Anthony Foley passed away five years ago this month. Former Ireland and Munster rugby player Barry Murphy wrote a tribute song that will debut at halftime during Ireland-New Zealand.
Barry Murphy played for Munster from 2003 to 2011.
Anthony Foley played for Munster from 1995 to 2008. Murphy and Foley were teammates for five years. But as is the case with most of his former teammates, Foley developed a strong relationship with Murphy. When Foley passed away in 2016, tributes poured in across from everywhere. Five years later, tributes are continuing. Murphy's tribute was five years in the making.
Murphy has since retired from rugby and is now the lead singer of Hermitage Green.
Alan Quinlan and Niamh Briggs invited Murphy and Foley's sister Orla onto the Red 78 podcast this week. Orla pushed Murphy to write the song about Axel. But as the former centre attests, it wasn't an easy thing to do. Alone You Stand is available now to download here.
"It was a hard one to write," Murphy said.
"Four years ago...It's taken me a while to get around to it, and that's how challenging it is to write for someone like that because I know how much he meant to so many people. And how much he meant to me. You saw when Anthony passed away, the outpouring of grief. It was just something I had never experienced personally. I've never been so rattled by something.
"I tried to write something for the first while about what Anthony meant to a lot of people and that was pretty difficult, I didn't know how to do that."
Murphy felt that Foley loved him, even though he never told him. He considered him an older brother and not just his captain at his job. Murphy had to write about that person. Any Munster or Ireland fan could write a song about him. Only Murphy had the connection with him, with the family, with Munster and the musical qualities to do it justice.
That still didn't make it an easy thing to do. It put Murphy in a vulnerable mental position. It also meant he could push other people into vulnerable positions.
"I just eventually realized that I had to write something for myself on what he meant to me. That in itself is pretty difficult because you have to sit with that emotion and sadness for a long time. But it's so powerful and you have to accept it. You have to kind of let it in.
"There are times when I could be down for weeks because I'm trying to write that song and it's so sad because of what he left with his two boys and wonderful family."
Foley's family didn't feel the sadness from Alone You Stand. They received it positively, which encouraged Murphy to keep working on the song.
"You don't want to inflict that sadness on people as well. So when you're listening to that last line I feel there's a guilt almost. I don't want to make people that sad but speaking to Orla about it over the last while and how much inspiration she got from it, and then I spoke to Olive last week. Olive's approach to this is just so mind-blowing.
"Whenever they hear Anthony's name, whenever the two boys hear his name they just run to the tv...they just want to celebrate how incredible he was."
"What a way to approach such grief. That's really inspiring to me, that kind of makes it worthwhile."
All donations for Alone You Stand go to Orla's Wild Ways charity, a new project developed by Orla Foley in memory of her late brother. You can donate as much or as little as you can afford. You can learn more about Orla's charity by visiting her website.
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