Heffo's Army still going strong

By Cian O’Connell

Fifty years later Kevin Heffernan’s army is still providing leadership and help.

On the day Galway overcame Dublin in the 2024 All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Final, players who featured in the 1974 decider, involving the same counties, gathered in Salthill for golf and fun.

Bonds have been forged, friendships formed. Only a couple of months earlier in April, the Galway ‘74 team were invited to Croke Park for a meal where funds were being raised by their Dublin counterparts for Raheny Hospice and Harold’s Cross Hospice.

Heffernan, a totemic figure in the Dublin GAA story, the legendary Brian Mullins, and the cherished Anton O’Toole had been cared for in Raheny and Harold’s Cross. So, the event meant something extra to their former colleagues and friends.

At the Croke Park occasion, Galway’s 1974 goalkeeper and captain, Gay Mitchell, spoke with trademark honesty and conviction. Few of the audience knew that Mitchell’s daughter, Aoife, had spent four months in the Galway Hospice in 2015, before sadly passing away.

Mitchell’s words, though, struck a chord with the Dublin players. When they went west for a weekend away two months later, a €5,000 cheque for the Galway Hospice was quietly presented to Mitchell by Doherty. “We were all very shook, we were hit hard by his loss, to lose someone so close to you, one of your own family, it is a tough thing to take,” Dublin’s 1974 All-Ireland winning captain Seán Doherty explains.

“We had money raised, we said we'd donate it to the Hospice where Gay's daughter passed on.”

A week and a half on Mitchell, who has helped so many Galway footballers in recent decades, is still emotional about the gesture. “In Croke Park, I mentioned Aoife spent the last four months of her life in Galway Hospice, I talked about Hospice care, that was what the fundraiser was for,” he says.

“It seemed to have resonated with the Dublin lads. Jimmy Duggan and Seán Doherty had been in contact before that about a golf day in Salthill.

“We were blindsided because the match between Galway and Dublin ended up being on the same Saturday. We played golf, we sat down for food, and watched the match together.

“At the end of the night we had a few speeches, Seán Doherty and Jimmy Duggan called me up, they said I had something to do, I had no idea what was going on. They presented me with a cheque for €5,000 for the Galway Hospice in memory of Aoife.

“It was a great honour that those lads, who were revered so much in our time back in the 70s, that they'd do a thing for my family.”

Mitchell’s respect for the Dublin 1974 outfit runs deep. They delivered for Dublin at Croke Park at a crucial stage, but since then a willingness to help others has been evident. “They are great lads, very friendly, very good guys,” Mitchell says. “That is for sure, they've done charity work before.

“They have stuck together over the years. There was huge social change around Heffo's Army, society changed.

“Dublin, as a city, got behind Heffo's Army, it changed the GAA in Dublin. It is still the same, they have a huge following. Around that time, it had been in the doldrums, they brought it to the fore.”

The Dublin players have never forgotten where they came from. Doherty, who acknowledges Alan Larkin’s organisational skills, outlines why the initial April fundraiser was held. “We had a charity lunch in Croke Park on April 19, we invited the Galway guys up to join us,” Doherty says.

“We were giving funds to the Hospice in Harold’s Cross and also in Raheny, where Brian Mullins and Kevin Heffernan passed away. Anton O'Toole was in the Hospice in Harold’s Cross.

“In memory of those guys we said we'd contribute €10,000 to each Hospice. I was only making arrangements this morning to meet them next Wednesday afternoon to make the presentations to both of those places.

“We are very close. We have our own WhatsApp group, we chat on that all day, every day. Alan Larkin is our head man, he looks after all that, he keeps us informed.”

There is plenty of craic and humour, too. “You'd be half afraid you might get a phone call from Alan where he will tell you, that you're the one that is after passing away,” Doherty laughs.

A yearly trip to Portugal is organised. “We meet up regularly for lunches and dinners,” Doherty adds. “We have seven in a committee which operates all of the time, we keep everybody informed about what is happening in the county.

“We go away to Portugal every year, the same place, same hotel, same golf courses, same taxi men, same pub, same everything.

“We meet up to play golf a couple of times in the year, we always bring a couple of older ex Dublin footballers and even some of the younger lads. We invite them along. We stay in touch, all the time.”

Doherty and his team mates learned many valuable lessons in the summer of 1974. “That has to be attributed to the likes of Kevin Heffernan and Jimmy Gray, who was the chairman at the time,” Doherty says.

“Heffernan was a superb character, he re-introduced the handpass again then, he brought a referee in, to explain the handpass and how it should be properly executed early in the Leinster Championship.”

Tactics were implemented, but compassion was vital. “He always said to us, you have to do your own job on the pitch, but if one of your mates beside you is in trouble, you have to do his job as well as yours,” Doherty remarks.

“You can't just do yours and forget about the other guy. To make a team, to make this work, we have to work for everybody and work together.

“That has sort of run through the group. They support each other in every aspect of life during the last 50 years from that particular episode.

“We stayed close and tight. We've always helped one another. Anybody that needed a bit of help of any description, of any sort, we were always there to look after them. It continues, it is going on. That is the way it is.”