Clontarf West 
I know fagan my father was not complaining as he says it makes the house more valuable.
The house is half way up collins Avenue
Which one the Offaly players ended up in a wheelchair ?
Matt Connor
Christmas Day 1984
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How did this happen
Car crash
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Car crash I think.
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Had a inkling but did not want to post incase of incoming stick
Single vehicle car crash. He was a Garda. Did
a shift on Christmas morning and was driving out to the parents for the dinner when he lost control of the car in very icy weather. He retired from the guards last year at 60. Had a big retirement bash.
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having watched footage of him in action, what a stylish player he was with super scoring stats
like Maurice Fitz he always seemed to have so much time on the ball
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I was reading just there he said for the first ten years after the crash he was able bodied in his dreams. After that it was 50/50.
Fs you really do not know what life holds from day to day
He was a terrific player. One of the all time greats. I’ve met up on a few occasions over the years, most unassuming modest fellow you could ever meet. True gentleman. Martin Furlong the goalkeeper on that team is a first cousin of my mother.
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Furlong struck me as a tough nut in the nets! had a long career
Just goes to show your brain can become accustomed to every day things changing
He did. He was goalkeeper on the Offaly team that won their one and only minor in 1964 and the only player to play on the three senior winning teams of 1971, 72 and 82. Hardy out. Parents were both from Wexford. Father was an IRA man who like most anti treaty men couldn’t get a job locally after the Civil War and ended up in Tullamore after getting offered a job there. He was captured in a bank raid in New Ross shortly before the end of the War of Independence, sentenced to death after court martial but saved by the truce.
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interesting, Furlong ended up in New York I think
He went out there in the late 80’s. Ran a pub for years in the Catskills with his brother Tom. Tom played NFL for a few years in the late 60’s with the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons. Believe he’s the only Irish born player to do so. He’d be home regularly enough. Eldest son and daughter didn’t stay too long in the States and moved back here.
Traditionally there would have been big families around donnycarney that fed into craobh… Big families dont happen anymore… Think a good amount of The team that won championships in late 90s early noughties came from that little estate behind the far goals in parnell…
As someone said you have to admire the way the craobh get the last drop out of a lot of their players and they generally tog out for both hurling and football teams… Discipline on the pitch has always been an issue though…
He would get in any team of any era