Offaly's huge contribution to a golden footballing era for iconic Westmeath school

CIAN McNamee's excellence in Offaly's recent breathtaking Leinster Minor Football Championship rekindled round-about memories for some of a golden era for an iconic Westmeath school in colleges competitions.

The mid 1970s through to the mid 1980s was a fantastic time to be in school at the now defunct boarding school, Carmelite College in Moate – it also catered for day pupils.

Drawing players from throughout the midlands and further afield, Carmelite College enjoyed sensational success. The won the Hogan Cup for the All-Ireland Colleges Senior Football Championship in 1976, 1980 and 1981, they were beaten in the finals in 1975 and 1977. Their losing margin in the 1975 and '77 finals was a solitary point, 1-7 to 2-3 to St Colman's of Newry in '75, 1-11 to 1-10 to St Colman's of Claremorris in '77 and the Moate school were so close to a hat-trick of titles.

They won four Leinster senior colleges title in a row from 1975 to 1978, the only year that they didn't go onto the All-Ireland final, and it was a very unique time to be in the school or supporting them.

Carmelite College has a cherished place in the education annals of the midlands and they were subsumed into the new Moate Community School in 1996, along with Moate Vocational School and the Convent of Mercy Secondary School.

For the students on those championship winning teams, the memory of those years have remained with them throughout there life. There were some terrific footballers there, many went onto make their name in county football and the quality of their football took the breath away during a time when football at national level was in the final stages of transition from the old traditional kick and catch, hit early and hard style, to a more nuanced game with less emphasis on the physical.

Above: The Carmelite College team that was beaten in the 1975 All-Ireland Colleges SFC final. Vinny Henery is on the left on the front row and Aidan O'Halloran is third from the right on the back row.

Dublin and Kerry set that template at national level in the 1970s and colleges football was unsurprisingly a fertile breeding ground for it.

There is a great You-Tube extended highlights clip of Carmelite's 1977 All-Ireland final defeat by the Claremorris St Colman's and a few things stand out from it. One was the unbridled passion of the crowd, the magical atmosphere at the game, the singing and chanting. Another was the extent of the control of St Colman's for much of the first half as they almost owned the ball and it looked like Carmelite had very little going for them. They managed to hang in there with late scores coming up to the break, played some excellent football in the second half as they got into a winning position before being pipped at the post.

The other standout from an Offaly perspective was the influence of some players from the county. Cian McNamee's father John was a major factor in them going so close to retaining their title. His first half goal kept them alive and he also kicked two points as he showed some of the finishing that his sons Niall and Cian have inherited – Niall was Offaly's greatest forward of the modern era, another son Alan was a midfield stalwart for the 2000s on and is still playing for Rhode in his 40s while youngest son Cian is showing immense potential and has been one of Offaly's stars this year as they won a first Leinster minor football title since 1989.

John McNamee was a sub on the 1976 All-Ireland champions, coming on in three of their games en-route to glory and making an important contribution. He won an Offaly U21 Football Championship medal with Rhode in 1975, playing in defence before discovering his true calling in the attack. He played senior with Rhode before transferring to the neighbouring St Brigid's club in Croghan, playing with them in the 1980s into the 1990s.

One of the stars of that team was a flying midfielder by the name of Aidan O'Halloran. Already playing senior football for Westmeath and Moate, his flying runs in that All-Ireland final took the breath away and he went onto play an important part in the Offaly football story.

After transferring to Tullamore where he worked in a bank, Aidan established himself on the Offaly senior football team in 1980. He was outstanding in the all-important 1980 Leinster senior football final win over Dublin, scoring two crucial points in one of the toughest games that many of the players played in – after losing to the Dubs in 1978 and 1979, a third consecutive defeat would almost certainly have ended Eugene McGee's reign as manager and the 1982 All-Ireland success may never have happened.

O'Halloran started in the 1981 All-Ireland senior football final defeat by Kerry and was a sub in the famous 1982 final win that deprived them of five in a row – the holder of three Leinster senior football medals, he made the last of his 37 league and championship appearances in a 1984 league loss to Mayo.

Aidan and his wife Maura were immersed in life in Tullamore in those years. Maura was the first female chairperson of Tullamore Harriers and their son Tiernan became a long serving Connacht rugby player as well as an Irish international.

