by Donal Keenan
He wonders about the emphasis on coaches and managers today. ‘I had a lot of coaches and certainly in the early days it wasn’t coaching, it was match planning. In my early years with Offaly, Fr Gilooly was my first coach and I remember the 1972 All-Ireland semi-final when I was playing centre half back at twenty years of age against this great Kerry team. He brought me over to the corner of the dressing-room and said, “May Our Lord look after you and Our Lady protect you.” It wasn’t much by way of coaching but he knew I had the ability and when he went away I thought, he doesn’t think anything bad of me, he thinks I’m good enough. In its own way it was probably the best bit of confidence building he could do.
‘You got the opposite then when you were dealing with Eugene McGee. He told you everything to do. You got on the bus at three minutes past one; you got off at four minutes past two. It was that meticulous. He was a brilliant organiser; he never missed a training session or a match. Eugene was always analysing. He was so thorough, everything was planned to perfection. He wasn’t a great communicator. His real forte was preparation, it was brilliant.’
Seán welcomes the embracing of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) by the GAA and believes there is an important role for the GPA in representing the interests of the players. But he argues against the introduction of any form of professionalism. ‘We don’t have the money in Ireland to do it. Just look at what has happened to the soccer clubs. They are bankrupt. The country is too small. But that doesn’t mean that we should not look after the players, give them perks, make sure they have holidays and do things that ordinarily they would not do. But we can’t afford the consequences of paying players.
‘I know that there is an argument that when you go to Croke Park on a big day with 80,000 people there and the only people who are not being paid are the ones putting on the show – all the security people, the catering people, the bar staff and GAA staff are all being paid. But I would argue that the player gets the reward for the rest of his life. He can go anywhere in Ireland and he will be known and that has its benefits. When I moved to Mayo it was as if I never left Ferbane. I saw other guys who made moves like that and it was lonely and difficult. They never knew if someone would come to visit. We had visitors from day one.’
Shane Lowry’s success has given his father and uncles a new focus. Wherever he goes in the world, however, he will meet someone who will remind him of 1982.
The Ferbane Clan: Seán, Michael and Brendan Lowry revisit the scene of their greatest triumph as footballers, the 1982 All-Ireland victory at Croke Park.
© Paul Mohan/SPORTSFILE
The Dooley Brothers
‘Over the bar, Johnny. Take the point.’
The shouted words slipped through the rumble of the expectant crowd and momentarily registered with Johnny Dooley. He glanced to his right to confirm the source. Derry O’Donovan, the team trainer, acting on behalf of the team manager, Éamon Cregan. Two men not to be messed with normally. But this wasn’t normal. Just over five minutes were left in the 1994 All-Ireland hurling final. Offaly had played considerably below the high standards they set for themselves and were trailing Limerick by five points, 1–11 to 2–13. It was not an insurmountable deficit if the team was playing well. It wasn’t.
In the seconds after the awarding of the free for a foul on his brother Billy by Limerick’s Joe O’Connor on the 20-metre line, Johnny had a decision to make. The old hurling mantra ‘take your points and the goals will come’ invaded his thoughts along with the advice coming from the sideline. He stood over the sliotar as if he was obeying.
Behind him to his right stood Billy willing him to go for goal, but staying quiet. The eldest Dooley, Joe, watched from the old dugout under the Cusack Stand, having been substituted ten minutes earlier, ‘not thinking at all, except that the game was probably gone from us’.
Six Limerick players lined up in front of the goal at the Hill 16 end of Croke Park. With thirty minutes and five seconds showing on the clock, Johnny’s decision was made. He lifted and struck the sliotar, and watched as it flew through the defensive cover and into the net to spark one of the most incredible comebacks in Championship history.
Just forty-two seconds later Pat O’Connor scored another goal for Offaly. Billy Dooley fired over three points in quick succession. Offaly supporters who had already left the ground in a despondent mood came rushing back to Croke Park. Some made it just in time to see Offaly’s captain Martin Hanamy collect the Liam McCarthy Cup. Offaly 3–16, Limerick 2–13. Seán and Betty Dooley’s three sons had scored two goals and eleven points of that total.
