Former GAA President Larry McCarthy has returned to Ireland for the summer, and when he read on Sport for Business about the European Amateur Team Golf Championship taking place in Killarney this week, he got in touch.

What followed was an excellent coffee in the Cloud Picker in Dublin, and a conversation full of golf, GAA, and rich family memories.

Sport for Business: Larry, you got in touch after we mentioned the European Men’s Team Championship. Turns out there’s a family connection?

Larry McCarthy: There sure is. It goes back a long way. My grandfather was a founding member of Kenmare Golf Club, and my father played for Ireland in the 1950s. In fact, he left the country on the very day I was born to play in the Home Internationals in Porthcawl.

SfB: On the day you were born?

McCarthy: Literally. Early morning, I was born, and that evening, he got the ferry from Cork to Fishguard with his teammates. L. McCarthy won the singles match against England 2-1, and there was also one JB Carr on the team.

SfB: You ended up caddying in Killarney too, at the last time the course hosted the European Amateur Men’s Team Championship, didn’t you?

McCarthy: I did, in 1975. I was 21, not much of a golfer at the time, but I was immersed in it because of my family. I carried for a French player named Hervé Frayssineau. We played Ireland and beat Ian Elliott in one of the matches. But Ireland won overall, so I had the best of both worlds.

He gave me a Lacoste Polo shirt after the round, which at the time was a very glamorous thing for a young fella to be walking around in.

SfB: You’ve said golf was woven into the fabric of family life…

McCarthy: Absolutely. We’d be picking Irish teams on napkins at home. Followed Dad and Mam around the Interpros, internationals, Europeans. My mother was on the ILGU Council, captain of Muskerry, where Dad was a lifelong member. All the siblings played. There were nine of us. Over time, then, Lahinch became a second home. We had seven caravans or houses dotted around there at one point.

SfB: The connections just keep coming…

McCarthy: They do. Mary, my sister, was Lady Captain in Killarney when the Curtis Cup came to town in 1995. Another strong link. And now, my sister, Aideen, is the Lady President of Lahinch. Her President’s Lunch is on Saturday.

SfB: You must take great pride in seeing New York GAA still progressing?

McCarthy: Absolutely. I’m hoping to watch them in the Junior Football Final on Sunday if we win the semi. The lads just flew in. It’s a great tournament, has a Féile-like energy, and showcases just how far the game travels.

SfB: You’ve seen the evolution of integration in sport too, especially in golf…

McCarthy: I laugh when I hear Golf Ireland say it took five years to integrate the GUI and ILGU. It took more like 25. I grew up with six sisters around the kitchen table in Bishopstown, and the debates were fiery. My mother and sisters were deeply involved with the ILGU. We were living that integration story long before it was official.

SfB: And not always easy to bring everyone on board?

McCarthy: No. Change is tough, even when it’s right. But look, golf managed it and Gaelic Games can learn from that.

SfB: Final word, are you still keeping up with what’s happening on the sport and business side of things back here?

McCarthy: I am. I still read your bulletin regularly. It landed in my inbox long before I came home for the President’s role. I saw the piece you did on Lynne Cantwell the other day and thought it was great. You’re still ahead of the curve, and that’s important in a time when so much commentary is recycled or AI generated. We need original thinking to keep sport, and storytelling, fresh.

Ireland have qualified for the Semi-Final’s of the 2025 European Men’s Amateur Championships being staged once more in Killarney. Ironically there are no caddies on the course this time around.

 

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