Aidan made a big contribution in those great years in the 1980s but occasionally got an ill deserved rough time from Offaly supporters. One of my lasting childhood memories was of the Offaly crowd getting onto him at the 1981 championship win over Westmeath, wondering why and being told it was because of his Westmeath connections. This was grossly unfair, his Offaly connections were powerful and the county was stamped on his DNA. He was born in Tullamore and his father taught in Gortnamona National School, near the Blueball. A young Aidan initially lived there while his mother Sarah Daly was from Lackaroe in Cadamstown.

The family then moved to Tubber when Michael was appointed principal of the National School there. Aidan went to National School in Tubber followed by Carmelite College. They were in Tubber for a number of years before they built a house in Moate, resulting in Aidan playing with Moate and Westmeath. He played senior with Westmeath from 1975 to 1979 and won Westmeath senior football titles with Moate in 1975, 1976 and 1978.

However, he had a strong affinity with Offaly and transferring to them was not the big decision that it would be for many Westmeath men when he was asked to switch by Eugene McGee. And despite living in Galway for several years, Aidan has retained a very strong passionate bond with Offaly and remains great friends with many in the county as well as attending all the reunions of the 1982 squad that he can.

O'Halloran scored six points in their 1-10 to 0-11 win over St Jarlath's of Tuam in the 1976 All-Ireland final. A further 1-2 was scored by their captain and a proud Offaly and Clara man, Vinny Henry. Like O'Halloran, Henry played at the highest level at a very young age. He was one of the players who won Leinster medals in 1975, '76 and '77 and he made his Offaly senior football debut in 1977, scoring 1-8 in a notorious defeat to Wexford that put Eugene McGee under pressure in his maiden year.

Henry got an All-Star nomination later that year and played some of the best football of his life but that didn't prevent him from being pulled over the coals earlier in the season by the famous Carmelite manager, Fr Michael Cremin who let him know in no uncertain terms that he was not performing for the school. A Cork native, Fr Cremin was intrinsic to the Carmelite success story and Henry remembered getting glowering looks and withering comments as he turned on the style for Offaly senior after misfiring during Carmerlite's march to the All-Ireland final - many of the players from that time speak of Fr Cremin in glowing terms.

Henry had initially went to Ard Scoil Chiarain in Clara – it only went to intermediate certificate at the time and rather than go to Tullamore, he was sent to board at Carmelite as his mother felt he would get a better balance between football and education there. Instead he landed in a football mad school where footballers were revered and football took precedence over algebra and Shakespeare in a lot of ways, though he did get enough of a schooling to later qualify as a national school teacher, retiring out of the Gaelscoil in Tullamore.

Like O'Halloran, he had the unique distinction of playing county senior football while still in school and he was also remembered for breaking the cross bar with a shot against Dublin in a narrow championship loss in Portlaoise in 1978. His last game for Offaly was the 1981 All-Ireland final defeat by Kerry and he was not on the '82 panel.

Carmelite's 1980 All-Ireland win included a Clara man Pat Fleming at corner back, a future Galway star Val Daly at centre back and one John Maughan at midfield – Pat Fleming was the captain when Carmelite retained their titles in 1981. Fleming made his debut on the Carmelite senior team in 1979 and suffered his only defeat in Tullamore that year.

Maughan gained fame for his managerial pedigree, managing Offaly for four years up to 2022 as well as his native Mayo, Clare and Fermanagh. A young student as Carmelite got to the the 1976 and 1977 All-Ireland finals, he was blown away by the brilliance of Aidan O'Halloran and Vinny Henry at that stage, later declaring: “As a young footballer, we all had our heroes but any young footballer watching this school team would have considered the genius of Aidan O'Halloran and Vincent Henry to be superhuman, immortal and just downright brilliant.”

There is also a memorable clip from the 1977 All-Ireland colleges final of a flying young man with a mop of blond hair booting over a quality point. That was another Offaly man, Danny Owens – Mountbolus man Owens was full forward on the 1976 All-Ireland champions and subsequently won fame for his hurling exploits. He scored a crucial late point in the 1981 All-Ireland senior hurling final win over Galway, was excellent in the 1985 win over the same opposition and captained Offaly to National Hurling League glory in 1991 – he was the Kilcormac-Killoughey manager when they made their big senior hurling breakthrough in 2012.. He was also an excellent footballer, a fast, occasionally deadly forward who was the Carmelite captain in 1977. He was outstanding on the Offaly side that won the Leinster U21 Football Championship in 1979, scoring six points in a man of the match performance in the final against Louth – playing along side future heroes such as Gerry Carroll, Tomas O'Connor, Johnny Mooney, Matt Connor, Liam Currums, Brendan Lowry and Mick Lowry.

