Irish rugby colossus Paul O'Connell announced his retirement from rugby this morning, as the injury sustained in the World Cup quarter-final against France proved too much to overcome.
Fans were left reeling by the news, though one man who had prior warning was Barry Murphy. Long before his current guise as bassist with Hermitage Green, Barry was lining out for Munster alongside fellow Limerickman O'Connell, and revealed he'd had a heads-up about the decision.
"I went for lunch with him the other day, and he told me it was over," Barry said. "He was happy; the kids are very happy where they are, playing soccer and rugby in Limerick, and he doesn’t have to uproot the family — even if it would have been exciting."
As tributes pour in from across the sporting world, and favourite Paulie stories are shared, we asked Barry if there was one to stand out in his mind. With a grin as wide as the Shannon, he had us in stitches.
"We were coming back from a match somewhere," he said. "The young lads had taken over the back of the bus; Keith Earls and a few others had buckled themselves into the spots where O’Connell and ROG would usually sit. There was about seven or eight of them, chanting ‘Hell no, we won’t go’ and all the rest.
"There were some efforts made at shifting them, to no avail, and Paulie just sat down, said he’d leave them off — until Dougie Howlett pipes up. ‘Wouldn’t happen on my watch, mate. It’s like coming home, some guy’s sitting on your couch, drinking your beer, watching your telly, arm around your missus. Same thing…’
"Well, you could see the red mist descending in O’Connell’s eyes.
"He takes out his front teeth and hands them to me: ‘Hold them’. And then himself and Mick O’Driscoll went down, thumped the heads off the young lads, stripped them naked and dragged them up the top of the bus!"
And while there's undoubtedly plenty more cracking stories from down the years, there's lots more to be said about one of Ireland's finest ever sportsmen.
"You can’t say enough about Paulie. The whole country understands how important he was, and as a player and a captain he was the fucking ultimate; the ultimate craic, ultimate hard worker, ultimate professional, he had everything.
"Apart from winning the World Cup, he’s achieved everything there is to achieve on a rugby pitch. He’ll retire a happy man… even though he’s rarely happy!"