‘MAYBE some people think I’m ready to go and play a football match again, but that’s not the way it is unfortunately,’ Larry Tompkins quips, his intermittent coughing a battle scar from the toughest contest of his life. And the ball is still in play.

‘Every day is a challenge,’ he explains.

‘My left lung is dead – it’s gone,’ Larry adds, though he’s in a far better place now than he was earlier this year.

Back in January, the Castlehaven and Cork football great was diagnosed with a rare cancer on the wall of his lung. A one-in-five-million condition. The sweats, the shivers, the pain. That period was his lowest moment.

‘I was in a very bad way,’ he admits.

‘It was a low point. When you’re in hospital for so long and the news you get isn’t good, it can be mentally really tough.

‘But from where I was last January to now, I feel a good bit better.

‘I’m not over it. I have to live with this, hopefully for a long time yet. I have to be positive. But the most important thing is to look after myself in ways that I didn’t before.’

Larry was recently inducted into the Gaelic Writers’ Association Football Hall of Fame. A moment to savour with his family after what he describes as a horrible year.

‘I thought at this stage I wouldn’t be getting any awards!’ he laughs. But his GAA CV says otherwise: three All-Stars, two All-Ireland football titles – including one as captain in 1990 – and a legacy as a driving force for both Cork and Castlehaven. A warrior. An all-timer.

‘The timing of the award meant I could celebrate with my family, which was great. My two kids, Jack and Kate, and my wife Orla are special people. They gave me the strength I needed when I was very low.

‘My wife was so strong through all of this – she was hurting inside but so strong on the outside.’

Larry leaned on that strength during a journey that began about four years ago with a little pinch in his side.

‘A bit of pain. Nothing much,’ he says.

‘Five or six months later I got a little bit concerned because it hadn’t gone away. If anything, it was a bit worse – a stab of pain every now and again, especially getting in and out of the car.’

The discomfort on his left side lingered, so his doctor referred him to a thoracic consultant to get to the bottom of it. There were numerous examinations and endoscopies. Various possibilities were discussed – asbestos exposure, wear and tear on his ribs – but the pain persisted.

‘I knew in my own head that I had some problem there. You know your own body.’

A friend who was a physio referred him to a pain specialist. Two rounds of injections didn’t bring the relief he needed.

Larry Tompkins was a key figure in Castlehaven's 1994 Cork SFC final win against O'Donovan Rossa.

‘When I said they had made no difference, he was concerned,’ Larry recalls.

Next came MRI and CT scans.

‘The scan showed there was a lump on the left side of my lung. He referred to it as a cyst,’ Larry adds, as he was directed back to his consultant.

In November 2024, he was admitted to hospital, with fluid in his lungs seen as the cause of his ongoing pain. As that issue was being addressed, he also had a biopsy on his left lung. Much to his later annoyance – and understandably so – he was told the lump was benign.

‘Everything was grand, they said,’ but he felt it wasn’t. After Christmas 2024, he decided to move his treatment to Cork University Hospital (CUH).

‘The team in CUH were top class,’ he says.

‘Within 48 hours I had the diagnosis – that I had a tumour on the wall of my lungs, and that my lung, which I knew, was badly infected.’

January was his lowest point, his toughest test.

‘I was hospitalised. Breaking out in sweats and shivers, and they were naturally concerned that I wouldn’t pull through,’ he admits.

‘I spent nearly six weeks in hospital. They had to monitor my bloods to see what type of infection I had, and I was on several different antibiotics. That made a huge difference – it got 95 percent of the infection out.’

That was a game-changer.

‘I felt better. My temperature was okay. My bloods were okay. I wasn’t sweating. The shivering went,’ he explains, as he prepared for 25 rounds of radiation treatment.

‘It’s a very rare cancer. CUH, who have links with Brompton Hospital in London, sent my information there. There were talks about me going to London for an operation, but they advised against it – too tricky,’ he says.

‘I had a PET scan before that to see if the cancer had spread to other areas. It had inflamed and reached my lymph nodes, and just around my throat area there was a small tumour. I had found it hard to swallow at times.

‘I was told it wasn’t advisable to operate. Instead, I was to do radiation treatments. I was also put on an immunotherapy tablet that I take every day. This was the road I had to take.’

The good news is that the tumour on his lung hasn’t grown. It’s been contained and hasn’t spread to any other organs. These are all big wins on Larry’s journey.

‘Even though my left lung hasn’t been taken out, I’ve effectively only one lung. They tried to reinflate it, but that didn’t work. My breathing can be a problem, and I can start coughing quite a bit,’ he explains.

‘If it’s lashing rain or cold, I need to be careful. The main thing is not to get a flu or infection that would knock me back.

‘I walk every day. I eat well. I do exercise in the little gym we have here in the house.’

The GAA community rallied around him, too. He got back involved with Bishopstown minors in the summer.

‘It made me feel good again, gave me a great lift,’ he says.

‘When something happens, the news goes around quickly. My news was bad, but the amount of well wishes was incredible. The GAA is such a tremendous body of people. My love for Cork and for Castlehaven, and the thrills I got from that – people don’t forget. They’re there with you all the way.’

His connection with Castlehaven goes beyond words. It was a match made in heaven, he once said, because he was with people like himself. Football-obsessed, always willing to take the extra step. Those magic moments endure: leading Haven to their first senior county title in 1989, the 1997 Munster triumph. Glory days with club and county that all contributed to his Gaelic Writers’ Association Football Hall of Fame award.

Maybe the media aren’t so bad after all.

‘When you’re a manager, you’re trying to avoid guys like ye!’ Larry laughs.

‘When I was a player and a manager, it was a different time – the press came into the dressing room and pulled people aside.

‘I grew friends with people, the likes of Martin Breheny of the Irish Independent. I was joking with him that he was the culmination of us winning two All-Irelands. After 1988 when we lost the replay to Meath, he called us a bunch of whingers. For the next two years, in every training session Billy (Morgan) used to mention that to us!’

Great times, great memories. Larry, feeling stronger, knows new ones are waiting to be made.