Jasper cycles from Tipperary to Croke Park in search of the truth V
incent Jasper Murphy is a publican, restaurateur and undertaker in Fethard, Co Tipperary. He is also the producer of the Documentary On One on RTÉ Radio 1, 100 Years, 100 Miles, which tells the story of a photograph, a bicycle and the events of Bloody Sunday. His story started with a picture taken in the early 1900’s, of his grand-uncle Gus McCarthy on a racing bike. The family knew Gus as a very successful footballer, but not as a cyclist. Gus had played football for Tipperary and was on the team that played Dublin on November 21st, 1920, when the British forces opened fire in Croke Park, killing 14 people, in a revenge shooting after Michael Collins’s men assassinated British agents only a few hours before. That day became known as Bloody Sunday. Not long after he saw the picture, he was in the Highnelly Bike shop near Pallasgreen in Co Limerick. Marty, the owner, had a collection of restored vintage bikes. When he showed him the picture of Gus, he said that the bike was a Hercules. And he had one, in poor condition, but it could be saved. Jasper decided there and then that he was going to cycle the Hercules to Croke Park in memory of Gus in the anniversary year of Bloody Sunday. And so the restoration began. Eight months later, he had a cyclable bike. Around the time that he got the bike back, he attended a Documentary On One seminar in the RTÉ Radio centre in Dublin. Afterward, he signed up for their course and began a journey in to the
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Jasper on the road to Dublin via the Grand Canal world of documentary making. When he sent a proposal a few months later, The Doc On One team liked the idea of the cycle as a way to tell the story and agreed to work with him on what would become his first radio documentary. He started to train on the bike and research everything he could find out about Gus and Bloody Sunday. He found pictures, stories, documents, medals and most of all, the truth. One of the most important things that he discovered was that stories change with time and telling. Some of the stories that he had heard were true, some had an element of truth and some were just incorrect. So he began investigating the stories. He brought his recorder everywhere, just in case there was anything that might be beneficial to the documentary. And he made some more discoveries. The Tipperary jersey in the Museum in Clonmel has always been known as the one worn by Michael Hogan when he was shot and killed on Bloody Sunday. It was sent for restoration, but while the restoration was being carried out, it was forensically examined. They found no trace of gunpowder, bullet holes or blood. It was his jersey, but not the one he wore on Bloody Sunday. Also, many believe that an armoured car on the pitch opened fire on the players and crowd on Bloody
