On this Day 20 Years Ago
Saturday 24 July 2004 is Westmeath’s D-Day when the county finally achieved deliverance from the ranks of the three counties who had yet to win a provincial title in hurling or football. CLG Laois were beaten 0-12 to 0-10 in the replay of the Leinster Final. Only once previously, in 1949 had Westmeathgaaofficial played in a Leinster final; on the journey to the 2004 final, Official Offaly GAA were beaten 0-11 to 0-10, Dublin GAA 0-14 to 0-12, Official Wexford GAA 2-15 to 1-14 and the Leinster final ended in an 0-13 each draw.
It’s appropriate that we recognise the contribution of our Mullingar Shamrocks men to this success. Brian Morley, the great football stylist, featured in every game and scored one of the most famous ‘points’ in the history of Westmeath GAA in the one point victory against Offaly. Put it this way, most umpires wouldn’t even have to send for Hawk Eye to determine the validity of the score. There was no Hawk Eye then of course. Offaly football has never really recovered from that setback. (Your PRO was walking down one of the streets near Croke Park texting a good friend from Offaly about the win, when he felt a gentle tug on the phone. Too late, he realised that a robbery was in progress, the text remained incomplete and the phone hasn’t been seen since).
Dónal O'Donoghue has been one of the great servants of Mullingar Shamrocks with a senior career that began in 2000 and Dónal is still ticking away nicely at Junior level with three Westmeath senior medals in the collection at home. Dónal is a one of a small band of Westmeath footballers to have won Leinster minor (2000) and senior (2004) medals. Dónal was outstanding throughout the campaign and was selected as the RTE Sunday Game Man of the Match for the first round game against Offaly and the drawn Leinster final against Laois. Dónal was one of five Westmeath All-Star nominees in 2000.
Shane Colleary also featured in all the matches except the Dublin game and his superb goal against Wexford in the semi-final was the crucial score of the game. Surprisingly, Westmeath only scored two goals in the campaign and Shane’s goal was the last time the net was disturbed by a Westmeath forward, in the long march to the title.
And, it’s appropriate to recognise that Shane and Dónal were active in the Junior I and Junior II championship at the weekend and both got their names on the scoreboard. ‘Ask not what your club can do for you but what you can do for your club’ as J F Kennedy nearly said. (And, of course Denis Glennon is bringing longevity to a different level running around Cusack Park like a teenage midfielder for Tyrrellspass in the senior championship).
And, we mustn’t forget Des Maguire for the piece of inspired outside the box thinking that prompted him to make the most significant phone call in the history of Westmeath GAA and recruited the great Páidí Ó Sé to the cause. The rest as they say is history for which Mick Price and Killer did their bit also.
