By Kevin Egan

For the first half of Pat Fleury’s career, the world of All-Ireland medals and All-Star tours was not the one he lived in. The Offaly corner-back retired with two Celtic Crosses, four Leinster titles, two All-Star awards and the special honour of captaining his county to win the Liam MacCarthy cup in 1985, not to mention reaching the milestone of 100 league and championship appearances for the Faithful County.

By the start of the 1980 Leinster championship, 40 of those 100 games were behind him, but the trophy cupboard was still bare. As he explains, even though Offaly had demonstrated their competitiveness by holding their own in Division One of the league, by winning the 1978 Leinster U-21 championship and by running Wexford to a single point in the 1979 Leinster senior championship, anything beyond making that short term breakthrough as a county was considered a pipedream.   

“Growing up, the one big ambition I had was to win a senior championship with Drumcullen, playing for Offaly wasn’t even on the radar. Every child is the same, they want to play with the top team in the parish and I played with them for 20 years, that would have been the first ambition.

“Getting on the Offaly team was a huge honour, through minor and U-21, and then I came into the senior panel in 1974. But the limit of our ambitions was to win a Leinster, that was Everest. We came close in 1979 but close doesn’t do it. I remember being at the games in 1968 and 1969 when Offaly came incredibly close, it was a fabulous Offaly team back then. Paddy Molloy was my next door neighbour, he was our God. But that was only proof that you could come close and it still mightn’t happen for you”.

A 3-17 to 5-10 win over Kilkenny in the 1980 Leinster final changed everything, and later that year, Pat’s outlook had completely changed – or at least that’s what he told a group of passionate supporters from the Offaly Association in New York!

“Galway won the All-Ireland that year and both Pat Carroll and Joachim Kelly won All-Star awards from Offaly. But since Galway were well-represented on the All-Star team that travelled out to the States, Mark Corrigan, Brendan Bermingham and myself were selected to go on the tour as All-Star replacements.

“It was a fantastic trip that took in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and the logistics of it were incredible, just to handle the scale of the thing. It was a huge travelling party”.

Offaly also won the Leinster football championship that year, while referee Gerry Kirwan from Ballyskenach travelled with the group, so the Faithful County was incredibly well-represented.

“Between ourselves, the four footballers and Gerry Kirwan, the Offaly association put together a bit of a night for us up in the Bronx” recalls Pat.

“Everything was going grand and then Martin Furlong comes over to tap me on the shoulder, saying ‘Pat you’ll do me a favour’. Now Martin was an idol of mine after everything he had done for Offaly football and Offaly GAA so I couldn’t say no!

“He said ‘they’re after putting on a bit of a spread for us, maybe you’d say a few words’, and I couldn’t back out! So I thanked them all, and between the power of drink and prayer, I said that I was not in a position to speak for the footballers, but that speaking for the hurlers, when we go back to Offaly and we tell everyone how well we were treated out here, they’ll all want to come out, and the only way to make sure everyone gets to come is to make sure we’re All-Ireland champions!

“Sure enough we were back out the next year after winning the 1981 All-Ireland and it was a much bigger gathering of the Association that time, and all night I had people coming up to me saying ‘you said you’d do it, and you did it!”

In the early 1980s, getting a spot on the coveted All-Star tour was a huge prize for any footballer or hurler, and while it was more by accident than design, Pat became a very frequent flyer with the group, with a very healthy ratio of five tours to two awards!

“I was very fortunate in that I won my awards (1982 and 1984) in years where Offaly didn’t win the All-Irelands, so I travelled both of those years, and in 1980 as a replacement, as well as in 1981 and 1985 when Offaly were successful!"

His 1982 award became something of a story when he was sent off in an Oireachtas Cup match against Clare after he was named as the award winner, but before the awards ceremony, which was held in the Burlington Hotel that year.

Three years previously, Kilkenny’s Mick Brennan had been ruled out of attending the ceremony due to suspension as well, but the difference between Pat and the Erin’s Own man was that Pat’s suspension had expired by the time of the awards night.

Despite numerous diplomatic interventions, the decision was taken that he was not allowed to attend, and so he ended up spending the night at a Drumcullen GAA committee meeting!

“Myself and Aidan Fogarty were chosen and it was a wonderful honour to get the actual award. Then a couple of weeks later we played Clare and I was sent off for reasons best known to the referee! I didn’t agree, but so be it.

“There was lots of to-ing and fro-ing, John Dowling (Then the chairman of Leinster GAA, later the 29th President of the GAA) worked tirelessly on my behalf, and the All-Star scheme came up with an Irish solution to an Irish solution, that I would go on tour but not be at the presentation.

“So a fourteen man team was chosen, and they went gracefully and seamlessly from 3 to 5 when giving out the awards!”

By now Pat was working in Limerick and Bank of Ireland, who sponsored the awards at the time, contacted him to arrange what turned out to a rather unusual presentation.

“A number of Bank of Ireland managers in the Munster region brought myself and my wife to a lunch in Limerick, where we talked about everything barring the reason we were there!

“We went back to the head office in O’Connell Street and from under the desk they took out a black refuse bag and left it up on the desk, with a sort of a ‘now, here you go!’. He removed it from the plastic, I was holding out for some kind of presentation, but I got the impression that they wanted me out of there! So we said our goodbyes and I walked up O’Connell Street and headed back to work with an All-Star, a much-valued and much-coveted award, in a black bag under my arm!

“I taught my classes for the afternoon, but we got a good trip out of it the following May” was the happy footnote.

Now, nearly 40 years later, the All-Ireland winning captain from 1985 is happy to confirm that the award has long-since been placed in a more appropriate setting in his home, despite making such an inauspicious debut!

“The All-Stars are a wonderful individual honour, and I think it’s even more of a recognition if you didn’t win the All-Ireland that year, you feel you earned them a bit better!

“The plastic is gone off the 1982 one at this stage, it sits at home alongside the 1984 award and I’m very proud of the two of them”.