COMMUNITIES in Lurgan and Dundalk were shocked recently with the passing of former Armagh player Oliver Crewe, who was a central figure in the great three-in-a-row Ulster winning Clan na Gael team of the early 1970s.
Oliver was born in Lurgan on February 27, 1947. His parents were Matthew and Elizabeth Crewe. The family settled in number 12 Beaumont Square on the Shankhill estate.
In all there were 14 children in the Crewe family –Marisa, Anna, Linda, Mary, Philomena, Matt, Pat and now Oliver have passed away, leaving Eilish, Margaret, Bridget, Veronica, Gemma and Gerard.
Oliver attended St Paul’s Junior High School where he met up with Master Harry Hoy, a PE teacher who had a deep commitment to Gaelic football and who, as a Clan na Gael player, captained Armagh in the 1961 Ulster Senior Football Final against a Down team that went on to win their second All-Ireland title.
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It was the same Harry who mentored and coached the very successful St Paul’s School team at that time, which subsequently formed the backbone of the Clan a Gael teams that enjoyed such success at minor and senior level.
Oliver made his mark with the club, accumulating three Ulster club titles, one All-Ireland final appearance and seven Armagh senior titles, as well as an intermediate and a county minor crown.
Amid all these achievements, Oliver still found time to represent his county at minor and senior levels.
He remained an ardent supporter of the Armagh teams throughout his lifetime.
Throughout those years when Clan na Gael earned a country wide reputation and had many highly skilled players such as Colm McKinstry, Jimmy Smyth, John Green, Noel O’Hagan, Jim O’Hagan, Sean Lavery, Kevin France, Sean J. Moore, Terence McCaughley, Jerome McKenna to name but a few – and then there was Oliver and there is only one word to describe him – unique.
When he marked the great Michael Kerrins of Sligo, Michael remarked to him after the game: ‘I don’t know how you did it, but every time I went to get the ball you were there before me’.
Lawrence Diamond, captain of the Bellaghy team which beat Clan na Gael in the ’71 Ulster Senior Club Championship Final sent a message: ‘A great player and one hard man!’
A story is also told of Oliver breaking his shin bone in a game and continuing to play on.
He had the knack of doing things that no other player could replicate – when an opposing player ran at him with the ball it was like running into a spider’s web – Oliver enmeshed him in a tangle of arms, legs, hands and feet from which he was released only when he surrendered the ball to him.
On one occasion in Davitt Park when he was caught in possession and faced by three opponents – he tip-toed the ball over his head and turned to collect it.
His opponents were mesmerised and when they realised what had happened, Oliver was gone. The only thing he left them with was his wry smile.
Having moved to Dundalk in 1978 after marrying Kate, he played out the twilight years of his football career for local team Dowdalishill, where he won two trophies in 1989 – the McArdle Cup and the Avonmore Shield.
Oliver passed to his eternal reward at age 73 years on 2nd May 2020. Everyone who had the good fortune to encounter Oliver Crewe as a player, as a lifelong member of Clan na Gael or as a friend could only but regard it as a privilege to have known this giant of a man.
At his funeral Mass, Father Gerry referred to him as one of nature’s true gentlemen - a truly fitting description of this gentle giant.
His family said they were overwhelmed by the number of messages they had received by letter, by card and through social media extolling his many virtues and revealing to them the deep impact he had made on those who had met him.
The common thread throughout these messages summed up Oliver as the quintessential quiet gentleman.
Go ndeannaidh Dia trocaire ar a anam dilis.
