The 1961 Minor Final; Mullingar Shamrocks 2-7 St Brigid’s (Moate) 1-6.

The picture of the Mullingar Shamrocks 1961 county title winning minor team recently published on Facebook attracted some attention and prompted further research. The final was played on 3 September 1961 in Moate and Shamrocks were comfortable winners after the sides were level at the interval. Colm Connaughton opened the scoring with a pointed free for Shamrocks and ended the day with 0-4 top his credit. Tony Mulderry, Kevin Nugent and Paddy Cole scored the other points. Terry O’Dowd (wonder where did he go to?) scored the two goals. Kevin Nugent according to the Westmeath Examiner report ‘had a star game at midfield and dominated for the hour’. Ollie Mulvey Larry Woods, Johnny Ryan and Kevin Higgins provided a strong defence whilst ‘Franke Connaughton’s long clearances saved many a score’.  Colm Connaughton, Terry O’Dowd and Christy Keenan were the best of the forwards and had ‘outstanding games’.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Tommy Reeves; Ollie Mulvey, Larry Woods, Johnny Ryan; Kevin Higgins, Frankie Connaughton, Dan O’ Dowd; Kevin Nugent (0-1) and Paddy Cole (0-1); Terry O’Dowd (2-0), Colm Connaughton (0-4), Michael Kelly; Christy Keenan, Tony Mulderry (0-1) and Vinny Murray.

Note 1: Three of this team were later ordained to the priesthood. In June 1967, Tony Mulderry was ordained and later departed for Miami and has served in various locations in the state of Florida since that date including Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Key West and before he was appointed founding pastor of All Saints Parish in Sunrise, Broward County in July 1982.  He arrived to an empty plot of land and when he left the parish twenty-two years later, All Saints had a church, a preschool, a grade school, a parish hall and several classrooms for religious education. Since January 2004, Fr Tony has been based in St Gabriel’s Parish, in Pompano Beach, Florida.  

In June 2017, Fr Tony celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination and in July he delivered a memorable sermon in the Cathedral which drew an appreciative round of applause.

Michael Kelly was ordained in 1968.

Note 2: Kevin Nugent was also ordained in 1966 and as a member of the Columban Order became a missionary priest and was based in the Philippines for six years.  Kevin then opted for a career change and is now a world-renowned expert in early childhood development. He received his doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Boston College.  Kevin founded and is Director of the Brazelton Institute in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and is on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School. He is also Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has been on the faculty there since 1986.

Note 3: This team provided a great return for future Shamrocks adult teams. Six of the team played in the 1964 county final when Shamrocks landed their first senior title.  Tony Mulderry played at full-forward in the early rounds; as a clerical student, he had returned to the seminary when the final was played and was replaced by John Daly. At the time students for the priesthood were not allowed leave to play football. The same six also played in 1966 when Mullingar Shamrocks won the second county title. Kevin Nugent’s football career was similarly interrupted but Kevin missed out on the 1964 championship campaign for a different reason. Kevin organised a team from the seminary and brought them to Mullingar to play Mullingar Town in a soccer tournament in the Greyhound Stadium. He was promptly suspended for his troubles and missed out on playing in the early rounds of the championship(Young people would have trouble understanding that the GAA up to 1971 had a rule that suspended players for playing or watching soccer, rugby, hockey or cricket!).  In the 1967 Senior championship, first round v Killucan, the Mullingar Shamrocks team included Fr Kevin Nugent at mid-field and Fr Tony Mulderry in the full-forward line. This will hardly be repeated in the future!

Note 4: Terry O’Dowd has also been on the missions since 1961, a mission to promote football and hurling in Mullingar and in Mullingar Shamrocks especially.