I went from GAA All-Star to music career that saw me cross paths with Shane MacGowan, The Saw Doctors and Van Morrison
PAT CRITCHLEY and Shane MacGowan were missing a good few teeth between them backstage at the 1991 Féile ‘Trip to Tipp’ festival in Thurles.
Critchley, affectionately known as ‘Zoom’, went from 1985 hurling All-Star to music star with The Mere Mortals, doubling up as an accordion player with the legendary Portlaoise rockers.
A knee operation in 1989 ended his inter-county career with Laois but he was in front of a crowd at Semple Stadium a year later with his beloved band.
Zoom and Co shared the bill with The Saw Doctors, Meatloaf and Van Morrison after band manager and future O’Moore County boss Séamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett pasted the roads with their posters.
A year later when The Pogues headlined, they drank backstage with MacGowan — who passed away last November aged 65.
Critchley was still near-enough toothless from the 1984 Centenary Cup hurling quarter-final against the county of MacGowan’s roots.
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He said of 1990: “We had backstage passes for the whole week. It was a fabulous weekend.
"We played around 12 o’clock on Saturday morning but around that time The Saw Doctors were playing.
“Ah, there was a great buzz, a great crowd from Laois went down. We were late on to the line-up so we weren’t on the posters.
“But starting from Dublin, I think Cheddar and the crew put posters of The Mere Mortals the whole way down to Thurles from Dublin.
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"They were great for that kind of craic. Tom Stapleton, I think, was the contact that Cheddar had to get us on the line-up.
“He was chuffed afterwards, and we said, ‘Ah Jesus, Thomas, the Munster Championship has to be played on that pitch!’
“We weren’t playing in ’91 but we were back there. Shane MacGowan was headlining with The Pogues one of the nights.
“I lost most of my teeth against Tipperary in ’84 in the Centenary Cup quarter- final.
"When we were backstage in the tent, myself and Paul Marron, the lead singer, we were drinking two cans of Heineken while Shane was tucking into the vodka over in the corner.
“Paul Marron says, ‘Jaysus, there’s MacGowan over in the corner there and not a tooth in his head and he never f***in’ played hurling!’”
Critchley’s life story will be told in tomorrow night’s episode of TG4’s Laochra Gael.
TWO TRAGEDIES
The Portlaoise man will go down as one of his county’s all-time greats in both codes — but his life has not been without tragedy.
Dublin hurler Paul Mulhare, 25, lost his life after he sustained a blow to the head from Critchley’s hurl in an NHL game in November 1985, just after the Laois man was named an All-Star.
And in March 2016, Critchley accidentally struck and killed Tipperary councillor Willie Kennedy in a road accident in Portlaoise.
Neither tragedy will ever leave him but resilience and sport got him through, between hurling and his work as a coach and PE teacher at Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise.
He said: “When I was approached first to do the programme, I was nervous about how it would pan out, but all the crew, they’re just brilliant.
“It is a commemoration of Paul as a hurler as well, to keep his memory as a hurler alive.
"It was tough going doing it at the same time but we got through it.
“You couldn’t do the programme and not deal with it.
“For it to happen twice in your life, it’s . . . you just can’t put any sense to it but it happened.
“With the teams and players in the school, Scoil Chríost Rí, SCR, our values that we push are spirit, commitment and resilience.
“Even after my dad died as well, I coached the basketball team a couple of days after the funeral and it was just when the time comes for you to show resilience you have to show it as well.
“There was great support there when these unfortunate, tragic things happen and you’ve got to show resilience yourself as well.
“I suppose when you’re coaching or when you get back on the field playing, it blanks everything else out as well. It’s a little bit cathartic.”
LAOIS legend Pat Critchley’s episode of TG4’S Laochra Gael will air tomorrow night at 9.30pm.