1960 County Junior football finalists Clifden and Kilconly shook hands in friendship 50 years later

By JIM CARNEY THE IMPORTANCE of friendship and mutual respect in sport was underlined recently by a very special get-together of two G.A.A. teams who once played each other in a County final. The reunion, in Clifden, marked the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Galway Junior Football Championship decider.[private] The finalists were Kilconly and Clifden, at Pearse Stadium, Salthill on Sunday, October 23rd 1960 and victory went, against the odds, to Clifden by 1-5 to 1-4. For the North Galway champions Kilconly, then a highly rated team, considered likely to make a mark in the senior grade in the early 1960s, it was a huge disappointment that they did not add the County crown to the North Board title they won by defeating Clonberne at Tuam Stadium a few weeks earlier, by 3-9 to 1-6. There was no doubting the merit of Kilconly's North victory, for they had played great football all through that campaign. Indeed, as he presented the Fox Cup to Kilconly captain Joe Kelly after the North final, the Board chairman Paddy Naughton, from Menlough, paid particular tribute to the exceptional skill shown by individuals in the two teams, Kilconly and Clonberne. For the record, Dunmore man James Fox, then living in the U.S.A., donated trophies to Galway football for both the North Junior and County Senior Championships, to perpetuate the memory of his son Frank, a great young footballer and all-round athlete who, very sadly, died at an early age; he was a star of Galway's All-Ireland winning team in 1934. On the day Kilconly beat Clonberne, all the talk at Tuam Stadium was about the sensational display given by the winners' 19-year-old scoring ace Mickey Mullen who shot 2-4 of his side's 3-9 total, and the talk reached Clifden! They 'had his card marked' â€â€ to use an old saying â€â€ and they closed him down in the County final, although he set up his team's goal midway through the first half when he was the middle-man in a move started by John Glynn and finished to the Clifden net by Mick Heneghan. No taking away from Clifden's achievement, for three of their goal efforts 'were baulked by timber' as the Tuam Herald report described it, but Kilconly were badly hit before the game when injury kept out Paddy Fallon, who had been outstanding in the North Board Championship. Paddy, whose sons and nephews would enjoy a huge amount of success with Tuam and Galway teams in more recent times, was a key player for his native parish, as the Herald report of the County final emphasised: 'Paddy Fallon's enforced absence was a big blow to the Kilconly attack, and even though he came on in the closing stages of the game his injury hampered his best efforts.' Incidentally, Paddy's brother Mattie was also a top-class footballer, playing for that Kilconly team at centre half-back, and their older brother Seán was a founder-member of the club back in 1943, along with Mick Fitzpatrick and Johnny Connern. All three founder-members have gone to their eternal reward, but they will never be forgotten. It was to the immense credit of the Clifden men that when it came to marking the Golden Jubilee of their 1960 title, they reached out the hand of friendship across the county, inviting their Kilconly rivals of 50 years ago to join them for the special function at the Station House Hotel. Compére for the occasion was a Galway All-Ireland Three-in-a-Row hero, Bosco McDermott, and Kilconly's current club vice-chairman Ted Kerrigan says all present on the night agreed that the genial Bosco played a 'blinder' on the microphone. A round trip of nearly 160 miles didn't deter a large, enthusiastic group of Kilconly people from joining the party in Clifden, including 1960 players Vin Connolly, Paddy Fallon, Eamonn Finnerty (home from Manchester), Mickey Mullen, and Paddy Tierney (up from Sligo). Two well-known Kilconly men living in Clifden were delighted to be there: Tony Mullen and John McDonagh. Ted Kerrigan told Herald Sport this week: 'It was a fantastic occasion, and a great pleasure, and privilege, for us