An icon in Waterford and beyond, Ken McGrath is one of only three players in the history of the GAA to collect All-Star hurling awards in three different lines of the field, and one of the only men in the last 50 years to play minor, U21, and senior hurling in the same season. He embodied the defiance and panache that re-established a downtrodden county as a hurling superpower. McGrath bought that status dearly. In 2001 he was tearing Tipperary apart in Páirc Uí Chaoimh when he tore ankle ligaments badly. He played on for another half hour. In 2002, on a wintry afternoon in Thurles, he came off the bench with a badly damaged shoulder but somehow smuggled the late winner over the bar against Cork. In 2004, when 14-man Waterford were trying to hold Cork at bay as the Munster final wound down, the final, desperate attack was killed by a soaring catch from McGrath. When he was upended coming out with the ball the game was as good as over, and he knew it, roaring into the sky. Some players come weighted with extra significance. They make their county's supporters puff out their chests. Their names erupt like trump cards in pre-game conversations. They embody the place they come from, the way warriors used to be nominated to represent beleaguered cities in single combat against their enemies. That was Ken McGrath's status as a Waterford hurler. But a dazzling playing career is only half the story. In the firestorm of the downturn McGrath lost his sports shop. Then he was stricken with a brain hemorrhage; later, after months of uncertainty in hospital he was diagnosed with a heart problem which necessitated life-saving surgery. At that point McGrath's magnetism flashed again: two teams of old adversaries and comrades came together in a benefit game for the former player. Almost 10,000 supporters made their way one summer's evening to Walsh Park show their appreciation for one of the greatest ever, one more time. The Ken McGrath story covers multitudes: the great rivalries with Cork and Kilkenny and the championship wins with Mount Sion, one of the most famous clubs in the GAA, but there's more. How Waterford hurlers backed the campaigns in their home place for cancer services and university status; how the financial crash squeezed a family business; and how that family faced the fear of serious illness and surgery and came out the other side. It's a story worth telling.
About the Author: Ken McGrath is one of only three players in the history of the GAA to collect All-Star hurling awards in three different lines of the field, and one of the only men in the last 50 years to play minor, U21, and senior hurling in the same season.