Tom Spillane (born 1962) 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 ...

er who played for Templenoe and the Kerry county team in the 1980s.

Career

Maura Spillane gave birth to Tom in

Templenoe Templenoe () is a civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. It is situated four miles from Kenmare, on the N70 road to Sneem, which forms part of the Ring of Kerry. Templenoe is the location of the Ring of Kerry golf club. There is a Gaelic Athle ...

, near

Kenmare Kenmare () is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of ''Ceann Mara'', meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay. Location Kenmare is located at the head of Kenmare ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

in 1962. He was — along with his brothers Pat and

Mick Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Michael (given name), Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a List of ethnic slurs, derogatory term for an Irish people, Irish person or a ...

— a key member of the successful Kerry

teams of the 1980s. He won an

All-Ireland Minor Football Championship The Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Football Championship is the premier under-17 "knockout" competition in Gaelic football played in Ireland. 2017 was the final year of the minor under 18 football championship as it were replaced by an under ...

medal in 1980 before first breaking into the county panel in 1981. He played with Kerry for the next eleven seasons, winning four

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

medals, five

Munster Senior Football Championship The Munster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship and shortened to Munster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It i ...

medals, one

Kerry Senior Football Championship The Kerry Senior Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as Garvey’s SuperValu Senior Football Championship) is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by the Kerry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association since 188 ...

and three All Stars. Himself and

Ger Lynch Ger Lynch (born 10 December 1958) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played as a wing back at senior level for the Kerry county team. Lynch made his first appearance for the team during the 1982 championship and became a regular player ...

— assigned to mark Tommy Conroy and

Barney Rock Barney Rock (born 10 January 1961) is a former Gaelic footballer and Manager (Gaelic games), manager at club and inter-county level (he managed Westmeath county football team, Westmeath in the mid-1990s). Biography Born in Ballymun, but growing ...

during the 1984 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final — began their efforts during the national anthem, which they sang with aplomb. Spillane, quoted in the book ''Princes of Pigskin'', said of this tactic later: "There was no belting but the plot was to sing the National Anthem as loud as we could into their ears to put the

fear of God Fear of God may refer to fear itself, but more often to a sense of awe, and submission to, a deity. People subscribing to popular monotheistic religions for instance, might fear Hell and divine judgment, or submit to God's omnipotence. Christian ...

into them. Neither of us were great singers but they must have thought we were wired to the moon". The headline in the printed edition read: "From twin tower to supersub target man, Walsh is key to Kingdom dream". Together with his brothers

and Pat, the Spillanes hold a record 19 All-Ireland medals between them. However, he won a mere four All-Ireland medals besides Mick's seven and Pat's eight. Tom Spillane works as an auctioneer and runs his business from Killarney. He specialises in dealing with property in the Killarney and Kenmare areas. Spillane's brother Pat took over their mother's bar, renaming it Pat Spillane's Bar, and ran it before leasing it. Tom Spillane bought the pub from Pat Spillane in the late 2010s, with the intention of running it alongside his sons

Killian Killian or Kilian, as a given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the ot ...

and

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin language, Latin given name Adrianus (given name), Adrianus or Hadrianus (disambiguation), Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria (river), Adria from the Venetic language, Venetic and ...

(also Kerry footballers).

References

1962 births Living people All Stars Awards winners (football) Gaelic football backs Irish auctioneers Kerry inter-county Gaelic footballers

Tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

Templenoe Gaelic footballers Winners of four All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football) {{Kerry-gaelic-football-bio-stub