We were at it the whole day before in Donie McLoughlins (now Tullys) and we started again in the pub in Monamolin at half eleven.
3 Likes
Matt Gallagher was a sort of accidental full back on that Donegal team. Donegal had won an U21 All Ireland Final in 1987 and there was a fellow from Dungloe, John Connors at full back, who was a real standout player. They beat Kerry in a replayed final in Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon. Mick Galwey was midfield for Kerry. We had just moved over from England shortly before that and we went up to Roscommon for the final.
John Connors was full back on the Donegal team that lost to Tyrone in the 1989 Ulster Final in a replay, started 1990 as full back, got injured, didnât really have the dedication for it and drifted away from the county scene after 1991.
The father, John Connors Snr was a Carlow man and a great friend of my father. John Snr came home from Manchester very much in the veteran stage of his hurling career to score the winning goal for Ballinkillen when they beat Myshall to win their first Carlow Senior Hurling Championship in 1973. My father and uncles would have worked with all the Connors brothers in the North West of England on and off over the years. The Connors brothers did very very well for themselves in the building game in Manchester. They were heavily involved in the Oisin GAA club in Manchester over the years and still are. @flattythehurdler might know some of them. John Connors Snrâs wife was a Donegal woman, who he met in Manchester and they moved back to Dungloe and bought a pub there.
11 Likes
Rural myths. He did kick the ball. And a nice kick pass it was too.
My favourite and pretty much only Matt Gallagher memory happened after a Dublin v Donegal NFL match at Croke Park on November 13th, 1994. Donegal won by a point, Iâve a notion that Tony Boyle scored the winning point with a soccer style raking shot, he pulled on a bouncing though ball from way out on the right hand side about 20 yards out from the goal line at the Hill 16 end and it just about cleared the cross bar.
Myself and my oulâ fella were proceeding to walk down the steps from the upper Hogan Stand (more towards the Canal side) at the end when Gallagher rushes up the stairwell past us in his full, mucky kit. My oulâ fella had a transistor radio to his ear and was finding out the results of the day. Gallagher sees this and stops to asks him the other results. My oulâ fella informed him that Kildare had won their game. âKildare won?!â, shouts Gallagher in incredulous tones. He then proceeded to speak to us in very genial and personable tones for about a further 40 seconds before running up to the corridor under the upper tier, presumably to bump into whoever he was aiming to bump into.
I formed the impression from this that Matt was sound.
6 Likes
Brian was a regular face on the 25A* bus in those days.
*Also 25, 25B, 26, 66, and 67.
Nowadays itâd be two cappuccino and a protein shake buiochas le Dia.
1 Like
I was in the Bronx outstaying a J1
Tenner just to get in the pub.
Paul McGrane spent the Tuesday morning after Armagh won the 2002 All-Ireland running around Queenâs Universityâs GAA pitch/es.
Watching Liam Sheedyâs Laochra Gael here.
Lovely moment with the mother singing (badly but not caring) at the homecoming in Thurles in 2010 after that immense victory.
Not so nice of a moment with Darren Gleeson speaking.
I often heard the one about him not kicking the ball too. Think I heard it about a Dublin corner back too paddy Moran maybe. One of our managers used use the example to a big lump of a midfielder we had to try get him to restrict his kicking.
What other of these ârural mythsâ has there been over the years?
Depends on the Mayo captain. Iâd imagine Stephen Coen would be a sensible enough sort of lad, certainly his play on the pitch lacks any real flamboyance. This years captain is Paddy Durcan however and youâd imagine he could have that wild streak. Fionn Mcdonagh would be a Box Office Mayo senior football All-Ireland winning captain from what Iâve heard.
A flake of drinks wouldnât corrupt a clinical captain like Stephen Cluxton for instance.
1 Like
That would make sense. He played for Civil Service in Islandbridge
Back in West Tipp there was little to excite us about football in the late 80s/early 90s. The Dublin/Meath saga caught attention alright, but beyond that I donât remember much football getting traction or talk.
92 changed that though. After Donegal won Ulster it became known that a woman in the parish (neighbour of @peddlerscross ) was a 1st cousin of the afforementioned Gallagher. There was big talk about him before the SF vs Mayo and bigger again in the run up to the final. He was the most closely watched player in our house that day of the final with us young lads only able to recognoise him and red headed Bonnar.
In hindsight the furore about him was very strange considering the reigning HOTY lived in the parish also who was treated as a regular Dan.
The good lady passed away 7/8 years after that through a short illness. She was a shy and mass going woman who despite being proud of her cousin couldnât understand the local fuss and thought we were all mental.
11 Likes
He was also a regular in The Portobello which was a place with very strong Donegal links at the time.
1 Like
The bouncer back then wasnât a man to be fucked with. I saw him dangle a fella over the canal bridge once for making a smart comment about his brother.
1 Like
Not about his singing I suspect?
1 Like
Twas.
He barely finished the sentence
1 Like
Despite being a Hurling mad parish, there is a certain romanticism and novelty about Gaelic Football players.
I remember in Phil Ryans Hogan Stand before Tipp played Mayo in 2016, Michael Murphy walked in and took the fancy of a few club stalwarts. If it was Henry Shefflin or some other multi All Star winning hurler, most wouldnât really care.
Stephen OâBrien from Kerry was treated like royalty on a visit to the clubhouse with Sam Maguire late last year.
My own fathers (who never gets excited about anything), eyes lit up when he saw Jack McCaffrey stumble and stagger into the seat across the way on the train to the Munster Hurling Final in 2019.
7 Likes
Munster final 2019, wasnt that in July? Thought no one went to matches or no good Gaa matches in July? Surprised McCaffrey wasnt at the beach.
July is a month for games at Provincial Grounds. Which is what that game was.
1 Like
