The
Silver Anniversary of Boyle GAA’s Riverdance Year of 1994.
I am regularly asked by a friend, ‘What are
you at now? I suppose you are still stuck in the GAA?’ My double-edged answer
to that is; ‘I am busy and with regard to the GAA I just do a bit of
consultancy there now, from the backbenches’. If there was a house of lords
(lack of capitals –deliberate) I would be in that red- seated room (blue
carpet). A quiz question there!
One of the big occasions for a club’s GAA
year is the irregular Dinner Dance which Boyle are having on Saturday night
next celebrating a former victorious
year. On Saturday night, in Kilronan Castle, Boyle GAA Club’s guests are
members of teams that won championships in 1994. So it is the 25th
or Silver Anniversary of the winning of the Intermediate championship in late
and the O’Gara Cup also, the final of which went deep into ’95. The Juniors and U 21s’ also won their
respective competitions that year as did the U 14s! The Club’s P.R. O. was also
regarded as a county winner with the club getting the best picture award
i.e. ‘Club of the Year’ in the county.
All this was celebrated at the Club’s Dinner in the much-missed Forest Park
Hotel early in January ‘95 where Roscommon legend Gerry O’Malley was ‘Guest of
Honour’ with Frank Dennehy representing the County Board. One of the picture
frames in the clubhouse is dedicated to a fine collection of photographs from
that night. The most iconic picture in that is of the club Chairman then, Liam
Kerins, festooned with cups as he made his way to where the photographs on the night
were taken. The picture made its way onto the front page of The Roscommon
Herald. Liam’s picture is being displayed currently on the publicity for the
event on Boyle GAA’s Facebook. It would have been a winning entry in any
photographic competition for Christy Regan.
That
Intermediate Final Team
The Intermediate win was the first for
eleven years with the initial win being in 1983. I have said that this was the
best team and panel that I have seen since coming to Boyle in 1972. The team
had strengths in all lines. While I do not intend a forensic analysis I’ll
attempt a general picture. The goalie Jonathan Conroy was fronted by a powerful
full-back line of team captain and county player Gary Wynne with Vinnie
Flanagan and Mark McGovern. The half-line was also strong with Stephen Bohan,
county player Gerry Cregg, and Fergal Costello. I’m diverting here now. With a
good quiz team through the eighties if we had John Mac Nama with us we would be
contenders in most quizzes. I felt similarly with Tom Ryan in the Boyle team at
midfield. On Final day he was accompanied by another strong big man in Pat
Carty. The half-forward line had Enda Cregg-Gerry’s brother-Jnr. Smith another
veteran but wily campaigner and the whizz kid Niall O’ Donohoe who won the ‘Man
of the Match’ award, that day and was to repeat it with an even more
scintillating display ten years later in 2005 v Kilmore. At number 13 was
Niall’s brother Owen nearly as fine a Gaelic player as he was at soccer and
that says something. At no. 15 we had the hustling bustling Michael Tormey who
couldn’t have been long out of county minor grade. Possibly the most understated
player was the number 14, but a real gem of player that day was Sean Kerins.
The switch of Kerins and Smith was hugely effective with them opening up a channel
for the Lewis Hamilton that was Niall O’D. to do irreparable damage and as Adrian
King suggested he gave the team’s cutting edge a ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ i.e. for pure
‘class’. Within the extended panel, there were several very good players who
would have maintained the levels I mention above if called on. Those panel
members as per team picture were; Liam Conroy, Joe Sweeney, Brian Kennedy,
Jason Beirne, Bernie Shannon, John O’Dowd, Ml. Kerins, Des McLoughlin, Donal
Kelly, Aidan Lavin, Adrian King, and Noel Casey.
The Manager was Sean Young of course with
selectors John McGowan and Michael Costello.
The team graduated to senior in ’95 but
lost out to Kilmore in a rain-soaked Elphin in ’95 and to Clan na nGael in ’96
when a great late rocket from Tom Ryan rebounded off the woodwork.
