Tommy Sugrue

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For the historian, see Thomas Sugrue.
Tommy Sugrue
Personal information
Home townTralee
Years active1977–?
EmployerGAA
Sport
SportGaelic football
PositionReferee

Tommy Sugrue is a

1994
.

Career

He began refereeing in 1977, got given the 1983 Kerry County Final. Then off it all went for him. He got

All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship and Club Final, he refereed in the Munster and Ulster Senior Football Championships. He refereed the four All-Ireland SFC finals: 1988's Cork v Meath (drawn game and replay); 1992's Donegal v Dublin; 1994's Down v Dublin.[2]

Sugrue refereed four

1994 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final between Down and (again) Dublin. Dublin couldn't win that one either.[4] Of the four All-Ireland SFC finals that Sugrue refereed it was the 1992 final that he was most pleased with, because Donegal won it.[2]

In 2018, Martin Breheny listed the 1988 replay and 1992 as the tenth and seventh greatest All-Ireland SFC final respectively.[5]

Sugrue spoke to

1996 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay about his own experience from the 1988 replay, which was the last time this had happened. He said: "It's the last thing a referee needs, going through it all again, the sleepless nights, not being able to eat, getting sick. Everyone knows the sacrifices players make for these big occasions. It's the same for referees. I've a local semi-final coming up and I'm training four nights a week. It's the last thing you want, having to psyche yourself to go through the physical torment and the things that get said, even phone calls to your house. It has a terrible effect on your family. I know it's the same for players but they could be on a holiday in the Canaries in a few months. A referee gets nothing. I don't envy Pat McEnaney going through it all again."[6]

References

  1. ^ "Brave, selfless, dedicated people who have a thankless job". Sunday Independent. 29 July 2007. Tralee referee Tommy Sugrue is widely regarded…
  2. ^ a b c "'I always treated every game and every player equally'". Independent.ie. 16 September 2017. Tommy Sugrue pictured at his home in Tralee with the referee jersey he wore on All-Ireland Final day in 1988.
  3. ^ Ó Sé, Tomás (14 September 2019). "Reshuffle to swing it for Dublin". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 14 September 2019. He [Dr Con Murphy] reminded me that far worse than anything this year [2019] was when they got a Kerryman — Tommy Sugrue — to ref the 1988 All-Ireland final between Cork and Meath.
  4. ^ "'Men in black' have their say". Irish Examiner. 19 November 2002.
  5. ^ Breheny, Martin. "Martin Breheny's Greatest All-Ireland Finals". Irish Independent. 1 September 2018, pp. 11, 14.
  6. ^ Moran, Seán (27 September 2014). "Switching referees helps shelve issues in All-Ireland final replays". The Irish Times.
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