*John Torpey. Photograph: John Mangan
KILKISHEN’s John Torpey one of the county’s most eminent entrepreneurs will be laid to rest this week but leaves behind a lasting legacy that will transcend generations.
Torpey Hurleys founded by John in 1981 has become one of Ireland’s most respected and trusted brands with their hurleys used all over the world.
‘Passion & Pride’ may have been the title for the 2005 biography of one of John’s most loyal customers, Davy Fitzgerald but the two words were epitomised by John when it came to family, business, hurling and his community.
On Sunday, he died suddenly at the age of eighty four. Full of life and ideas, his death has shook those nearest and dearest to him, all who knew him adored his charisma and his grá for telling stories.
In May 1981, John applied for planning permission from Clare County Council to construct a hurley manufacturing workshop in Belvoir, Sixmilebridge. He received the green light later that year which led to the birth of one of the Clare’s most recognisable businesses. The idea had been simmering for some time and had placed an advert in the classifieds section of The Clare Champion publicly appealing for ash trees at the beginning of 1981. Further plans saw the addition of a new filter system in July 1996.
He grew up on the family farm in Kilkishen, after school he worked as a shop assistant at a hardware store in Ennis. From here, he moved to The Garden County and worked in the hardware business in Wicklow, his work brought him to Dundrum where he took responsibility for the timber department.
Home came calling and following the death of his father, John returned to East Clare to take over the family farm. His entrepreneurial spirit was beginning to emerge, he turned his hand from milking cows, growing cabbage and breeding collie dogs. He recalled in an 2014 interview, “I was doing whatever. could think of to make a few quid”.
On one damp winter day where he was prevented from doing much productive farm work, the penny dropped that he needed to find another way to supplement his farm income. He had always made his own hurleys while lining out with O’Callaghans Mills, Clare and Wicklow, he had a skill for it which led to Clare hurlers such as Ger Loughnane, Seán Stack, Seán Hehir and Enda O’Connor asking him to make their hurleys. “Over time too, I found that players were coming from further afield. The busier I got at making hurleys, the more I realised that I couldn’t do that and the farming at the same time. So in 1981, I bought by my first woodturning lathe, set up a make-shift workshop and officially launched Torpey Hurleys on a full-time basis,” he recalled.
As a hurler, John was always prepared during his forty six year playing career. He would never arrive to a game with just one hurley, there was always a spare at the ready. He made his senior debut for the Mills at the age of fifteen and last lined out for The Fireballs aged 52 for the club’s junior team. His uncle Paddy gave him his first hurley and remembered decades later, “that was the day the first seeds were sown”.
Knowing the GAA’s benefits in networking and getting embedded in the community, he showcased his talents in Wicklow and won an All-Ireland junior hurling championship in 1967 and also won three Leinster titles with Wicklow.
O’Callaghans Mills were glad to welcome him home, he was trainer and goalkeeper of the 1968 side which won the Clare intermediate hurling championship which was their first adult title in thirty one years. He also received the call-up to wear the saffron and blue but was second choice goalkeeper to Éire Óg’s Paschal O’Brien and lined out with the county’s intermediates side. He ranked the 1977 Clare SHC final loss to Sixmilebridge as his biggest disappointment in hurling.
Goalkeepers need to have cat-like reflexes and John was also lively on his feet which was evident in his abilities as a set-dancer. In October 1982, he was involved in organising set-dancing classes for adults at the GAA pavilion in Kilkishen and won county and provincial set-dancing titles in Scór for O’Callaghans Mills.
Promoting Co Clare and its offering remained to the forefront of John’s mind. In March 1986, he was one of the leading organisers of a two-day visit of the Wicklow U16 hurling squad to Clare where they partook in a series of successful matches, sight-seeing tours and entertainment including a visit to Bunratty Castle & Folk Park.