In the campaign Boyle had two great battles
with St. Ronan’s drawing one and losing one. Another game was a tight win against
St. Croan’s . Boyle comfortably overcame Western Gaels in the Northern Final
and gave an exhibition in comprehensively defeating St. Dominick’s by 1.15 to
0.5 in the county final. Boyle Band led the victorious team into the town on
their return to the Royal Hotel.
The
Junior Team and Two Goal Fests
In the Junior campaign, there were a number
of incidents worthy of note. In a comprehensive defeat of St. Ronan’s Bernie
Shannon bagged 3.3 of the team’s total of 4.10. Still, the game best remembered
and which is now part of Boyle GAA folklore is the team’s win in Tulsk over
Michael Glavey’s. Glavey’s were cruising to victory mid-way through the second
half and leading by 12 points. Bernie Shannon had not started for whatever
reason but he came on and I believe Owen Garvin suggested to him that what
Boyle needed then were goals. Bernie duly obliged with an opening salvo. Game
on. While folklore gives Bernie most of the following goals also, the scorers
were as follows Liam Conroy (2.1) Jason Beirne (1.3) Bernie Shannon (1.1) Paul
Flaherty (1.0). The final score was Boyle 5.5 Ml. Glavey’s 2.13.
The team; Ml. Kerins/Aidan Lavin, Capt./
Brian Kennedy/ Gerry McLoughlin/ Eddie Conroy/ Finbarr Feely/ Paul Beirne/
Gerard Sheeran/ James Bohan/ Liam Conroy/ Jason Beirne/ Gerry McCormack/ Donal
Kelly/ Paul Flaherty/ Kevin Young with Bernie, Richie Walshe, Peter Flannery
and Paraic Moran.
The senior managers were also in charge of
this team if I am not mistaken.
P.S. It is said that the substituted player
who was togging in, in the dressing room, could not (for a while) take on board
the reasons for the euphoria of the Boyle players returning to the dressing
rooms subsequently!
Under
21s’ v Michael Glavey’s More Drama
The U 21 campaign too had its thrills and
spills in a winter campaign. After good
wins over Eire Og in Tulsk and Elphin in Kilmore, they faced Ml. Glavey’s in the
final also at Tulsk. Boyle seemed as if they were heading for a fairly
comfortable win when a late surge by Glavey’s, with the aid of a controversial
penalty, left the scores level and the temperatures rising, with Boyle 0.11 Ml.
Glavey’s 2.5. In its Roscommon Herald report, the famous escapist’s name was
headlined i.e. it was ‘A Houdini Escape for Glavey's.
Two weeks later Boyle made no mistake and
became U 21 champions.
The team in the drawn first game was as
follows;
J. Conroy/ P.McPadden/ M. McGovern/E.
Conroy/ F.Feely/ Fergal Costello (0.1)/ D.Kelly/ P. Carty (0.4) / N. Casey/ L.
Conroy/ M. Tormey/ A. King (0.1) / O. O’Donohoe (3)/ B. Kennedy/ J. Beirne
(0.2)with P. Moran/ F. Kearns/ F. Woods/ P. O’Donnell / S. Corrigan. Managers Gary Wynne & Stephen Bohan.
(I’m
confused by the position of Niall O’Donohoe in relation to this team. Niall was
in France at that time and was obviously home for the Intermediate final at the
end of October. The R.H. had no report on the U 21 replay as it was Christmas
time. I believe Niall was home for that
U 21 replay?)
There may be some errors in the above and
I’m happy to take correction on those for the record.
P.S. The O’Gara Cup final v St. Aidan’s
drifted into the spring of ’95. So that cup was absent from Liam’s collection!
The Junior team was defeated by Paraic
Pearses at Ballyleague in late October but Boyle objected to some ineligible
players. While part of the objection was upheld the consequence was that there
was no Junior winner declared as a result.
Another competition needs clarification
i.e. the Tansey Cup. How did that end?
Anyway it was a great year and I hope that
the memories I’ve tried to get to grips with above will get full ventilation on
Saturday night at our celebration of ’94 some 25 years later.
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