Stanley de Lacy: Stanley de Lacy, who died last weekend in his 91st year, was an outstanding Irish international hockey player and athlete. He was one of two brothers from a large Limerick family to play for their country in different sports.
As a hockey player, Stanley was capped 37 times for Ireland, a record at the time of his retirement in 1954. He was frequently team captain and represented his country in Britain and Germany.
During a joint British-Irish tour of Kenya, Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) and South Africa in 1952 (the hockey equivalent of a Lions rugby tour) he was captain and, for a time, team manager as well.
As a sprint athlete, he was Irish champion and national record-holder in the 100yd and 220yd races, the former of which he could achieve in 9.8 seconds.
In his later years he was prominent in the business life of Limerick, becoming managing director of Joseph Matterson & Sons, the food-processing firm that was a major employer in the city in its heyday in the 1950s, for whom he worked for 50 years.
Stanley de Lacy was born in 1914, the sixth of eight children of John and Anne de Lacy of Barrington Street in Limerick. John de Lacy died when Stanley was very young.
Nonetheless, Anne nurtured each of the eight children successfully to adulthood.
Several of the children were sporty, but none more so than Stanley and his brother Hugh, who played rugby for Ireland, including in the grand slam year of 1948.
On one occasion both young men were playing for Ireland at the same time on the same day, Stanley against the Welsh hockey team, Hugh against their rugby team. Mrs de Lacy attempted to listen to both match commentaries simultaneously on two radios.
Stanley attended St Michael's National School and CBS Limerick. He later took a night course in accountancy and management at the Limerick technical college.
He began his hockey career aged 14 with the Church Lads Brigade and by his mid-teens was representing Munster at under-age level. He played for Limerick County and eventually for the first team of the Limerick Protestant Young Men's Association, the LPYMA.
He had his first trial for the Irish hockey team in 1935, winning his first cap two years later. He was the outstanding outside right of his generation and played on five Triple Crown winning sides in 1937, 1938 and 1939, 1946 and 1948.
Through his mastery of the ball while dribbling at high speed, and his ability to create opportunities and score goals, he achieved total dominance of the outside right position.
He played for Ireland 21 times before being on a losing side. He was instrumental in Ireland's first victory over England on English soil. In 1939 he played on the British-Irish team that met Germany in Munich on the eve of the second World War.
After the game Adolf Hitler presented each player with a porcelain figurine of the Monk's Child, the city's symbol, which Stanley kept in his trophy cabinet.
In his parallel career as a sprint athlete, de Lacy was champion in both parts of Ireland, and ran for Ireland against Scotland, England and Wales. His training regime was simple but effective. To practise starts, he would kneel by a corrugated shed and throw a stone on to its roof. The crack of the stone landing was his starting pistol.
To practise his strides, he raced along a disused train track, each third sleeper equating to a nine-foot stride.
Tony O'Reilly, who knew him in business in later years, described him as "one of the great outside rights for Ireland in hockey and one of the fastest things on two feet that I have ever seen".
In 1994 his achievements and lifelong commitment to sport were recognised when he was inducted into the Texaco Sportstars Hall of Fame, an accolade that made him quietly proud.
Stanley was a small, wiry man, with an infectious smile, impish sense of humour and a lifelong love of the pipe. He had a warm and gentle personality. He loved the company of women and was popular with them, too. He could - and did - exchange a wink at 90.
He had no enemies but many friends, as was evident at his funeral which was packed to overflowing, the flags of the LPYMA and Limerick Athletics draped over his coffin.
He loved Castleconnell and his view of the Shannon. He spent many contented retirement days in his garden, growing tomatoes, fuchsia plants and ceaselessly improving his lawn.
He was predeceased by his wife, Hazel, to whom he was devoted. He is survived by his daughter Barbara Hartigan and son-in-law Leslie, who cared for him selflessly in his final weeks, his grandchildren Shane, Clare, Erin and Tara, great-grandchildren Oisin and Daisy, extended family, friends and admirers.
Stanley de Lacy, born December 26th, 1914; died August 28th, 2005