Iconic Moments

1991 Dublin v Meath - Four Match Leinster saga
Games and victories that remain long in the memory bank normally occur towards the tail of the season and if not in September then in the weeks approaching that month.
1991 Dublin v Meath - Four Match Leinster saga
Games and victories that remain long in the memory bank normally occur towards the tail of the season and if not in September then in the weeks approaching that month.

However the Leinster championship first round episode played out by two of the game’s most enduring rivals in 1991, has emerged as a book mark for the modern game capturing as it did the imagination of the public at large, far beyond Dublin and Meath, and helping to elevate the game to a new level.

The game took place at a time when the popularity of the Irish soccer team had reached new heights following their exploits at the World Cup the previous summer.

However this series of games helped re-affirm the lure of championship football especially when played to this high level of entertainment.

The first game was an eagerly anticipated affair but few in the bumper crowd could have envisaged what was would unfold over the 33 days that followed as the early summer fixture seized the imagination of the nation.

Fancied Dublin, buoyed a recent league success, opened up a five point lead in the second half before being pegged back for the first of three memorable draws.

The second instalment was a tight affair with little between them for most of the contest and on this occasion not even extra time could separate them.

Paddy Cullen’s men appeared to have cracked the nut in game three surging into a 0-10 to 0-5 lead with only five minutes to go before Meath produced more evidence of their renowned resolve.

1-2 in the closing minutes of this game forced more extra time but once again the teams could not be separated.

Incredibly a fourth game ensued by which stage sports followers across the country were enthralled in a fixture that regardless of the outcome, was already assured of a place in history.

As is often the case the real drama was saved until the end.

Not for the first time over the course of the saga Dublin enjoyed the better of the exchanges of the fourth and final game.

The men in blue led by 0-14 to 0-8 with only 10 minutes remaining before a late Colm Stafford goal saw late jitters set in after Keith Barr dragged a Dublin penalty chance wide.

The final passages of play are movements that remained long in the memory for supporters of both counties.

First up was a superbly worked Kevin Foley goal after excellent overlap approach play involving Tommy Dowd and Colm O’Rourke.

The ball ended up in the Hill 16 net behind John O’Leary to the disbelief of the hordes gathered on terrace behind but worse was to come for them as David Beggy slotted over the all important winning point to seal a famous win.

The win booked Meath a Leinster semi-final ticket – nothing more – and in total they would play 10 games that year before their campaign ran aground with an All-Ireland final defeat to Meath.

By the end of the saga 240,000 had attended the games and the intensity and honesty of the clashes and re-energised the game in the eyes of legions sports followers, both game attendees and those of the arm chair variety.

The games left their mark on the Irish sporting landscape and helped usher in a new dawn for football where live television coverage and increasing attendances would be a feature of an Association symbolised by the emergence of a new Croke Park.

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1982 Séamus Darbey and the 1982 All-Ireland Football Final
The 1970s and ‘80s turned out to be decades with green and gold stamped all over them as Kerry seized control of Gaelic football like no team before or since.
1982 Séamus Darbey and the 1982 All-Ireland Football Final
The 1970s and ‘80s turned out to be decades with green and gold stamped all over them as Kerry seized control of Gaelic football like no team before or since.

With Mick O’Dwyer at the helm the Kingdom footballers emerged as the undisputed force within the game powered by a titanic and toxic city county rivalry with Dublin.

Kerry annexed All-Ireland senior football titles in 1975, ’78, ’79, ’80 and ’81 and were bidding for an unprecedented fifth consecutive final success in 1982 when they faced Eugene McGee’s Leinster conquering Offaly team in the deciding fixture.

Offaly's emergence in Leinster punctured the long established Kerry / Dublin hegemony and the midland outfit stood between Mick O’Dwyer’s team and what would be an undisputed claim to be the greatest team the game ever produced.

McGee had overseen a dramatic improvement in the fortunes of his team but this progress would now be tested against what was the ultimate force in the game.

The day of the final was a wet and unspectacular one and it was the experienced Kerry team that set the tone and the pace of an exciting and entertaining encounter made all the more interesting by the greasy underfoot conditions.

Part of McGee’s aim was to ensure that his team were in touch as the game progressed and this remained the case even if Kerry kept themselves in front for most of the contest showing the experience that made them a near permanent feature in finals for such a prolonged period.

A Martin Furlong penalty save from Mikey Sheehy at the three quarter way mark denied Kerry a four point cushion but a rally in the minutes that followed eventually powered the defending champions into that exact lead.

Two Matt Connor pointed frees whittled the deficit back to before one of the most famed passages of play in the history of football followed.

A long, high, arcing ball was sent in the direction of Offaly's second half substitute Séamus Darbey in front of the Kerry goal.

His marker Tommy Doyle – whether nudged or not - didn’t deal with the ball and Darbey gathered before shaping to fire a rasping looping shot over Charlie Nelligan into the top corner of the Hill 16 goal to send the Offaly supporters in the 62,309 crowd delirious.

There was time for Kerry to attempt to conjure up an equaliser but Offaly held out for a famous 1-15 to 0-17 win, one that many members of that star studded team admit still rankles with them.

