Their victories caused quite a stir at the time. It wasn't common to have brothers winning in this way and it was all the more intriguing when one considered that they were the sons of the highly respected Skerries professional Bill Kinsella. They were quite clearly a wonder breed with a rare insight to the workings of the game.

The intervening years have seen the Kinsella presence achieve dynastic proportions in Irish golf with their professionalism extending over three generations and reaching from 1930, when Billy Kinsella Snr was appointed professional and green keeper at Skerries, to the present day.

In between times the brothers have impacted solidly as teachers and as players. On the playing side Jimmy achieved most of all with a victory in the Madrid Open and appearances in the World Cup for his country.

But the most exciting week of all was at Portmarnock in the Irish Open of 1977 when there was the somewhat wonderful, weird and exhilarating spectacle of Jimmy and Hubert Green, the only two men in the world who could possibly play top-class golf with carbon copy unorthodox swings, both bent almost 90degrees at the waist and with short upright swings, battling it out for the title.

Talk all week was of Jimmy's chances in the championship and how he would survive, if he would survive at all, in view of his recent heart troubles. Joe Lennon, the great Down footballer, had him under his wing for training and minding and the Irish papers were agog with the chances of an Irish win against a field which compared to a major.

In the end Green prevailed but the Skerries man won the spectators' heart as he battled to the end with Green finishing on 283, Ben Crenshaw on 284 and Kinsella third with Greg Norman and Peter Dawson on 285 to win a handsome cheque for �2,066.66. Just how good this was can be gauged from the fact that Seve Ballesteros finished one further back and had to settle for �1,400 and young Nick Faldo was on 289 But it is not for shot-making alone that the Kinsellas have been loved. They are of the old-school of 'daycent people' with a keen interest in the progress and well-being of even the most humble hacker.

In all respects the Kinsella brothers have been exemplars of correct golf behaviour and a shining example of everything that a PGA professional should be. Serious when needs be, deferential to the troubled amateur golfer and ever ready to display a sparkling, devilish wit.

Thankfully, they are still relatively young men and perhaps they will be seen more on the fairways now that they do not have to worry from dawn to dusk about the oldfashioned service to members which they learned from a wonderful father.

Happily, the Kinsella story is to go on as baby brother David continues as professional at the Castle Golf Club and Jimmy's son Bobby, who made quite a splash as an amateur in the early-1990s, has succeeded his dad as professional at Skerries. It looks safe that the family golf reach will make it to 100-years and more.