The author and journalist, Raymond Smith, who died on April 2nd, aged 68, had a dream of passing away at the Killinan End in Semple Stadium, Thurles, on the occasion of a Munster hurling final between Tipperary and Cork. In an interview on Vincent Browne's late night radio programme, he said that in the dream he saw himself being lifted over the heads of spectators and gently laid on the sacred soil.
Raymond would have been very pleased. Raymond Smith was born in Killaloe, Co Clare in January 1932, one of seven children. His father, Henry L. Smith was a member of the Garda Siochana and was awarded the Scott Medal for Bravery for saving two people from drowning in Killaloe.
The family subsequently moved to Thurles - where Raymond attended the CBS. He was a high achiever and excelled at English in his Leaving Certificate.
The Tipperary Star was recruiting staff at the time and he was employed as a "cub" reporter.
He had played hurling with the school team but enjoyed playing soccer too for the local club. Later, when living in Dublin, he took up golf and became a member of Elm Park.
He was fortunate to have been involved in journalism at a time when sports, particularly Gaelic games, was experiencing a new high in Ireland.
He became a hurling fanatic, and that was to permeate his coverage of major matches. He had a passion for the game and made a point of dropping down to Liberty Square in Thurles on the day after a major match involving Tipperary, to discuss the merits or demerits of the team's performance. He had willing and sometimes argumentative listeners, including Tipp players, Tommy Doyle, Mick (Rattler) Byrne, Pat Stakelum and the Kennys. It was the era of gripping tussles between Tipperary and Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny, of Christy Ring, and of the great Wexford teams of the Rackards. When Raymond Smith left the Tipperary Star he joined the Munster Tribune in Clonmel. He was then 22 years of age, and the paper's youngest sports editor. He later joined the Irish Independent.
He was regarded as a very impartial GAA writer. Even in the most controversial of games, incidents and situations, he was always gracious in his judgment and that was notably obvious in the still famous Ring-Moloughney affair at the Munster hurling final of 1961 in Limerick. Although he held very strong views on what happened in that particular game, he refused to be drawn into any arguments on the incident which was unquestionably one of the major sporting topics of the time.
He claimed whatever happened rested between the players involved in that game and not between the critics "on the ditch", who formed their versions without knowing the full facts of the incident.
His career embraced, in particular, Gaelic games, racing and politics, but Gaelic games were where he made the strongest impact. He wrote over 20 books covering major games, racing and politics but the GAA was to benefit most from his prolific output. Very few, if any, of his contemporaries at the time, addressed the need for a reference book containing records of games, scores, teams and relevant dates.
In 1988, in response to many requests, both from the GAA and indeed sports writers, he compiled the long GAA records book, the Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games, which was to become a widely used reference text. He recently produced a millennium edition which was a sell-out. He also wrote further works including Decades of Glory followed by The Hurling Immortals and The Clash of the Ash.
Football was not neglected and he produced a number of editions of The Football Immortals.
His long association with horse racing moved him to write many outstanding books on the subject very much on a par with his GAA publications. He edited the Racing Annual with Tom McGinty, and wrote a number of biographies including Vincent O'Brien - The Master of Ballydoyle; The High Rollers of the Turf; Tigers of the Turf; Better One Day as a Lion and most recently, Vincent O'Brien - The Man and the Legend.
In the area of politics, he made valuable use of his time as a political correspondent with the Irish Independent and was a fearless critic of successive governments. He wrote a controversial biography of former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey - Charles J. Haughey: The Survivor followed by Garret: The Enigma and Haughey & O'Malley: The Quest for Power. An earlier book Under the Blue Flag dealt with his experiences as a reporter in the Belgian Congo in 1960.
Raymond Smith is survived by his wife, Sheila (nee O'Mahony); son, Stephen; daughter, Bairbre; brothers and sisters.
Raymond Smith: born 1932; died April, 2000.