Paddy Cole – Sportsman Supreme
“I never saw him retaliate or initiate anything unfair and he was always a peacemaker to prevent any trouble on the field. A true gentleman - he was fairness personified” one of his former colleagues recalled … “Above all, he was one of the finest sportsmen who ever donned a Shamrocks or a Westmeath jersey as well as being one of the nicest fellows one could meet. On the field, even if he was badly fouled or abused by an opponent, he never retaliated but always kept his temper under control. I also remember that he had such heart that you knew Paddy could pull the game out of the bag, even when it seemed lost. Mick Reynolds had absolute trust in Paddy and we all could see that “reliability” and “dependability” were his middle names”.
Paddy’s greatness was lightly worn. Modesty defined him.
Paddy's wins and losses are also worthy of recall on this sad occasion in what has been the toughest of twelve months for the club with the Killer and Detty also called to the great football arena in
the sky.
Multi-talented Young Star
Paddy Cole was a multi-talented teenage sports star playing Gaelic football with Mullingar Shamrocks, soccer with Brosna Rovers, hurling with Pearses and he enjoyed a boxing career that overlapped his GAA career in the early stages. In February 1963, for example, Paddy won the Longford-Westmeath Junior Middleweight title (amateur) in Castlepollard. Boxing was part of Paddy Cole’s heritage as his father Chris was a successful heavyweight boxer and held the Irish professional title in the 1940s. Before he concentrated on Gaelic football and hurling, Paddy was also a talented soccer player with Brosna Rovers and Mullingar Town. His soccer exploits with Brosna Rovers, a team he captained, regularly feature in the Westmeath Examiner The team also included one Tommie Lennon, another man known to Mullingar Shamrock’s people.
The year 1960 was a significant one for Mullingar Shamrocks at under-age level and Paddy Cole collected his first county medal as part of the successful Minor team and added a second Minor medal to the collection in 1961 where he lined out at mid-field with Kevin Nugent. Paddy first played adult football for Mullingar Shamrocks in 1960 and was a member of the team beaten in the junior county final by Ballymore (2-2 to 1-2), The Downs were defeated in the semi-final and an objection to Paddy playing soccer followed that game. Shamrocks survived and after that episode Paddy limited his soccer playing activities to the dismay of his uncle ‘Darno’ McCabe.
The result of The Downs GAA Club match gave rise to one of the more celebrated objections in Mullingar Shamrocks history. It brought together Christy Whelehan and Mick Reynolds, two of the great GAA men of the time, to argue the case at a Westmeath County Board meeting. The Downs claimed that Paddy was illegal as he had played foreign games and had done so as recently as 30 October. The foreign games in question were soccer, cricket, rugby and hockey. Members of the GAA were prohibited from playing, attending or supporting these games. This rule was abolished in 1971.
Christy Whelehan stated the case for The Downs and explained that the club decided to object to the inclusion of Patrick Cole in the Shamrocks team even though it was extremely difficult to prove that a player had participated in foreign games. Their only proof was a photograph published in the Westmeath Examiner earlier in the year. County Chairman, Eamon Moynihan explained that the Leinster Council had ruled that photographic evidence was not acceptable as proof of playing foreign games. Christy explained that the players and officials were identified in the photograph and that the Minor Hurling committee had refused to select Paddy Cole on the Westmeath team because of his soccer playing activities.
Mullingar Shamrocks secretary Mick Reynolds explained that Paddy Cole was not playing foreign games to his or the club’s knowledge and when it was discovered that a player was playing these games he was dropped from the club. On 30 October, he played with Shamrocks in Collinstown. Mick Reynolds also explained that there were a number of Cole families in Mullingar and it was Paddy’s brother who was playing soccer. The photograph was examined and Shamrocks Chairman, Jimmy Bennett noted that no football code was mentioned in the report and that he knew at least two more of the same name in Mullingar. A number of Shamrocks players gave evidence that
Paddy Cole was in Collinstown on 30 October; Seán Magee explained that it was possible to superimpose a head on the picture without any difficulty. County Chairman, Eamon Moynihan summing up stated that he believed that The Downs were mistaken about Paddy Cole playing soccer on 30 October. He believed the evidence of the Shamrocks players. The objection was lost.
The photograph in question was published in the Westmeath Examiner of 6 February 1960. It was a photograph of the Brosna Stars soccer team that played Ballinasloe United at the Greyhound Stadium. Ironically, the feature was published beside a report on the Mullingar Shamrocks AGM of 1960. A type of tug-of-war existed between Mullingar Shamrocks and the soccer teams in town for Paddy’s services. Family allegiances complicated the issue somewhat. Paddy’s father Chris Cole was committed to the Gaelic football cause and was a committee member of Mullingar Shamrocks. Paddy’s uncle, Frank ‘Darno’ McCabe was one of the leading soccer officials in Mullingar and remained so throughout his life. It would be fair to say he had no great love for the GAA. On this occasion, he miscalculated somewhat – a picture intended as a souvenir for the scrapbook mysteriously ended up on page7 of the Examiner. In the long term, soccer was the loser and Paddy Cole went on to become one of the greats of Mullingar Shamrocks and Westmeath football. He still played a bit of soccer but made sure to keep his head well down when the photographers were around.
