Mossy O'Riordan

Maurice Francis "Mossy" O'Riordan was an Irish sportsperson who played hurling with the Cork senior inter-county team in the 1940s and 1950s.

A member of the Blackrock Huring and Football club, Mossy first came to prominence with the Cork senior hurlers in the mid-1940s. He first tasted success in 1946 when he captured his first Munster title. This was later converted into a first All-Ireland medal following a victory over Kilkenny in the championship decider. The following year O’Riordan won a second Munster title, however, on this occasion Cork were defeated by Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final. O’Riordan won a third provincial medal in 1952, before later collecting his second and final All-Ireland medal following a victory over Dublin in the final.

Though he was more than six feet tall, Mossie was a hurling stylist with a powerful stroke. In the Minster semifinal of 1949 he struck a shot so hard that it rebounded of the stanchion that in those days supported the netting behind the goals and the sliothar rebounded so quickly that the referee and his umpires assumed that it had rebounded off the crossbar. Mossy would say to the day he died that 'it was in' and GAA officialdom clearly concurred because Mossy's 'goal that never was' resulted in the GAA deciding to remove the offending stanchion and allowing the net to lie unsupported - as it is today. Incidentally, had Mossy's goal stood, Tipperary might not have achieved its '49 to '51 three in a row and Cork might have done a six in a row - '49 to '54.

On 27 August 2008, Maurice (Mossie) O'Riordan died in Newcastle NSW (Australia), where he had lived for some 40 years, after a severe stroke. He was 82 years old. He is buried in East Maitland cemetery (NSW) with his wife, Molly (née Fennell), and his two sons Eoin and Sean.