Youngest of trio of brothers who transformed Wexford hurling
IN A game where the names of outstanding players ring out across the decades, Billy Rackard, who has died at the age of 78, will always be remembered as the youngest of the Rackard brothers who transformed Wexford into one of the great hurling counties of the 1950s and 1960s.
Yet, his interests far transcended the world of the GAA. A successful entrepreneur, he had a passion for horses, wrote an insightful book on hurling, was an avid reader of Damon Runyon's whimsical world of Guys and Dolls, and developed one of the first par-three links golf courses in the country.
Synonymous with the great days of Wexford hurling, the Rackard bothers, Nicky, Bobby and Billy, were big men. Over six feet tall, Billy was a legendary defender and lined out at centre back on both the Wexford and Leinster teams for more than 10 years, appearing in more than 40 championship games between 1950 and 1964, and winning three All Ireland medals.
Spanning 14 years at the highest inter-county level, his playing career traced the golden era of Wexford hurling. Alongside his brothers, he won back-to-back All-Ireland titles in 1955 and 1956.
Going on to surpass their tally, he won a third Liam McCarthy medal in 1960 and was captain of the team that lost to Tipperary in the All-Ireland final of 1962. He also won two National League medals in 1956 and 1958.
From the parish of Killane, the Rackards were a strong family, big farmers, publicans and shop owners. The family home, where he was one of five boys and four girls, was the birthplace of John Kelly the 1798 rebel whose feats are sung in Kelly the Boy from Killane.
Frowning somewhat on hurling, Billy's father was a cricket fan. And while their granduncle had played with the Wexford football team that won four All-Ireland titles between 1915 and 1918, it was the small ball that appealed to the Rackard boys. They learned to hurl in the farm-yard, a pastime recalled in No Hurling Against the Dairy Door, an autobiographic memoir in which Billy fondly recalls growing up in rural Wexford. The title refers to his mother's exasperation at the sound of the "sliotar" being battered against the door of the dairy.
“People nowadays”, he observed “find it hard to believe that hurling was our main entertainment. When we were growing up the only thing we had were hurleys.”
Modest by nature, he made little of his great ability to rise above on-rushing forwards to catch the dropping ball, holding off his opponent with his shoulder while protecting his hand with the hurley.
In contrast with today’s lavish sponsorship, he recalled that for winning the National Sports Star of the Year in 1955 “I was taken to a pub and offered a bottle of Guinness. Mind you – I did have my picture in the national paper.” Playing with the Rathnure Club, he won his first senior county championship medal in 1948 and went on to win five senior medals with the club by the time he had stopped playing in 1967.
Having served his apprenticeship at Clerys, he opened his own drapery shop in Wexford where he later ran a furniture business.
Very much his own man, he sought and obtained a special dispensation from the Catholic Bishop of Ferns to marry Jill, a divorced Protestant from England whom he had set eyes on in the shop.
Above the sea at St Helens, they established riding stables and built a par-three golf course. He kept point-to-point racing horses, national hunters and, in his prime, rode out with the local hunt twice a week.
Predeceased by his wife Jill, he is survived by his daughters Callie, Sally, Sue, Laura, his son Brian, and sisters Molly and Rita.
Billy Rackard: born April 14th, 1930; died March 24th, 2009