Dual Player and Dual County Medalist
Paddy Cole was centrally involved in all the
successes of the Mullingar teams in the early 1960s. It began in May 1962 when
Pearse’s defeated Raharney 3-13 to 3-7 in the Feis Cup final. On 26 August,
Raharney were again defeated (2-9 to 3-5) in the County Senior Hurling final,
the first Senior hurling title won by a Mullingar team since 1945 and the last
one since that day. Paddy had ‘a very good hour’ according to the Westmeath
Examiner report. Two weeks later many of the same players returned to Cusack
Park for the Junior football final when Mullingar Shamrocks defeated Boher 4-4
to 2-6 to finally land the Junior title. Paddy Cole partnered James O’Dowd at
midfield and scored the fourth goal. Senior football status was achieved and
two years later, on 20 September 1964, Mullingar Shamrocks won the title for
the first time when hot favourites St Mary's Rochfortbridge GAA were narrowly defeated. This was one of the many
occasions when Paddy Cole’s high fielding, quality distribution, football
intellect and leadership qualities were instrumental to the Shamrocks success
story. Shamrocks completed the Championship-League double in 1964 but had to
wait until 16 May 1965 to complete the double when Athlone were defeated 2-11
to 2-6 in the league final.
Paddy Cole captained Shamrocks in 1965 but
Ballymore (1-6 to 0-7) proved to be too good in the championship first round.
The club bounced back in 1966 and victories over Rosemount, The Downs, St
Mary’s Rochfortbridge and Maryland (5-10 to 1-5) in the final, played on 2
October 1964, secured the club’s second senior title and secured Paddy’s second
senior football championship medal. Three weeks later Paddy Cole was back in
Cusack Park but this time Pearses lost to Castlepollard in the senior hurling
final (2-7 to 2-4). The same happened a year later when Raharney defeated
Pearses (4-12 to 1-8) in the club’s last appearance in a final.
Shamrocks championship winning run ground to
a halt at this stage as the club struggled through the 70s before recovering to
reach the senior final in 1979. Paddy Cole, as player manager and lining out at
full forward was instrumental in leading this revival of a Shamrocks team that
included Paddy’s brothers Tom and Michael. Unfortunately, Athlone proved to be
too good in the final and were convincing 1-10 to 0-5 winners. His contribution
was recognized by his selection as Clubman of the Year in 1979.
Paddy Cole continued to line out for Mullingar Shamrocks into the 1980s and played his last senior championship match for Shamrocks against Athlone. A wonderful 22 years of seniorchampionship action ended on 26 August 1984 in this semi-final loss to the Shannonsiders during which time Paddy almost always lined out in thekey-positions of the day, initially midfield but later full-forward, centre-forward, centre-back or full-back as the need required. However, Paddy
was still lining out for Mullingar Shamrocks in 1986 at junior level, the year a remarkable playing career ended.
In the late 1970s-early 1980s, Paddy Cole extended his football repertoire and he was a regular on the Mullingar Rugby 1st team for a number of seasons playing in the centre with a number of other Mullingar Shamrocks players also featuring, as well as one Michael O’Leary.
Paddy Cole is one of the few players to have represented Mullingar teams in senior football, senior hurling, 1st team rugby, and Mullingar Town in soccer.
Inter-County Career
Paddy Cole’s intercountry career was equally
significant. His soccer playing exploits ensured that he was not selected for
any Westmeath Minor teams – no footballer or hurler who played the ‘foreign
game’ was going to be kitted out in a Westmeath jersey. County Chairman, Eamon
Moynihan’s policy on this allowed no room for compromise: ‘Players had a choice
of playing whichever codes they wished but they could not play Gaelic games and
foreign games’.
Paddy made his inter-county debut on 14
October 1962 in Cusack Park in a National Hurling League Div. 1C match against
Dublin as part of a hardy full-back line that also included Jack Power and Pat
Jackson. It wasn’t a good outing for the county (or the full-back line!) as it
shipped an 8-8 to 2-7 defeat. The politics of hurling selection had little
appeal for Paddy and his inter-county hurling career was short lived, although
he did line out in November 1967 and February 1968 in the two Div. 2A NHL games
against Roscommon.
A week after his hurling debut, Paddy Cole
made his inter-county football debut at full-forward against Leitrim in a NFL
Div. 2A match played in Cusack Park on 21 October 1962. It was a winning 1-10
to 3-2 start in what stretched to 47 league games played for the county between
1962 and 1974 (Thanks to Gerry Buckley’s books for making it possible and easy
to gather these stats). In addition, Paddy played in 12 Leinster senior
championship matches between 1966 and 1974, beginning in Navan on 9 June 1964
when Meath defeated Westmeath (3-8 to 0-7) in the Leinster Championship. His
final league game was on 3 February 1974 against Derry in Kinnegad and he ended
his inter-county championship career in Croke Park against Meath lining out at
corner-back on a team that lost 3-8 to 0-7. Times were different when Paddy
made his first-start against Leitrim. He was playing his second game of the day
as in the morning he lined out for Mullingar Shamrocks against Trim, the
Westmeath Examiner reported. It was a report of commendation rather than
condemnation for Paddy.
