to try and catch the tide; although the ferry was off for five weeks, we had to have all our stuff done within three.
“So there was a big effort put in to make sure it was done within the timeframe – and that’s the thanks I get!”
The ferry is now fully operational once more, but there was still some creativity required as the Ports faced a six-week wait until their shot at provincial glory.
Caolan Taggart and Padraig Doran both live on the other side of the water and, while the restricted passenger service allowed them to make it over to Portaferry for training, that service stopped at 6.30pm.
The journey across the lough by boat is about a mile; by car it is almost 46 miles. Murray, therefore, took matters into his own hands.
“CT lives in Killough and Paudie’s in Ballycutler, just outside Kilclief, so I’ve been leaving them back across the water on the punt late at night.
“It saves them having to drive the whole way round at least…”
Away from the field of play, Murray is never more at home than on the water. It’s in the blood, you see.
Indeed, two years ago the BBC broadcast in a four-part television series, The Chronicles of Strangford, telling the story of the lough through the people who live and work there. The Murray family featured prominently.
Grandfather John Murray is the former ferry captain and still, during the summer months, tours are run from his boat, the St Brendan, around glorious evenings spent fishing.
“Granda’s well-known around Portaferry because he was the captain that whole time - he still looks after the marina, then myself and my uncle John have run the boat tours since granda retired… granda and John built the boat by hand in 1991, along with my dad and his other brother, Jessie.
“That’s a huge passion for that, but granda would always have been big into the club as well. That’s probably where it all stems from.”
John sr hurled for Portaferry, and briefly with the county, in the 1950s and was a constant on the committee for a couple of decades. His son Jessie followed suit, representing club and county with distinction.
Tom’s dad, Anthony – a maths teacher at Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock – was full-back on the Portaferry side that lifted the Jeremiah McVeagh Cup in 1991, part of the panel for the ‘88 and ‘89 successes too, and would have featured more had it not been for a troublesome shoulder injury.
Mum Jacqueline worked in Knock too, where Tom was part of the Casement Cup team dubbed ‘the Jedi masters of the east’ by the late, great Frankie Wilson. But the hurling bug had long bitten by then.
Even outside of the family pedigree, it was unavoidable.
“We’ve spoilt here.
“You’ll laugh, but I grew up playing underage hurley, Sean Savage was the first boy who trained me, then Noel Sands U8 to U10, then Mick Blair, who’s been a county coach the last four or five years.
“Then I had Andy Savage at U14, Conor O’Prey, at U16, Marty Mallon started coaching, Gerard [McGrattan] at U14 as well, Fergal Rogers, Marty took me at senior level too, Paul Braniff was involved, now Gerard’s there with the seniors.
“Honestly, we have been so, so lucky.”
McGrattan, the county’s only All Star and an industrial engineering manager with aircraft manufacturing company Bombardier, is known for his attention to detail.
That has helped push Portaferry up another level as they bid to translate their Down dominance onto the provincial stage – though even a man of McGrattan’s standing is not immune to the acerbic tongue of former team-mate Marty Mallon.
“Gerard brings massive levels of organisation,” says Murray, “he knows every single player inside out, what makes them tick.
“It was funny, though, there was a point this year where he couldn’t get the tactics board to stay up… Marty grabbed it and pushed it into the ground. Sorted.
“Then he turns round and says - ‘and this boy’s building aeroplanes?’”
Winter has yet to arrive in Portaferry as the club, the community, looks ahead to a first Ulster final since lifting the Four Season Cup a decade ago. Murray was only 15 in 2014, so assumed the role of “super fanboy” as Cushendall were toppled at Owenbeg.
Goalscorer supreme Robbie Magee may not have found the net that day but, by then, already had his own dedicated Twitter account, courtesy of Murray and his cohorts on the supporters’ bus.
Ten years on, it is still there – ‘tribute to the man with a 100% goal return in the 2014 championship’ – still with just one tweet: “I am thee Magee, thou shall not speak of another Magee before me”.
“Aww, those were special times alright,” smiles Murray.
“Honestly, I remember every inch of the day; the whole year, in fact. I don’t even know what it would feel like if we were to do the same… I remember what it was like in 2020 when we won our first championship in six years.
“There had been so much heartache, then it was Covid times too, we had to tog off on the field after, supporters weren’t allowed to come onto the field. But it was my dad’s birthday, so I ran to him as soon as the whistle went.
“It was class. Magic memories.”
Several Portaferry players were glued to their phones at Down’s annual awards night in the Canal Court while Sleacht Néill and Cushendall went to war 30 miles out the road.
“I don’t think we were much entertainment to our dates…”
Now, the waiting is over – their own date with destiny against the Derry champions just around the corner, and an opportunity to conjure their own piece on magic on Ulster hurling’s biggest stage.