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1947 Final in the Polo Grounds, New York
Gaelic Games followers in America had for years been pleading for the privilege of seeing the All-Ireland Senior Football Final played in New York. The appearance of Cavan and Kerry at the Polo Grounds in 1947 fulfilled their dream.
1947 Final in the Polo Grounds, New York
Gaelic Games followers in America had for years been pleading for the privilege of seeing the All-Ireland Senior Football Final played in New York. The appearance of Cavan and Kerry at the Polo Grounds in 1947 fulfilled their dream.

Motions to have the football final played in New York had been turned down year after year at annual congress and looked like meeting its usual fate once again until an adjournment was called, during which the delegates were canvassed for support, and shown a letter from an exiled priest appealing that the Gaels of first, second and third generation in the United States be privileged to see the great game in New York. When Congress resumed, the motion was passed and although it transpired subsequently that the heart-rending priest's letter had been a hoax, there were no regrets and everything went off magnificently. The persistent efforts of Canon Hamilton of Clare to have the final played in New York eventually paid off. With the prospect of a trans-Atlantic trip for the finalists, no championship was ever more eagerly contested, with Cavan, Kerry, Meath and Roscommon winning their respective provincial championships. Cavan defeated Roscommon by 2-4 to 0-6 in one semi-final, while Kerry defeated Meath on a score of 1-11 to 0-5 in the other semi-final.

The two teams travelled by different means to New York. The Cavan party mainly travelled by air, while their Kerry opponents opted to travel by sea. The victorious Cavan players were later to comment on the advantage of travelling by air as it gave them more time at home with their training and preparation for the final. The Kerry party on the other hand had a much longer journey travelling by sea. The historic game was played on the 14th September in the Polo Grounds, New York, home of the New York Giants Baseball team, on a bone hard dry pitch in blistering sunshine before an attendance of 34,941. Kerry were the red-hot favourites with the bulk of the attendance.

Kerry took the sensible precaution of wearing white, jockey-type caps as protection against the blazing sun and built up a commanding eight-point lead against a rather nervous Cavan side. The lead would have been much greater if two Kerry goals had not been disallowed and frees given instead.

It looked like an easy Kerry victory but then a switch by the Cavan mentors, which did not seem appropriate at the time, was to alter the course of the game. P.J. Duke, a brilliant wing half back, had started the game at midfield but was making no impression, while regular corner back John Wilson filled Duke's wing back berth. Wilson was having a torrid time on the elusive Batt Garvey, who finished the first Kerry goal to the net after a dazzling solo run. The switching of Duke to his usual wing back position alongside his captain John Joe O'Reilly and Simon Deignan saw an immediate tightening up of the Cavan defence and this changed the entire pattern of the game. Deignan incidentally had the unusual distinction of refereeing the Munster Football Final of 1947 which saw Kerry defeat Cork.

Gega O'Connor got through for the second Kerry goal while Cavan eventually got off the mark with a Peter Donohue point. Columba McDyer added a second Cavan point before Kerry edged further ahead with excellent points from Gega O'Connor and Paddy Kennedy to put the Kingdom well in command. The Cavan mentors then made the crucial changes which were to have a profound impact on the game.

As Cavan slowly edged their way back into the game an incident involving the flying Cavan half forward Tony Tighe had a major impact on the result. Tighe was heading for the Kerry goal when he was heavily tackled by the Kerry captain Jackie Lyne. The tackle would not have been deemed particularly hard at home but it drew a chorus of booing from the New York crowd. Referee Martin O'Neill from Wexford awarded a free to Cavan but the incident incensed the crowd and their sympathy lay with the Cavan team for the remainder of the game.

The renewed Cavan pressure was telling on the Kerry defence and Mick Higgins. Tighe, Peter Donohue, Joe Stafford and T.P. O'Reilly began to get the scores to whittle down the early Kerry lead. By half time Cavan had forged ahead on a score of 2-5 to 2-4 and eventually won the game on a score of 2-11 to 2-7.

The closing minutes were packed with tremendous excitement as Cavan led by only a single point with five minutes remaining, but the younger and faster Breffni side ended strongly with three points from Donohue (free), midfielder Phil Brady and Higgins.

Peter Donohue's eight points from frees were crucial in securing his side's famous victory. Donohue was later described in the New York press as the babe Ruth of Gaelic Football, probably the highest accolade any sporting individual could receive at the time.

What made Cavan's victory possible, and so memorable, was the superb play of the game's greatest artists of the time, such as John Joe O'Reilly, the red-haired P.J. Duke for his spectacular running out of defence, and the inter-passing speed and skills of Mick Higgins and Tony Tighe.

The New York Football Final of 1947 saw the game transmitted live back to Ireland by Radio Eireann with Micheál Ó Hehir providing the commentary. It was to be the legendary broadcaster's most famous match commentary. The broadcast was scheduled for one hour but O'Hehir, on air, pleaded with the authorities not to cut him off but to give "five more minutes" to complete the broadcast of the game. Thankfully the authorities obliged.

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Roscommon play Galway this Sunday in the Connacht Senior Football Championship. Who will win?

Iconic Moments

1991 Dublin v Meath - Four Match Leinster saga

1991 Dublin v Meath - Four Match Leinster saga

1982 Séamus Darbey and the 1982 All-Ireland Football Final

1982 Séamus Darbey and the 1982 All-Ireland Football Final

1947 Final in the Polo Grounds, New York

1947 Final in the Polo Grounds, New York

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