Congratulations Frank and John …
There will be a definite Shamrocks flavour to the Westmeath New York GAA Dinner Dance in the Surf Club on the Sound, New Rochelle, New York on Saturday evening when two of our former members will be honoured for their contribution to the club. John Moore is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and Frank Kavanagh is the Guest of Honour.
John Moore was beginning to make the breakthrough to adult football with Mullingar Shamrocks when he emigrated in the recessionary mid-1980s. Mullingar’s loss was New York’s gain in sport and business. In March 1988, John together with Paddy Nolan (The Downs) founded the Westmeath football club in New York. Current President and Mr Westmeath GAA in New York, Tom Nugent was also a founding father and officer. The club was founded after a positive response to an advertisement placed in the Irish Echo. John Moore was the first club secretary and also club trainer in its first year (and for many years). The club that only used Westmeath players initially was successful and qualified for the New York junior football final but were unlucky to lose to Hartford by a single goal in the final (1-8 to 0-8). Some of the names that lined out in that final might be familiar to Mullingar Shamrocks people. They included Ned Moore, Paul McDermott, Tom Ormsby, Mark Kelly, Frank Kavanagh and Michael O’ Hehir. John Moore was still at the helm when the Junior title was captured in 1991 when a two point victory over Down in the final secured senior status.
In a sporting lifetime devoted to promoting Westmeath GAA in New York, John has been associated with driving the club’s success in so many different ways. The club’s greatest day was undoubtedly Sunday 3 November 1996, when the Westmeath club became the first in New York to win the senior football and hurling titles on the same day (both after replays). Frank Kavanagh was full back on the football team (some fellow called Kieran McGeeney was centre-back) and was later honoured as the club’s Footballer of the Year; John Moore was Guest of Honour at the annual Dinner Dance when the double win was celebrated. John’s contribution to the New York GAA board has also been significant and he was elected Vice-President of the New York GAA Board in 1997 and of course the substantial contribution made by the Moore Group and the Moore family was the fuel that boosted the Westmeath GAA successful fund-raiser Movathon in 2020.
Frank Kavanagh also emigrated in the mid-1980s and had played underage football for Mullingar Shamrocks but was better known as a brilliant handball player at the time. Frank was the winner of 6 Leinster titles, 5 All-Ireland titles and 2 World titles when he emigrated in 1986, the year that Frank was Handball Player of the Year in the annual Westmeath GAA awards. Frank contested three world handball finals: the Under-15 final in Fort Lauderdale, where he was beaten by Eamonn O’Neill before he won the Under-17 title in San Francisco in December 1983 and the World Under-19 title in May 1986 in British Columbia in Canada. Frank’s All-Ireland titles included the 60 x 30 and 40 x 20 doubles titles in partnership with Michael Naughton in 1982 where Robbie McCarthy Snr and Gerry Baker called the coaching shots. Frank was introduced to handball by Brother Murphy in 1976 and won the All-Ireland Under-12 title in 1979; the Under-16 (60 x 30) title in 1983 and the Minor Softball Singles title in 1985, the first Westmeath winner since Tommy Ledwith in 1960. Only the great Robbie McCarthy in 2004 and 2005 has won the title since for Westmeath. Gerry Baker was Frank’s coach and mentor since 1980 or thereabouts.
Frank returned to Ireland in the early 1990s and was an important member of the Mullingar Shamrocks panel that won the Westmeath senior title in 1992 – the beginning of the historic 4-in-a-row title winning sequence. On his return to New York, Frank was a central figure to many of the great days of the Westmeath Club in New York.
We congratulate the other award winners including Clubman of the Year, Trevor Holloway; Junior Footballer of the Year, Ger McPartland; Senior Hurler of the Year, Alan Sherlock; Senior Football Player of the Year, Darragh Carmody and the Westmeath senior footballers who won the New York senior football title in 2023 and returned the club to senior ranks in both codes for 2024. .