all to be there. As vice-chairman I was standing in for our chairman John Higgins who was out of the country. Our Clifden hosts made us warmly welcome. You'd nearly have thought it was us who won it back in 1960! They are lovely people out there, and they love their football. It was a night to remember, a night when old friendships were rekindled. I thought it was wonderful to see men who were in direct opposition to each other 50 years ago shaking hands again. And we were certainly glad we'd booked in. It wasn't a party to be leaving early!' The homecoming next day was memorable too, by all accounts. All Ted Kerrigan would say about it was: 'You'd better ask P. J. Connolly and Mickey Mullen about that!' A study of the Herald files reveals that Clifden's 1960 County Junior final victory was clinched by a late goal; it was scored, seven minutes from full-time, by Brendan Conroy from a pass by midfielder Cóilín King, who had his brother Tom playing alongside him against a powerful Kilconly midfield pairing, George Glynn, best player on the field, and the team captain Joe Kelly (R.I.P.). George, who captained U.C.G. to win that year's Sigerson Cup, would go on to win an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship medal with Down in 1968, and later he won three Meath S.F.C. medals with Kilbride, home club of a legendary football family, the Quinns (Martin, Jack and Gerry). Unfortunately, a Golden Jubilee reunion in Kilbride clashed with the Clifden function, which was a cause of regret for George Glynn. His brother John was an accomplished, physically very strong wing-back on that Kilconly team of 1960 but another brother, Joe, missed out that year as he was living in Waterford, where he was working as a teacher, but he did have the satisfaction of winning a Waterford J.F.C. medal in 1960. The Herald's County final report stated that Kilconly's defeat came despite great work by the defence, especially Paddy Tierney and Mattie Fallon, with Eamonn Finnerty, Vin Connolly, John Glynn and Stephen Grady also putting in huge effort; goalkeeper Joe Connolly 'could not be faulted for the goal that beat him,' while up the field the 'Trojan' George Glynn was well supported by Joe Kelly in the centre and Seán Heffernan, Jack Hogan and veteran forward Mick Heneghan also played very well. Seán Heffernan (usually pronounced Heverin by all who knew him) was an exceptionally gifted forward; he got on Galway senior teams but should probably have got more chances to show how good he was. He did, of course, have the honour of winning an All-Ireland Junior Football Championship medal with Galway in 1958. The names of the victorious Clifden team are fondly remembered out West: goalkeeper Bill Foyle, full-back Kieran Joyce who played a great game in the County final, well supported by his corner-backs Murphy and O'Reilly; right half-back Dave Griffin (only 17 that year), alongside Pat Donnellan and Padraic Coyne; the King brothers at midfield, and forwards T. Kelly, Seán Bartley (captain), Ulick Joyce, the goal scorer Brendan Conroy, Frank Dyer and Paul Fitzpatrick. Clifden: W. Foyle; P. Murphy, K. Joyce, L. O'Reilly; D. Griffin, P. Donnellan, P. Coyne; T. King, C. King; T. Kelly, S. Bartley (captain), U. Joyce; B. Conroy, F. Dyer, P. Fitzpatrick. Kilconly: J. Connolly; S. Grady, E. Finnerty, P. Tierney; V. Connolly, M. Fallon, John Glynn; J. Kelly (captain), G. Glynn; L. Costello, J. Hogan, S. Heffernan; M. Keane, M. Heneghan, M. Mullen. Sub used: P. Fallon, for M. Heneghan. Referee: Christy Costello (Ballinasloe). The Kilconly team who won the North Board final fielded without John Glynn. Mick Kennedy, a very strong man, was at left half-back. Clonberne: B. Geraghty; F. McLoughlin, J. McLoughlin, M. Rabbitte; M. McLoughlin, M. Burke, J.  