Thomas Scully

OMI is a hereditary noble title (''kabane'') of ancient Japan. It was given to the descendants of the Imperial Family before Emperor Kōgen. Along with ''Muraji'', ''Omi'' was reserved for the head of the most powerful clans during the Kofun period. ...

( May 1930 – 7 April 2020) was a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

manager, priest and schoolteacher. He managed the Offaly county team, where he was pivotal in establishing them as a rising side in the sport.

Biography

Scully was a native of Aharney in Tullamore. He had two brothers and six sisters: Ned, Michael, Nance (Hanlon), Mary (Garry), Rose (Cleary), Margaret (Henry), Lily (MacDonald) and Emily (Hanlon). All bar Emily predeceased him. He studied philosophy at UCD and theology at the Oblates Scholasticate in Piltown County Kilkenny. During the 1960s, Scully trained the Belcamp College boarding school team in Dublin to three Leinster Schools' Football Championships. He led Offaly to the final of the 1968–69 National Football League (their first), the Leinster Senior Football Championship title (their third) and then to the 1969 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final (their first since

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), having only taken over that year (though he would have trained any Offaly players living in Dublin). Scully departed for South Africa in 1970 to teach mathematics in Johannesburg. However, apartheid did not suit him and he moved to England instead. While in England he lived in both London and Manchester. He there became involved in the Lancashire GAA. By 1988, Scully had become Director of the Irish Centre in London. He established a day centre for the elderly and encouraged the older Irish to mix with the older English and the older Europeans living there. In May that year,

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

's reporter

Leo Enright Leo J. Enright (born 18 March 1955) is an Ireland, Irish radio broadcaster and news reporter. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Early life and career Leo Enri ...

was in

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and Scully spoke to him on camera. He was selected as Offaly Person of the Year in 1989.

Later life

By 2018, Scully's eyesight had deteriorated. Based in later life in the House of Retreat in the Dublin suburb of Inchicore, Scully heard confessions and ministered to the sick. He died in Dublin of COVID-19 on the morning of 7 April. He was one month short of his 90th birthday. His death occurred at St James's Hospital. He had been in hospital for less than a week and had spoken over the phone during those final days.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Tom 1930 births 2020 deaths Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland Gaelic football managers Irish humanitarians Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Irish expatriates in South Africa 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Irish schoolteachers Mathematics educators Sportspeople from Tullamore, County Offaly 21st-century Irish Roman Catholic priests