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Article April Week 1 2005
Garda Announce Their Best Ever Football Team At A Gala Function

It was certainly a night to remember at the Garda Club, Sexton Street Limerick a few short weeks ago when close to three hundred guests gathered to honour the greatest Garda hurling and football teams of the force since the first Garda club was formed in Dublin by Commissioner Eoin o’Duffy in 1923. Among the huge attendance was the Mayor of Limerick, Michael Hourigan, GAA President Sean Kelly, Garda Assistant Commissioner Gerry Kelly, Eddie Wode, Chairman of Limerick County Council, and the Chairman of the Limerick County Board Denis Holmes.

An Garda Siochana and the GAA have enjoyed a wonderful relationship for close to eighty years and many famous players have served and will continue to serve in An Garda Siochana and the evenings event was a great opportunity to honour the award recipients. It also afforded the opportunity to acknowledge the great contributation of members of An Garda Siochana to GAA activity whether it be playing, coaching or in the area of administration. Indeed here in Kerry the members of the force have always been to the fore in playing, promoting, and in the training of teams down through the years. One of Kerry’s favourite sons Michael o Muircheartaig was the chairman of the selection committee of, Pat Coleman, Flan Wiley and Martin Fitzpatrick. It is obvious that a great deal of thought was put into the selection process and the selectors came up with two great teams.

While the event was honouring the great players well known to followers of the games there is of course a huge number of Gardai who have literally given all their spare time to the games and here in Kerry especially they have served the association with great loyalty. To many of course to mention but in my involvement I have played with and met up with a huge number of the force as they loyally serve club and county. Jack McGrath of Beaufort has been a Trojan worker, John Evans of Laune Rangers is one of the best known, and he is the man who trained his side to county, Munster and All Ireland honours, Eamon o Sullivan of Ballyduff was one of Kerry’s great hurlers, P J McIntyre of Kenmare has given magnificent service to this county and sadly his fine young son Seamus, a great footballer and inter county hurler died in a tragic accident while on duty. Mick Fitzgerald now retired in Castleisland has been another exemplary servant of the GAA and he was recently and rightly so h
onoured for his tremendous service to ladies football not alone here in Kerry but also through the thirty two counties, it is safe to say that without Mick ladies football in Kerry would not be in the strong position it enjoys to day.

My own club Killarney Legion had many the Gardai playing with them down the years, Jimmy Redpath comes to mind straight away, Jimmy was a superb mid fielder and played league and championship with Kerry, transferred to Kildare where he starred with the Lilly whites, my great friend Loui Nolan spent many years stationed in Kildorrery and played minor, junior and senior with the Kingdom. Yet another Garda who wore the green and gold was Paddy Culligan, reared in lower New Street Killarney who went on to become Commissioner of the force, Paddy also played with Cork when posted there and was one of the first great basketball players of this county winning county championships with Tralee E S B, an All Ireland with Kerry and might have been the first Kerryman to play for his country in that sport. Lets not forget the great Jas Murphy and Pat Griffin who starred as Kerry won in 1969-70.

Kerry of course would be to the fore when it comes to Garda footballing stars and talking about stars what about the men who were selected for the All Star teams bringing further honour to the force. John Egan, Paidi o Se, Connie Murphy, Declan o Keeffe, John Crowley, and Tom o Sullivan. Liam Kerins trains Limerick and Michael McDonagh a well known Clare Garda is presently chairman of the Clare County Board while Mick Curley, Galway and Liam Maguire of Cavan have refereed All Ireland Football finals. It goes without saying that, we could go on and on recalling the men and women of the force who given so much.

So back to that memorable night and seeing that it’s in the football that Kerry are so represented we will stick to the team of that big round ball and what a line out was honoured, surly this is a line out that itself would win an All Ireland, the greatest Garda football side. John Kerins, (Cork), Paidi o Shea, (Kerry), Paddy Prendergast, (Mayo), Paddy Driscoll, (Cork), Paul Russell, (Kerry), Bill Carlos, (Roscommon), Tony Davis,(Cork), Paddy Kennedy, (Kerry), Larry Stanley,(Kildare), Pat Griffin, (Kerry), Mick Higgins, (Cavan), Matt Connor, (Offaly), John McCarthy, (Dublin), Tom Langan, (Mayo), John Egan, (Kerry).

As I put pen to paper word has literally reached me of the death in New Jersey of a great Killarney man who in his youth was a well known oarsman with the Muckress club, ( he won a minor race with them in 1954), but more importantly the death of Dominic Doyle has taken from our mist a member of a family who were unique in their own special way. Dominic was one of a family of sixteen children who from 1936 to the middle fifties were reared in Glena on the shores of Lough Lein and of course Glena Bay is well known for it’s fruitful salmon fishing, queen Victoria lunched there around the middle eighteen hundreds and it was also known for it’s ballroom and the beauty of it’s surroundings.

So another one of this exemplary family has passed away and reminiscence of the legendary Casey family from Sneem the Doyle’s of Glena would row winter and summer across the lakes to attend school, some would cycle from their starting point at famed Brickeen bridge and of course as the years slipped by many of the family reared by their parents, Eileen Clifford from Callinafercy and father Daniel from the foot of Torc mountain went their separate ways taking the emigrant boat like thousands at the time to England and America.

Dominic who was in his sixties was pre deceased by two brothers and two sisters Michael, Sheila and Ann while baby Diarmuid died just six weeks after birth and to his wife Mary sons Dominic and Danny, grandchildren and relations we extend our deepest sympathy and of course he will be sadly missed by his brothers and sisters, Aileen, (London) Pat, (London), Danny, (USA) Mary, (Manchester), Bernard, (New Jersey), Una, (New York), John,(Essex) Jerry, (New York), Dolly, (Surry), Margaret, (Killarney), and and Phil, (Caherceiveen).

Fogra: next week one of Kilcummin’s greatest sons, Billy Doolan announces his best ever East Kerry o Donoghue side as the counting of votes for the best ever team from the district continues to unfold.