Paddy Cole played most of his inter-county
football at right corner back but he was also known to make an impact in the
forwards. In the period between 1967 and 1969 Westmeath football enjoyed
something of a mini-Golden Age. Paddy Cole made a number of important
contributions to the time when ‘Westmeath for the first time, crashed
football’s big time’, as the Irish Independent saw it. On 11 June 1967, in
Tullamore, Westmeath eliminated Dublin from the Leinster championship (1-6 to
0-8). On this occasion, it was Paddy’s vigilance in defence that secured the
victory as he dispossessed Leslie Deegan as he was about to shoot. ‘As he was
shooting however the flying body of Paddy Cole arrived from “nowhere” to
smother the shot and Dublin were quite unexpectedly kayoed from the
championship’ was how Dónal Carroll described Paddy’s heroics in the Irish
Independent.
In the opening round of Div. 1B of the NFL
on 22 October 1967 played in Athlone, Westmeath again took care of Dublin.
Paddy Cole retired injured in the first-half but returned after the interval at
right-half forward. In the final minute, Dublin desperately defended a
two-point lead when in the words of the Irish Press reporter ‘Cole became the
man of the match. He snatched up the ball from a Dublin clearance, and banged
it back into the net to leave Westmeath winners [1-5 to 0-7]’. This was
followed by victories over Armagh (1-8 to 0-8) and Monaghan (1-3 to 0-5) before
the inevitable elimination by Meath. Against Monaghan, Paddy Cole again scored
the vital goal this time from a penalty kick in the closing stages as he
retained his composure despite the Monaghan distractions.
Westmeath remained on the big stage for the
1968-69 NFL with Paddy Cole still involved mainly in a forward role. On 16
March 1969, Down were defeated 0-13 to 1-8 in Arctic Carrickmacross. This
result against the reigning All-Ireland champions would feature in any list of
the county’s all-time Top-10 victories. Some of the greatest players of the era
or any other era lined out for Down on the day including Sean O’Neill, Paddy
Doherty, James McCartan, the father of modern GAA coaching Joe Lennon and Dan
McCartan at fullback. Another victory over Dublin qualified Westmeath for the
NFL semi-final against Kerry, a match played in Croke Park on 11 May 1969, on
the week that French President General Charles de Gaulle came to visit Kerry
and Parknasilla and Sneem in particular. This first time meeting of Westmeath and
Kerry in an important game marked ‘the entry of Westmeath into the big time,
the culmination of patient endeavour by players, selector and trainer, and the
assistance behind the scenes of the officers of the County Board’ according to
Aindrias-O in the Westmeath Examiner. Westmeath pushed Kerry all the way as the
county produced its finest Croke Park display at the time leading by 1-6 to 1-4
at the interval, the more experienced Kerry eventually winning 2-12 to 2-8.
Paddy Cole was a second-half replacement for Pat Buckley and continued his goal
scoring record in important games by scoring the second goal to reduce the
deficit to two points with just over five minutes remaining.
Westmeath followed this with a victory over
Louth in the Leinster Championship before a heavy defeat by Offaly ended the
quest for a Leinster title. The Offaly team was stacked with players who went
on to win All-Ireland titles in 1971 and 1972. However, what happened next did
incalculable damage to the image of Westmeath football and the notion that the
county was in the top flight of the Gaelic football elite. An invitation to
travel to play Kerry in a match to mark the official opening of the J. P.
O’Sullivan Memorial Park, Killorglin on 31 August was the reward for the
county’s impressive display in the NFL semi-final. The Jimmy Lucey Memorial Cup
was at stake: so too was the reputation of Westmeath football as ‘a makeshift
Westmeath fifteen, missing half-a-dozen regulars offered but token resistance
to the earnest Kerry men and went down to an ignominious 2-20 to 0-3 defeat’,
the Westmeath Examiner reported. Paddy Cole was one of the 16 who made the
journey to Killorglin and lined out at midfield on a day where ‘Westmeath far
from gaining anything, have lost much’. As bad as it was, it could have been
much worse as Kerry, the All-Ireland champions in waiting, held an interval
lead of 2-12 to 0-2.
Interprovincial Honours
In the 1960s, the ultimate representative
honour for a GAA player was to gain selection for his province and play in the
Railway Cup. In 1968, Paddy Cole played at right-corner back on the Leinster
team that was defeated by Ulster in the Railway Cup final.
Honorary President
At the Mullingar Shamrocks AGM of December, 2017 Paddy Cole’s contribution to the history of Mullingar Shamrocks were formally recognized when he was included in the list of Honorary Presidents.
Rest in Peace, Paddy your contribution and your standards will never be forgotten.