* * *
Clareen, also known locally as the parish of Seir Kieran, is a small rural community five miles east of Birr in County Offaly. Like his neighbours, Seán Dooley farmed the land to provide for his young and growing family. The work was hard, but a strong community spirit was sustained and strengthened by neighbourliness and the shared interest of agriculture and sport.
For Seán no sport could compare with hurling. Although Offaly as a county operated below the sanctified level of the premier hurling counties, there was a small pocket of the county around Birr in which the game was a real passion. Seán had played club hurling with Clareen. They might not have enjoyed anything in the way of success but they loved their hurling. In the evenings at home or when they were gathered together out in the fields doing the various bits and pieces that youngsters could help out with on the farm, Seán regaled his young family with stories of the great Cork and Kilkenny teams he had seen. He painted pictures of the exploits of Christy Ring and Eddie Keher to his five sons and four daughters, passing to a new and willing generation a fascination for the game.
Joe, Séamus, Kieran, Billy and Johnny travelled into Birr with him almost every Sunday during the summer months to watch club games. Offaly did not have ready-made heroes for the boys to worship as they grew up, but they absorbed the affection, passion and intensity of feeling for the game that the hurling people of the county exhibited at these events. The girls – Mary, Sandra, Patricia and Eilish – also came under the spell. ‘The whole house revolved around hurling,’ is Billy’s recollection.
Though they regularly played football and soccer, hurling was the true pursuit of the young kids around Clareen. ‘The hurl was like an extension of your body,’ explains Johnny. ‘You always carried one around with you, going up through the farm, herding cattle, the hurl was always at your side. Seir Kieran was a small parish, made up of around 400 people. The club drew from about four or five families and we all grew up playing hurling in each other’s yards and haggards. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we were developing skills that would stand to us later. It was a great, tight-knit community and we developed strong bonds and a knowledge of each other that would help us in our hurling in later years.’
The Dooleys, Connors, Coughlans and Mulrooneys were just some of the families that lived side by side and played hurling almost every day. Kevin Kinahan was another neighbour. As a group they became a powerful force in Offaly hurling, breaking through in the 1980s to challenge the traditionally strong clubs of Lusmagh, Kinnity, Birr, Coolderry and St Rynagh’s that had dominated Offaly for the previous two decades.
When the Offaly county team embarked on the historic journey to its first All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 1981, the stylish full back was Eugene Coughlan from Seir Kieran. Seven months later, in April 1982, Joe Dooley was handed the Offaly senior jersey for the first time. Thus began a Dooley presence on the Offaly hurling team that continues today in the form of Joe’s son Shane.
* * *
‘Sure I was only a kid when Joe started playing for Offaly, he’s a lot older than me,’ jokes Johnny. But he clearly recalls those early days following Joe’s progress with the county and becoming a regular in the Offaly forward line for the 1984 Championship. It was the centenary year of the GAA and the All-Ireland hurling final was switched from the traditional setting of Croke Park to Semple Stadium in Thurles, the t
own in which the association was founded 100 years previously.
Offaly’s breakthrough in 1981 had proven to be a huge inspiration to the young hurlers of the county. Men like Damien Martin, Pat Delaney, Ger Coughlan, Joachim Kelly, Mark Corrigan, Pat Carroll, Pádraig Horan and Johnny Flaherty were not just local heroes, but national heroes. To have big brother Joe playing alongside these hurling giants had a massive impact on the younger Dooleys.
Johnny and Billy were among the large family contingent that travelled to Thurles on the sunny first Sunday of September 1984 when Offaly contested the All-Ireland final against Cork. The sense of anticipation was heightened by Offaly’s form in the semi-final when they had beaten Galway by fourteen points. But that form deserted them. ‘It was a huge disappointment,’ recalls Johnny. The story, however, was only beginning.
