Due to the holiday season it escaped my notice that a few stalwarts in GAA lore had passed away, writes Micheál O¨Muircheartaigh.

News of the death of Kilkenny's Tom Ryall did not reach me until close on New Year's Day. I rarely if ever visited Nowlan Park in Kilkenny without meeting Tom, as affable a person as ever came out of the county, or anywhere else for that matter. While he devoted a lot of time to GAA administrative affairs, my abiding memory of him will be that of the `answer man' complete. His knowledge of all aspects of the national games was phenomenal and he was ever willing to share it with others or, more often than not, come to people's rescue by answering intricate questions about this and that.

Tom will be missed from his job as Kilkenny PRO and the county's delegate at central council.

Eddie Boyle of Louth also passed away over the Christmas. More than a few shrewd judges of football would maintain that the Cooley native was the greatest exponent of full-back play of all time. He had the physique one associates with folklore images of giants, yet he had the adroitness of foot and hand of a ballet dancer. It is no wonder that he was an automatic choice on Louth and Leinster teams for almost a decade and half.

His successes with Louth were not commensurate with his enormous skill but he got an All-lreland junior medal in 1934 and a Leinster senior in 1943. He had better luck with Leinster and was a member of winning Railway Cup sides on five occasions in 1935, '39, '40, '44 and '45.

Eddie played club football with Cooley Kickhams, with whom he won championships in 1935 and '37 before moving to Seán McDermott's in Dublin, where he won a county medal in 1947.

I met Eddie on a number of occasions and found him to be great company and more interested in talking about the game in general than his own personal achievements. His selection for the Texaco Hall of Fame in 1990 was acclaimed all over the country.

Eamonn Boland of Roscommon was another who slipped away during the winter break. His name will forever be associated with the ultra-golden era of football for the county which was Roscommon of the 1940s. He was a member of the junior team that won the 1940 All-lreland title ö a good omen, as it was sandwiched between two minor AII-Irelands. That particular triple crown was merely a prelude to even greater feats on the football fields. In 1943, with Boland manning midfield with Liam Gilmartin, Roscommon won the Connaught title for the first time since the outbreak of World War 1. A great team had arrived on the scene and they won the AIl-Ireland the same year when beating Cavan in a replay. Joy was even greater the following year when they retained the title, beating a Kerry team of legends in the final.

Eamonn always held on to his midfield spot and was there again when Ros' lost to Kerry in a replay of the '46 final. His career was a long one, stretching from 1940 to 1954, during which he won six Connaught medals.

Eamonn had the distinction of playing club football in many counties where work commitments took him and his name is to be found among the members of the Lees, who were Cork champions of 1954.

John Joe Lavin, that great personality of Sligo, is another player of far off days who joined the heavenly team of greats in recent days. Sligo football has not enjoyed too many hours of glory over the decades but John Joe was one of those who never lost the hope that better times might not be that far around the corner.

It was a good outlook and it enabled him to enjoy football through the years. He had a long spell as a player between the late 1930s and early '50s, and represented Connaught in the Railway Cup competition. An appearance in the provincial final of 1947 was the only inter-county honour to come his way. However, that did not take from the esteem in which he was held and he served as president of the Sligo County Board for many years until his death.