The GAA and the wider sporting community are today remembering Mick O'Dwyer who has died at the age 88.
A revered player and manager, Micko, as he was affectionately known, certainly played a part in transforming Gaelic football when he took over as Kerry manager in 1975, guiding the county to eight All-Ireland titles. He would later go on to manage Kildare, Laois, Wicklow and Clare.
President Michael D Higgins said O'Dwyer was "one of the greatest figures ever to be associated with Gaelic Games".
"May I join with all of those who have expressed their sadness on learning of the death of Mick O'Dwyer," he said in a statement.
"As both a player, and in particular as a manager, he was astonishing successful. The Kerry team which he led to eight All-Ireland titles was one of the finest that Gaelic football has ever seen.
"Beyond his native Kerry, Mick will be warmly remembered by the people of Kildare, Laois and Wicklow for the success which he subsequently brought to their counties, as well as for his contribution to Clare.
"May I express my deepest sympathies to Mick's family, teammates, former players, and all of his many friends.
"Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal."
Pat Spillane who was a Kerry player under Mick O'Dwyer for each of his eight All-Ireland titles, credits his former manager with giving him a football career.
" I was privileged and lucky to have been a player with Mick O'Dwyer. I was a player who was a very average ability. Mick O'Dwyer, saw something in me, saw that I had a good attitude and that I'd run through a wall. He gave me a chance, gave me the confidence, filled me full of belief, and left me off.
"I was very, lucky that I knew in the last couple of days that he was not well. Two days ago, I managed to get to see him in his hospital bed in Kenmare. We don't often get a chance to say farewell to a loved one, but I got a chance to say farewell to Micko, but in particular to thank Micko for the footballing career that he gave me.
"Without Mick O'Dwyer, I wouldn't have been a footballer. All I can say to people is that I would love if everyone in the world could meet a Mick O'Dwyer in their lifetime.
"What he instilled in you was belief. He made you feel 10 foot tall. He made you feel good in yourself and he instilled that positive belief that you took on the field and you took off the field.
"An absolute gentleman, I will miss him, and I worshiped the ground that he stood on."
An Taoiseach Michaeál Martin said: "Micko lived and breathed Gaelic football. He embodied everything good about the game - dedication, ambition, positivity and community."
I am deeply saddened at the passing of Mick O'Dwyer - an icon of Gaelic Games.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 3, 2025
Micko lived and breathed Gaelic football. He embodied everything good about the game - dedication, ambition, positivity and community.
My sympathies to all his family and the entire GAA community. pic.twitter.com/omyEA2Kcxl
Tánaiste Simon Harris described him as "one of our greatest GAA icons".
Speaking to RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he said Wicklow "likes to claim a little bit of him as well" because he brought the county to its most successful football result.
"As he did many other counties," he added.
"We're thinking of him today. We're thinking of his family, of his close friends and his GAA family... a real sporting giant has left us. May he rest in peace."
GAA President Jarlath Burns said, "he was, quite simply, the man with the Midas touch.
"The spell he weaved with that magnificent Kerry team of the 70s and 80s was a magic that was as intoxicating for us in South Armagh as it was in his own beloved South Kerry. The sideline battle of wits that he waged with Kevin Heffernan and Eugene McGee not only defined a generation for GAA fans, but they elevated Gaelic football to a whole new height and popularity."
'He created something new about what it was like to be manager of a team' - GAA president Jarlath Burns with his own personal tribute to the late Mick O'Dwyer #rtegaa pic.twitter.com/pqpggpznLi
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) April 3, 2025
Current Kerry manager Jack O'Connor, speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, spoke about meeting O'Dwyer after the Kingdom's All-Ireland win in 2022.
"I visited my parents' grave and we then decided to go to Micko's house on the off-chance he'd be there. We spent a pleasant half an hour with him. My son Cian took a picture of us with a mobile phone and it happened to win a McNamee Award - sports picture of the year which was lovely."
Remembering the man, O'Connor added: "He set the standard for all of us and we're only trotting after him. The record he had with that team between 1975 and 88, winning eight All-Irelands in 12 years, that will never be matched again.
"The standards he set, him and Kevin Heffernan drove the standards of Gaelic football to new levels. They were competing against each other; two driven men. The GAA has an awful lot to be thankful to both of them for, particularly Mick because he was such a great ambassador for the GAA. After leaving Kerry he spread the Gospel to four other counties, to Kildare, Laois, Wicklow and Clare."
Also on the programme was former Kerry player and later Fine Gael TD and government minister, Jimmy Deenihan, who remarked: "It's a sad day for the whole GAA community but also the sporting community because he was revered across all sports and respected. I have memories of Micko going right back to the early 70s when I was a student.
"I used to go to America, travel over with him to play football in New York and we built up a very close friendship. I was on his team up to 1982 and I had great respect for him as a trainer, of someone you'll listen to, that you would do what he would tell you. He was one of the greatest managers ever, a coach, a trainer, a psychologist, he was everything in Gaelic football, no doubt about it.
"He went out to look for the best training methods and before he started training us he went to Manchester United and Liverpool and changed the whole methods of training for Gaelic football in Kerry at that particular time. It was very specific training, related to Gaelic football and didn't waste time doing things we shouldn't be doing. It was driven in speed, ball handling, accuracy and so forth. He was exceptional and a way ahead of his time regarding his training methods."
RTÉ presenter Des Cahill remembered his days encountering Micko when working as a journalist with The Kerryman.
"When I went to work for The Kerryman as a young Dub and not many Dubs went there, he was hugely suspicious of what I was doing working there. He was cautious with me but once he got to know me he was so good to me for the rest of my career, right through my days in RTÉ.
"He was very loyal from that point of view and loyalty was a big thing with him. When Kerry won the four-in-a-row and didn't win the five-in-a-row some people said was he too loyal to the fellas that had done it for him and that he should have brought younger players through.
"His success and the style of football he played made him that legendary figure. Just say 'Micko' to anybody and everyone knows who you're talking about. The sense of fun he had, the sense of roguery. He brought Kerry on fantastic trips. They did a world tour in 1981. His fundraising, he famously did an ad for a washing machine, a Bendix washing machine, that became known as the Bendix scandal. It was the lead story on the radio news and the newspapers.
"Three or four of the Kerry players posed for a full-page ad sitting on a washing machine with dirty gear on. It was a deemed a great scandal that the amateurs were doing this but the money was going to the Kerry squad's holiday. He was always working an angle, a hugely competitive man. He brought massive joy to Kerry.
"And when he left Kerry, you look at the joy Kildare, Laois and Wicklow people got from his role with them. He brought them success they had not been used to and made players feel taller when he went in to those counties and told them 'why won't we win this?' They believed him. He was quite an extraordinary man and one of the most fantastic people I've come across in sport."
Former Kerry GAA chairperson, GAA president and now MEP, Seán Kelly, on what made the Waterville maestro stand out, said: "No manager was more successful in so many counties: Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Wicklow and finally Clare. He was one of the nicest and shrewdest people and was a brilliant man manager - the secret of his success. Micko was able to see what would motivate one player and not another.
"After winning the All-Ireland, he brought all the players, wives and officials to a big celebratory dinner in Waterville. Those are great memories.
"Micko is so famous as a manager, that we might forget that he was also one of the best footballers of his or any era, firstly as a wing-back and then as a most accurate corner-forward. I once saw him score 2-12 in one match in Croke Park!
"One of his biggest regrets? Not missing out on the five-in-a-row, but Waterville not winning the county championship. Waterville and Kerry were his life.
"It was an honour to have been close to such a great man."
