Death of a footballer who played pivotal role in crucial 1964 Offaly success

THE death has taken place of one of the stars of one of Offaly's most important football successes. Daingean man Oliver Kilmurray was an outstanding midfielder on the Offaly team that won the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship title in 1964, playing well in their nerve tingling final win over Cork.

That win sowed the seeds for the big wins in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 1971 and 1972. Martin Furlong, Mick Ryan, Mick O'Rourke, Tony McTague, Jody Gunning, Sean Evans,Willie Bryan, Eugene Mulligan and John Smith all came off that 1964 team and won senior medals less than a decade later- Oliver's late brother Kevin was one of the heroes of that great team.

Many of them became household names and it was a huge yield from the one minor team. The late Oliver Kilmurray formed a very effective midfield partnership with his fellow Daingean man Frank Greene but he was gone to America by the 1970s, spending the remainder of his life there and passing away recently.

Kilmurray was an excellent underage footballer. He had the distinction of playing county minor for three years in a row, making his debut in a controversial 1963 loss to Westmeath – Westmeath went onto reach the All-Ireland final and the game is remembered primarily as legendary goalkeeper Martin Furlong was pulled out of the dressing room and taken off the Offaly team before throw in for a breach of the rule banning players from playing foreign games.

Furlong had played for Tullamore in an U17 soccer match against Athlone Town – that Athlone team featured a subsequent League of Ireland player Turlough O'Connor, who played against Tullamore that day. The Tullamore man went onto become Offaly's most decorated and longest serving footballer.

It is a sign of Kilmurray's promise that he was midfield that day despite his tender years and he stayed in that position in 1964 and 1965. He played in every game in 1964, scoring a crucial point in the All-Ireland final win over Cork. He was also in fine form as Offaly retained their Leinster crown in 1965, losing to Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.

He also played U21 football for Offaly in 1965, coming on as a sub in the win over Laois and the Leinster final defeat by Kildare. Kilmurray was only 18 at the time and made his senior debut for Offaly later in 1965, playing in a league win over Westmeath. He played at centre half forward and midfield in the 1966 championship draw and replay defeat by Kildare and the football world looked to be his oyster but he emigrated to New York around that time.

Kilmurray's departure followed hot on the heels of another great prospect, Tom Furlong who had went to New York just a short few years earlier and their absence was regularly bemoaned by supporters in the 1960s as Offaly strived hard for the big breakthrough, losing the 1967 Leinster senior final to Meath and the 1969 All-Ireland decider to Kerry. He was a huge loss in 1968 as Offaly went to the All-Ireland U21 football final, losing out to Derry.

He was centre half forward on the Daingean team that won a famous Senior Football Championship title in 1965, their last one, while he returned home briefly, coming on as a sub in their 1975 final loss to Rhode – his introduction proved controversial in Daingean at that time and was long debated.

As a young teen, he had played with Daingean in a long remembered 1962 Minor Football Championship final against St Rynagh's. Daingean were leading 3-5 to 1-6 near the end of the final against St Rynagh's and heading for their first win since 1937 when the game was abandoned after a row. There were unruly scenes as Daingean supporters first came onto the pitch to assist an injured player, St Rynagh's supporters followed with one of them accused of hitting the referee Tom Kelly from Tullamore. St Rynagh's denied that they were to blame and the Minor Board ordered a replay with Daingean losing an appeal to the County Board. Daingean refused to replay the game, arguing that any losing team could force a row to get a game abandoned in the last minute and get a second chance but the County Board stuck by their decision. The result was that the 1962 championship was never concluded and though Daingean long claimed that they were the “uncrowned champions”, there is a gap in the roll of honour for 1962 and there were no minor football winners.

Oliver continued to play football after emigrating to New York – in 1972, younger brother Kevin won a New York Senior Football Championship with Sligo while Oliver was on the Laois team that won the Junior Football Championship there.

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He is remembered with great fondness at home for his footballing excellence, he is in Daingean's pantheon of great footballers and supporters that saw him play in the 1960s still speak of his quality in glowing terms – a minutes silence was observed in his memory at Offaly's Leinster Senior Hurling Championship win over Antrim.