By 1985 it became clear to the outside world that something special was happening in Offaly hurling. The team that had failed to perform in the centenary year final, retained its Leinster title and reached another All-Ireland final where Galway provided the opposition. Joe lined out at left full forward alongside Pat Cleary and Pádraig Horan – a powerful line that made a major contribution to Offaly’s 2–11 to 1–12 victory.
Earlier in the year Birr Community College, with Billy Dooley in the attack, won the first of two consecutive Leinster Colleges titles. A year later they went one better and won the 1986 All-Ireland title, beating the famous Cork hurling nursery, North Monastery (or North Mon for short). Billy was also a member of the Offaly minor team that won the county’s first ever All-Ireland title at that grade in the same year. The roller coaster was gaining momentum. ‘For Offaly to come back after the setback of 1984 and win the 1985 final was very important,’ says Johnny. ‘There was a lot happening at under-age level and in the Community College, so the All-Ireland win gave it another boost.’
Johnny’s own career in the Offaly colours began in 1987 when, as a fifteen-year-old, he joined Billy as a member of the minor squad. It was a group of young hurlers brimming with talent – John Troy, Brian Whelahan, Brian Hennessy, Joe Errity, Adrian Cahill, Johnny Pilkington and Declan Pilkington would share dressing-rooms together for the best part of a decade. They beat a Tipperary team in the All-Ireland final that included Liam Sheedy, Conal Bonnar, Michael Ryan and John Leahy.
It was a defining period for Offaly hurling, according to Johnny. ‘We had an abundance of talent in the county at the time and a major talking point was about who would go on and make it to the next level. You were always watching, wondering who was going to be the next Mark Corrigan (a star forward on the team of the 1980s). We also had a lot of the very experienced players who had been successful in the early 1980s. Having them around helped keep the young lads focused. Having won a few minor All-Irelands it can be hard to manage a group of young fellas. Young guys can get carried away with themselves a bit. Sometimes good minors mightn’t make good seniors as has been proven so often; there is a big step up from minor to senior and it is how you manage that transition that is very important. We had a successful conversion from minor to senior at the time and that sustained us during the 1990s.’
Séamus and Kieran Dooley were making their contribution too. Séamus played under-age hurling for the county while Kieran played through four League campaigns and was a substitute for the 1986 Leinster senior final when Offaly lost to Kilkenny. ‘Kieran was unlucky,’ according to Joe. ‘It’s a funny thing, but if Johnny and Billy weren’t around Kieran would probably have played regularly for Offaly.’
With such talent available from one family, it was no surprise that Seir Kieran were on the verge of a major breakthrough in Offaly. They reached their first ever county senior final in 1985 and over the following fifteen seasons would appear in ten more finals and play two replays, winning in 1988, 1995, 1996 and 1998. ‘We treasured everything we won with Offaly but the success of the club meant something different. Our numbers were very small but we were a very close group and very determined. To play in eleven finals in that period was a great achievement,’ says Joe.
* * *
What would become a familiar sight in Croke Park for the best part of the 1990s was still a novelty when Offaly won their first ever National League title on 12 May 1991, beating Wexford. Johnny and Joe Dooley started in the forward line that day and were joined during the game by substitute Billy, who replaced Mark Corrigan. But the dominance of Kilkenny in Leinster proved to be a source of frustration for the brothers and for Offaly over the next three Championships. The wait for a third All-Ireland title had stretched to nine seasons by the time the 1994 campaign began. The legendary Limerick player and coach Éamon Cregan had arrived to guide the county and a special chapter of hurling history began to unfold.
