Offaly GAA mourns sad early death of former top football referee

OFFALY GAA and its many clubs have been left saddened by the early death of a former top football referee and one of its best loved personalties.

Shannonbridge GAA club man Mick Mahon died at Tullamore Hospital on Friday morning. He lived at Clonfanlough, Athlone and was well known as the founder and proprietor of the Athlone based Mahon Windows – a highly regarded firm that manufactured and supplied windows and doors for domestic and business premises across the midlands and further afield.

In Offaly GAA terms, he won a glowing reputation as one of the top football referees in the county in the 1990s and 2000s. He refereed games at every grade in Offaly, including the Senior Football Championship final and had a terrific understanding of football.

A former footballer with Shannonbridge, winning a Junior Football Championship medal in n1987, he had a unique refereeing style. He liked to let play run, allowed physicality but also knew when to be strict. He had a great sense of humour and personality and was a larger than life character. This manifested itself in his refereeing and he revelled in the banter and exchanges with players – he had a rare ability to relate and interact with them and players enjoyed playing games under him. They generally knew where the line was and not to cross it – and he was not afraid to send players off when it was crossed.

The result was that games refereed by Mick Mahon were generally open, very entertaining affairs and he was a common sense and fair official.

He did meet controversy on occasions. None more so than the 1997 Senior Football Championship final when Edenderry snatched victory from Ferbane's grasp deep in injury time, 1-15 to 1-14. While they missed a last gasp chance to draw it, Ferbane were furious at the amount of injury time played, arguing that it was very excessive and that the final whistle should have been blown when they were still ahead.

There is only a short distance between Ferbane and Shannonbridge, it took years for the wounds from that to heal and it certainly had a adverse effect on the referee – and it did impact on his business for a while anyway. He was adamant that there was sufficient stoppages to justify the additional time, showing some people a video of the final to show this, though that was never accepted in Ferbane. Ferbane had dominated Offaly football from 1986 to 1994 but embarked on a lengthy recession after that 1997 final loss, enduring a 25 year famine that only ended in 2019.

It was not the only game that his time keeping resulted in recriminations and anger. He famously allowed almost ten minutes injury time in one Senior Football Championship clash between Tullamore and Doon. Doon had their best ever team at that stage with Vinny Claffey flying while Tullamore were striving to end a long famine – Doon came back to salvage a result at the end of that but even they were mystified about where all that additional time came from.

He was also the referee of a very controversial 2007 hurling game. He was knocked to the ground after blowing the final whistle of an U21 Hurling Championship clash between St Rynagh's and St Mary's, an amalgamation of Shinrone and Ballyskenach. St Rynagh's had won it with a late goal and when St Mary's declined to identify who struck him, Offaly GAA barred them from the 2008 and 2009 championships.

While there was no shortage of speculation about the name of the culprit, St Mary's insisted that they couldn't identify him and appealed their suspension on the grounds that it was affecting players who had no hand, act or part in that game.

The Hearings Committee replaced the two year ban in 2008 with a €1,000 fine and referees reacted angrily, immediately withdrawing their services from refereeing. This resulted in the cancellation of two rounds of Football League fixtures before they relented after meeting with officials. Then board chairman Pat Teehan took issue with referees for withdrawing their services without meeting with officers but he apologised to them for not informing them of the decision to lift St Mary's suspension – He also hit out at St Mary's, saying it was “barely credible” that they didn't know who struck Mahon while he also criticised the culprit for both his “cowardly” assault and not coming forward to admit it.

Those two incidents, however, by no means defined Mahon's refereeing career. He was very much an innocent victim in 2007 and he refereed a huge volume of games without incident or controversy – he was a reliable and obliging referee.

He was great, gregarious company, a joker who enjoyed life. He had a great passion for his own club of Shannonbridge, serving as a mentor with various teams after his own playing career ended. He was thrilled when they won their only Senior Football Championship title – his brother Eamonn was the manager.

He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by his wife Noeleen and family, Jason, Trevor and Michelle (Kenny), grandchildren, Cody, Reece, Layla, Caitlin, Conor, Freddie, Caoimhe and Callum, brothers Eamonn and Joe, sisters Marianne and Julie, daughters-in-law Karen and Clodagh, son-in-law Ciarán, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family and many friends.