The man in the middle

For a man who gives two hundred percent to what he admits is the "vocation" of refereeing, it's surprising to note that Mullingar's Barry Kelly, at the start, was somewhat of a reluctant whistlebearer."Tommy Glennon from Tyrrellspass badgered me into doing an inter-county refereeing course, and I told him I wasn't going," Barry told the Westmeath Examiner this week. "He was the Referees Co-ordinator for Westmeath at the time, and he was told he had to get someone from around here to take up the course."As a teacher at St. Brendan's Community School, Birr, for four weeks Barry's already arduous trip home to Mullingar was interrupted by sojourns to Portlaoise, where he was schooled in the mechanics of GAA refereeing.Fourteen years later, with two All-Ireland hurling finals under his belt, the at first reluctant match official has come a long way. Rightly so, he is recognised by pundits, players and peers as one of the country's top referees in the small ball game.Barry would likely have been in the running for this year's All-Ireland hurling final, but he has taken a step back for family reasons. In May, the Mullingar native and his wife, Catherine, celebrated the arrival of their twin sons, Manus and Theo.Barry hopes to pass on to his sons the love of GAA which was inculcated in him at an early age by his father, John."I suppose it all started when my dad won senior football championships with the Mental Hospital team during the 1960s," he explained. "My father was involved in GAA all through his life, and umpired for Paddy Collins when he refereed the All-Ireland football finals in 1976, '81 and '84. The trips to Croke Park had a great effect on me, as it would on any impressionable young fella."From around eight years of age, Barry played football with Mullingar Shamrocks, and hurling for St. Oliver Plunkett's, and did so well into adulthood.A former student of St. Mary's CBS Primary School and Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar, Barry mixed sporting prowess with diligence in the classroom, where English and History were his two favourite subjects - the former taught by John O'Hara, and the latter by Seamus O'Brien.After secondary school, he completed an arts degree at UCD, and qualified as a secondary school teacher with a Higher Diploma in Maynooth.As a teacher of English and History in Birr for sixteen years, Barry also has had the opportunity to shape some of Offaly's brightest hurling talents."A huge number of Offaly hurlers came out of St. Brendan's. It's a good hurling nursery," he said. "During my time there we've had the likes of Rory Hanniffy and Michael Verney go through."At various points over the years, practically half the current Offaly team would have come out of St. Brendan's."Teaching is the best job in the world, Barry maintains, especially in a mixed school, where there's "a great sense of balance".The genial Mullingar man played football for Mullingar Shamrocks up until about five years ago, but gave up hurling for St. Oliver Plunkett's at an earlier age, so he could concentrate on refereeing. "It was a wise course of action," he joked. "It'd become difficult if you were refereeing a lad one week, and marking him the next!"After completing his inter-county refereeing course, Barry was equipped with the ability to officiate in both codes, but he quickly leaned towards hurling. "There were fewer referees in hurling at the time," he explained. "Partly because some of the older, more established referees had retired, and also I think because there was a perception that hurling was a lot more difficult to referee than football."But I think football is a lot more difficult. In hurling, the idea is to move the ball as quick as you can, whereas you have to hang on into it in football."Football becomes a possession game, with lots of short passing. In hurling, you might give an average of 24 or 25 frees a game, whereas in football often times it could go up to 50."Barry started refereeing locally, and landed his first county senior hurling final in 1998, at just 28 years of age. "I had never played in a senior final, so it was lovely to be involved in some way," he said, recalling his first big moment as the man in the middle.Inter-county appointments followed. In 1999, he was the standby referee for the All-Ireland minor hurling final; he also refereed the Leinster minor final that year.Since then - joined, as usual, by his team of umpires, Michael Coyle, Seamus O'Brien, Noel Nugent and Anthony Gavin - the Mullingar official has become a regular fixture at hurling clashes around the country. Worth noting is the fact that his rise to prominence as a referee came hand in hand with a memorable era in Westmeath football and hurling.Landing his first All-Ireland minor final in 2000, Barry progressed to officiate at National Hurling League, Walsh and Kehoe Cup games, before breaking into the Leinster SHC arena. His first major game came in 2004, when he refereed an All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier between Cork and Tipperary in Killarney.The atmosphere was electric."Cork were four or five points down at half time, and I remember later reading in Donal "g Cusack's book about the verdict in the dressing room: if Cork didn't go out and turn the game around, that would be the end of that team."They came out then and clawed the game back; it was fantastic stuff to be involved in."The All-Ireland Under 21 HC final of 2004 - the same year in which Westmeath celebrated its first Leinster senior football title win - was Barry's first major adult final. It was followed by the Munster SHC final in 2005; all of which eventually led to a dream appointment in 2006, when he was selected as the referee for the All-Ireland hurling final between Cork and Kilkenny."One of my most fond memories is running onto Croke Park before the start of the 2006 final," Barry said. "It was daunting, taking charge of such a huge game with the two superpowers of hurling, and Kilkenny trying to stop Cork from doing three in a row."With most of his matches passing by without controversy, the young Westmeath referee's reputation continued to grow, and he was selected as the top match official for a second All-Ireland final in 2008, when Kilkenny snatched a third title in a row by beating Waterford.Despite his record speaking for itself, Barry is keenly aware that even one mistake can haunt a referee, particularly if managers and the media react in a certain way."I would be an avid reader of newspapers. I'm aware of what's going on and what's said after a game, and I would say that most journalists are fair minded."But it's a pity people, at all times, wouldn't strive to adopt the demeanour of Brian Cody and Mickey Harte. No matter what decision is made, no referee ever gets their ire after a game."Referring specifically to the recent Leinster senior football final between Meath and Louth, Barry opined that everyone will remember Tyrone referee Martin Sludden's "howler" of a decision moments before the final whistle."But nobody will remember the way he refereed the game up until that point, and nobody will point the finger at the Louth forwards, who had the game for the taking," he said."I think generally, there are a lot of managers who try to draw attention away from their own inadequacies by focusing on the referee."It's like the country in general. There's a bit of blame mentality taking over. Everybody's blaming the referee, blaming Brian Cowen or Brian Lenihan or whoever, instead of actually doing something about it themselves."Going back to the Meath-Louth fiasco: whither the video referee?"I think there are three sports it works very well in: rugby, cricket and tennis," Barry remarked. "But it's gone to the point where they nearly overdo it in rugby."I would have no problem with them bringing it in, as long as it's used judiciously, or to make a judgment on key moments, like Martin Sludden's."There would be a question as to how it would be rolled out. For instance, if it's used in Croke Park, would you use it at league games, or at a game between Westmeath and Wicklow in Tullamore?"I have no problems with technology, as long as it's limited. If you go too scientific, you'd end up taking the sport out of it."Until next year, Manus, Theo and Catherine - not to mention the odd club game - are Barry's priorities, as he takes a brief sabbatical from his vocation. Barry will return to the inter-county arena in 2011.