In his autobiography From Dún Sion to Croke Park, Mícheál writes of how he came to Croke Park almost 60 years ago, in March 1949 together with other students from college, and did a test commentary on a hurling game at Croke Park. Each student had to commentate for five minutes in Irish and the most successful would be selected for further commentary work. Ó Muircheartaigh had never seeing a game of hurling before in his life. But he knew that those adjudicators judging his commentary were not able to see the game:

'Twas a new game to me. But I knew one person. He was in goal for UCD and his name was Tadhg Hurley. He went to school in Dingle and he had hurling because his father was a bank manager and had spent time in Tipperary or Cork. The moment my minute started, he was saving a fantastic shot. And he cleared it away out, I can still see it, out over the sideline, Cusack Stand side of the field, eighty yards out. But it was deflected out by a member of the opposition. The adjudicators couldn't see that that didn't happen. Who was called out to take the line-ball? The only person I knew, Tadhg Hurley. And he took a beautiful line-ball - Christy Ring never took better. He landed it down in front of the Railway goal, there was a dreadful foul on the full-forward, and there was a penalty. And who was called up to take the penalty? Tadhg Hurley. 'Twas the best individual display ever seen in Croke Park. It took him at least a minute to come from the Canal goal up. And while he was coming up I spoke about his brother Bob, who was in Donal's class, and his sister who used to come out to Dún Síon strand during the summer. So eventually he took the penalty. I've seen DJ Carey, I've seen Nicky Rackard, I've seen Christy Ring. None of them could ever equal the display he gave that day... Sin mar a thosaigh sé!

Ó Muircheartaigh has become legendary with the Irish people not only for his wonderful ability to move fluently from Irish to English in mid-sentance, without losing the poetic or dramatic effect. He also has more unique turns of phrase than can be listed here...but here's an idea;

* Gong Gong, Fáilte. Tá súil agam go bainfidh tú taitneamh as an iománíocht. (at the Hurling All Stars in Singapore)

* "1-5 to 0-8...well from Lapland to the Antarctic, that's level scores in any man's language".

* "Pat Fox has it on his hurl and is motoring well now ... but here comes Joe Rabbitte hot on his tail ...... I've seen it all now, a Rabbitte chasing a Fox around Croke Park!"

* "He grabs the sliotar, he's on the 50......he's on the 40......he's on the 30....... he's on the ground".

* "Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.... his father's from Fermanagh, his mother's from Fiji, neither a hurling stronghold".

* "Teddy McCarthy to John McCarthy, no relation, John McCarthy back to Teddy McCarthy, still no relation".

* "Colin Corkery on the 45 lets go with the right boot. Its over the bar. This man shouldn't be playing football. He's made an almost Lazarus-like recovery from a heart condition. Lazarus was a great man but he couldn't kick points like Colin Corkery".

* "In the first half they played with the wind. In the second half they played with the ball."

* "Setanta Ó hAilpín....the original Setanta from the old Gaelic stories was ten foot tall, had ten fingers on each hand and ten toes on each foot but even he couldn't be playing better hurling than his namesake here today"

* "... and Brian Dooher is down injured. And while he is, I'll tell ye a little story. I was in Times Square in New York last week, and I was missing the Championship back home. So I approached a newsstand and I said 'I suppose you wouldn't have the Kerryman would you?' To which the Egyptian man behind the counter replied 'do you want the North Kerry edition or the South Kerry edition?'. He had both, so I bought both. And Dooher is back on his feet..."

* "Anthony Lynch, the Cork corner-back, would be the last person to let you down - his people are undertakers"

* "Teddy looks at the ball, the ball looks at Teddy"

* " Dublin have scored two points, one from the hand and one from the land"

* "Pat Fox out to the forty and grabs the sliothar. I bought a dog from his father last week. Fox turns and sprints for goal. The dog ran a great race last Tuesday in Limerick. Fox to the 21 fires a shot, it goes to the left and wide… And the dog lost as well."

* "I saw a few Sligo people at Mass in Gardiner street this morning and the omens seem to be good for them, the priest was wearing the same colours as the Sligo jersey! 40 yards out on the Hogan stand side of the field Ciaran Whelan goes on a rampage, its a goal. So much for religion."