Within the locality, John was involved with the Kilkishen Development Committee since its inception in 2011. He was one of the leading figures that helped to acquire the Cultural Centre through fundraising for the Kilkishen Church Restoration Project and was part of the personnel who participated in the Kilkishen Lord and Lady fundraiser from May to September 2012. He also had a hand in running Golf Classics, the raffle of a Ferguson 35 tractor and draws for All-Ireland final tickets.
Securing a consistent supply of good quality ash timber was one of the first challenges encountered by John when he set up Torpey. He was unable to find a consistent source in Ireland but luck intervened when he discovered a spot in the Netherlands where good ash existed. He flew there five times a year to personally select every tree from which their hurleys were made. “To make the curved head of a hurley which is capable of withstanding the force of other hurleys you need a curved grain. And this can only be found at the very bottom of the tree where the root turns into the base,” he previously explained.
Scór was the setting for his big break in 1982. While exhibiting hurleys at a competition in Millstreet, Co Cork, he met Joe Egan who was working as a buyer for a number of large retail stores, one of which was Arnotts. Within months, Torpey Hurlers were supplying Arnotts, their sports section is Elverys and Torpey has been a trusted supplier since 1982. Six months later, Lifestyle Sports came calling and over time, O’Neills, Heatons Sportsworld and independent stores became valued customers. “The best thing I ever did though was to put good quality hurleys into the shops,” he once stated.
Clare’s success in winning the 1995 All-Ireland SHC title proved to be the making of the business with stars like PJ O’Connell, Frank Lohan, Davy Fitzgerald, Brian Lohan, Fergie Tuohy, Conor Clancy and Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin all using Torpey hurleys. “It was the makings of my business, it really was,” John told The Clare Echo in September 2020. He took immense satisfaction in seeing hurleys hold a Torpey in front of a sold-out Croke Park.
Famous faces have also got their hands on Torpey hurleys. When Barack Obama made his official State visit to Ireland in May 2011 and remarked, “you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue”, he was presented with a Torpey hurley by then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny (FG). So too was Rory McIlroy at the 2014 Irish Open in Fota Island Resort.
During his time as Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping met with John and received a Torpey hurler in Croke Park in what the Belvoir man called an “amazing” experience. The call came after he impressed doing workshops in Croke Park for the previous five years for the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals while the museum in Croke Park also showcased a video of John working with his old tools. The specially crafted hurley presented to Mr Zi was embossed by John’s daughter, Claire with the words ‘Croke Park Visit Ireland 19/2/12’.
From 2014, John was beginning to pass on the business to his son Seán who had returned from Loughborough University in the UK completing degree in Sport Technology while he had also worked for Adidas in Germany. At this time, the business had an annual turnover of €450,000, a staff count of eight and were manufacturing more than 70,000 hurleys per annum.
Sales revenue has spiked with the addition of their online store. The ability to see demand for their hurleys in Melbourne, Indianapolis, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea was a source of great pride for John. Before stepping back, he had set up a new business which made wood briquettes from the waste generated in hurley making, an enterprise which received funding from LEADER.
Advice for businesses was offered by John during a profile on him by The Sunday Independent in 2014. Knowing your business and product is key, he said, “You only get one chance to make a good impression, so be sure you know everything about your product so you can be confident when it comes to selling it”. Credit worthiness must be kept, he flagged, “Honour your commitments and develop a reputation for paying what you own. Then when things are difficult you are more likely to get the support you need”. His final piece of advice was that a bad tree bends with every wind, “you have to have a plan for your business and you have to work that plan. You can’t allow yourself to always be swayed this way and that. Focus on quality and affordability”.
John will be sadly missed by his beloved wife Mary, his children Patricia, Pauline, Connie, Claire, Karol and Sean, his sons-in- law Tom, Jimmy, Michael, Shane and Brian, his daughter-in-law Michelle and his many grandchildren Aoife, Croídhe, Méabh, Gillian, Susan, Ella, Finn, Gwen, Pearse, Nichola, Emma, Paul, Jim, Faye and Robyn. He is also sadly missed by his brother Patrick, his sisters Margaret, Lena, Fran and Mary and his many nieces and nephews, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, extended family, neighbours and a wide circle of friends