Kilkenny were embarking on their own quest for history, having won the 1992 and 1993 All-Ireland titles, and were rated as clear favourites for the 1994 title. Offaly had not shown anything like the sort of form that hinted at what was to come, so the manner of Offaly’s victory over Kilkenny at the end of June in the Leinster semi-final, 2–16 to 3–9, took everyone by surprise. The Dooley boys scored 2–10 of Offaly’s total, Joe and Billy grabbing a goal apiece, while Johnny’s accuracy from placed balls was once again underlined. He was again top scorer with nine points when Offaly won their first Leinster title since 1990, beating Wexford in the final. It was a significant moment for Johnny and Billy, because it completed their collection of provincial honours to add to those of minor and under-21 won in the late 1980s. In the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, Johnny, Billy and Joe scored 1–10 of Offaly’s total of 2–13 to set up what would become one of the most extraordinary All-Ireland finals of modern history.
Much of the focus in the build-up surrounded the in-volvement of Offaly manager Cregan in the final against his beloved Limerick. That helped divert some of the attention away from the three Dooley brothers who were attempting to emulate the achievements of the Bonnars of Tipperary in 1989 and 1991. But the spotlight inevitably turned towards them in the fortnight before the final. ‘It was extraordinary to have three brothers make up one half of a forward line,’ recalls Johnny, ‘but we never felt any extra responsibility because of that. We were just part of the team. There were some very experienced players there with us like John Troy. I suppose there were days when things were not going well in the forwards and you could imagine what was being said in the crowd; it wouldn’t have been too complimentary about the Dooleys. But generally it was okay.’
Joe remembers the initial element of surprise that the three brothers brought to the big games. ‘But later I suppose we were marked men. Anyway there is always pressure on forwards and I think it was an advantage that we knew each other’s play so well. We had been playing together for so long that it came naturally to us. And blood is thicker than water when the going gets tough.’
Rarely had the going been tougher than on 4 September 1994. What had started out as a very special day for the Dooley family, with three of the boys starting an All-Ireland senior final and Joe scoring an early goal, was not turning out as they had hoped. For much of the game Offaly were flat-footed and uninspired. Limerick’s new young forward Damien Quigley tormented the Offaly defence, Limerick provided the key men all over the field and with five minutes remaining they led by five points when the famous free was awarded by match referee Willie Barrett from Tipperary.
‘A lot of things go through your mind at times like those,’ Johnny explains today. ‘The important thing for the free-taker is to block everything out – the noise, the nerves, the various decisions you might make. There was a similar situation in the 2009 All-Ireland final when Kilkenny got their penalty. Henry [Shefflin] could have taken the soft option. But the mentality today is different, you go for your goal. Back then the theory was that you take your points and the goals would follow.
‘I made my mind up as soon as Billy was fouled. I thought I didn’t have an option, even though I was being told to go for the point. We wer
e five behind and we weren’t going well. If we were going to get back into the game, we needed something to kick us on. I was getting instructions and I knew what the safe option was. But once I decided to go for goal I was determined not to change my mind. You can’t have any doubts, otherwise you won’t pull it off.
‘Another decision I made quickly was that I would stand over the ball as if I was going to hit it over the bar; you get nearly the same power anyway behind your strike whether you stand over it or you take a run at it. But I knew they wouldn’t expect me to go for goal the way I was standing. It’s just a small thing but it was important for me that day especially. I struck it fairly well. They weren’t really prepared and the ball just snuck through. It all happened so fast I hadn’t time to be worried. It was a gamble on my part and I was lucky it came off. I know I’d have been in some trouble if it didn’t work.
‘It’s hard to know what happened after the goal. They made mistakes and we took our scores. We might still have lost the game but for Pat O’Connor’s goal soon afterwards. To score 2–5 in the last five minutes of an All-Ireland final was incredible. It was a dream finish and Limerick just couldn’t respond, they didn’t have the time.’
For Joe it wasn’t just the circumstances of the victory or the family contribution that stood out for him. ‘Offaly had fallen out of the limelight a little by that time. It had been nine years since the last senior title and we had always wanted a third All-Ireland. The third one put us on a different level in the game. It stamped our place in hurling and I think that was important for the supporters and the county, as well as for the players.’