Geraghty; W. Higgins, J. Feeney; J. Pettit, M. Glynn, M. Dowd; E. Geraghty, C. O'Connor, T. Glynn. Ref., W. Fallon (Newbridge). In preparing teams in those days, the word manager was hardly ever used; Kilconly's trainer was named in the Herald as Mattie Murphy, helped by Seán Fallon, Sgt J. Byrne (Club secretary) and Fr P. Delaney (Club chairman), while other players in the panel were Oliver Curley, P. J. Mannion and Eddie Morris. WRITING to me from his home in Foxrock, Dublin this week, Joe Glynn stated that in his view, and he wished to be as objective as he could, the 1960 Kilconly team had the potential to be successful in the senior grade, but they were unlucky. In particular, he felt that Paddy Tierney was county material and that Eamonn Finnerty would have played with Galway if he hadn't emigrated. Joe went on to say that 'when the going got tough, any Kilconly player would have felt secure back in those days with the likes of Eamonn Finnerty, John Glynn and Vincent Connolly at your back. Joe Connolly was an agile and reliable goalkeeper; Joe Kelly (R.I.P.) and Jack Hogan were fine footballers too; they always gave 100 per cent. The Fallons were excellent players, Seán, Mattie and Paddy, so Ja and all the other Fallon boys of later times had a great pedigree. My brother George was the linchpin of many a good Kilconly team in the middle of the field. Seán Heverin and Mickey Mullen were lovely forwards; Liam Costello was a utility player who could play anywhere; Mick Heneghan (R.I.P.) was in the twilight of a great career with Kilconly but was effective all the way. Stephen Grady, Mick Kennedy, Mick Keane and all the other lads were very good players too, and fine men.' Indeed, Joe named to me nearly as many subs as the players already mentioned, and he paid particular tribute to three Kilconly priests who he said were high-class footballers, Fr Mick Coen, Fr Tadhg Lynch and Fr Bertie Flanagan. Ted Steede from Cloonkeely, Kilbannon, was a teenager in 1960. Ted and five pals all got five shillings from their parents for the minibus to the County final in Salthill but they kept the money and cycled to Pearse Stadium instead! They used the 5 bob to see a film in the Odeon Cinema, Tuam that night. 'We just made the start of the movie,' Ted recalls. 'One of the lads got a puncture on the return journey, out at Rusheens, and he had to 'rim' it to Tuam, and 'rim' it to Kilbannon later in the night. It was still a great day, but what a pity Kilconly didn't win.' Paddy Fallon's injury may have cost Kilconly that coveted County title, and a Junior crown was 'massive' in Galway football in the old days; the Intermediate grade wasn't in yet, so Junior football in the 1950s and 60s had huge prestige and honour. But, in the 1960 final against Clifden, it didn't help their cause, either, that the Beet Campaign had already started, and several Kilconly players were on the night-shift â€â€ working all night on the Saturday wasn't any preparation for the big match on the Sunday. Sugar is sweet, says the song, but it was the Clifden men who tasted the sweet smell of success that day. Five years later, with Galway in the middle year of the glorious Three-in-a-Row, Kilconly again had high hopes of winning the County Junior crown. Seán Heffernan and Mickey Mullen starred in a 6-5 to 2-2 win over Milltown but they were knocked out by Dunmore, a club really going places at the time, with their seniors starting a golden era the following year, backboned by the Donnellans, Keenans and Séamus Leydon. Ted Kerrigan also remembers that Menlough, at a time when they had a really great team, in the late 1960s, just got the better of Kilconly in a crunch North Board Championship game. Kilconly have been an unlucky club down through the years: they were nearly up senior in 1983, through an Intermediate League final but Liam Sammon, then a veteran, played a blinder to snatch victory for Salthill. Several times in the past ten years, Kilconly came agonisingly close to a big breakthrough in the highly competitive County I.F.C., with Kevin Brady in particular playing his heart out, but that coveted ticket to senior status is still hard to find. The scourge of emigration hit them terribly hard in the 1950s and 60s, and sad history is repeating itself. Seven Kilconly footballers are currently working in Australia. They won't even be home for Christmas. Could 2011 be their year? Ted Kerrigan, a man who will never lose the faith, says it won't be for the lack of trying.[/private]