Very sad news. James had a short illness towards the end of last year and its been hard on his family to see him go from full of life to now.
I cant rem the last time i spoke to him but he was a great character and someone i got on very well with. When he was a ref he used to get me to come along with him to do umpire at some games. I loved the craic with the older lads as i was much younger than them all so you never had to dip to buy a dinner or anything when you were with him. Rescued me a few times from some angry senior hurlers who didnt agree with my call in some games but that was him, he trusted us to make the calls and even in my late teens he had me at some big games as part of his team
Got to umpire at National league games in various counties, senior hurling championship matches, the ulster shield final at clones etc. He used to always say to me before you went to your post at the start of the game 'go out and enjoy the game and please dont make any f**k ups! lol
He was in the pitch every day during lock down and i used to keep him going that he was that bored he was up to watch the grass grow!
Gave a lot of time to the GAA and to our club and will be badly missed.
I cant rem the last time i spoke to him but he was a great character and someone i got on very well with. When he was a ref he used to get me to come along with him to do umpire at some games. I loved the craic with the older lads as i was much younger than them all so you never had to dip to buy a dinner or anything when you were with him. Rescued me a few times from some angry senior hurlers who didnt agree with my call in some games but that was him, he trusted us to make the calls and even in my late teens he had me at some big games as part of his team
Got to umpire at National league games in various counties, senior hurling championship matches, the ulster shield final at clones etc. He used to always say to me before you went to your post at the start of the game 'go out and enjoy the game and please dont make any f**k ups! lol
He was in the pitch every day during lock down and i used to keep him going that he was that bored he was up to watch the grass grow!
Gave a lot of time to the GAA and to our club and will be badly missed.