His life story could have taken a different turn that year. After the Leinster U21 final, Eugene McGee told him that he would be brought onto the senior panel if they beat Dublin in the Leinster final. Instead Offaly were beaten by Dublin with Bernard Brogan netting a late goal and hurling took over for a young Danny, who scarcely kicked a football again.

Fleming's captaincy in 1981 meant that two out of Carmelite's three All-Ireland winning captains were Clara men and the contribution of men from across the border to their great successes was profound – it is certainly most doubtful if they would have won their first in 1976 without Vinny Henry and Aidan O'Halloran.

There were other Offaly players or connections on the successful teams. The 1976 goalkeeper was Kilcormac man Mark Guinan while Paul McNamee, a brother of John, was on the Carmelite squad in 1977 and 1978. Walsh Island's Liam Mulhall, a member of the great Walsh Island Offaly senior football six in a row winning squad from 1978 to 1983 and Clara's Eddie Fleming, an Offaly senior football selector under Tommy Lyons from 1997 to 1999 and later under Paul O'Kelly in 2003, were on the 1977 panel.

Ollie Bracken, one of the famous group who won Senior, U21 and Minor Football Championship medals with Tullamore in 1977, also went to Carmelite in that era – one of the most promising forwards in Offaly in that talent rich time, Bracken's emigration to New York was a big blow to club and county.

The 1981 team included a Clara colleague of Pat Fleming, Gay Rickard in the attack: Mark Guinan was the goalkeeper on the Kilcormac team beaten by a Ferbane side starting out on their great five in a row run in the 1986 Offaly SFC final – on the eve of their life-changing amalgamation with Killoughey later that year.

A former Tubber footballer, Noel Robbins came on as a sub in 1981 while the full back in 1980 and 1981 was Pat Murray, one of the stars of the team. A native of Moate, he later transferred to Tullamore, where he worked as a garda (he progressed up the ranks in the gardai, retiring as a chief Superintendent), and played some great football in their defence in the 1990s, playing in the 1992 Senior Football Championship final loss to Ferbane. He had transferred back to Moate by the time Tullamore competed in their next final in 1996, losing to Shannonbridge – he added another Westmeath senior football medal to his collection in 1997.

Noel Robbins was a key figure for Tubber as they got quickly established after their crucially important 1979 reformation. Several players from Tubber had played across the border for Rosemount in the years before that, some of them making Westmeath teams, which was an unmitigated disaster for Offaly. The Offaly GAA County Board brought this to a head from the mid 1970s onwards, resulting in Tubber being reformed and they hit the ground running as they won the Junior, Intermediate and Senior “B” Football Championships in 1986, 1988 and 1989 with Noel Robbins playing in all three finals.

The Robbins' family were from long disputed territory in Horseleap, a village mainly in Offaly but with a very complicated cross-border history with Westmeath. That is a story for another day but most famously, the pub in the village straddles both counties. Much of Horseleap is in Clara parish and Noel Robbins is a classic example of the way it worked – he originally played with Rosemount and then switched to Clara after the border issue was brought to a head. He won a Minor Football Championship medal with Clara in 1983 but later went to Tubber - players from the Horseleap part of Clara parish were given annual Offaly GAA permission to play with Tubber for years, with the approval of Clara GAA.

An older brother of Noel Robbins, Finian played with Carmelite in the 1970s and also lined out for Rosemount and Clara before emigrating to England – he had been re-instated as a Clara player by Leinster Council in 1980-1981 after being accused of playing illegally in Westmeath. The Robbins family went onto give powerful service to Tubber with Gerry also playing in the 1988 and 1989 championship wins.

An uncle of the them was John Kinahan from Clara, a key member of the Offaly team that won their first big title, the 1947 Leinster Minor Football Championship and he only passed away recently.

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The Carmelite All-Ireland champions in 1981 included Kilcavan man Fergus Dunne at wing back – Dunne is well known in the whole border area around Kilcavan, Killeigh, Geashill and Ballinagar and has operated a very popular stall in the Farmer's Market at Kilcruttin, Tullamore for years.