Offaly hurling heroes gather for emotional tribute to mark 40th anniversary of death of Coolderry legend

RAW emotion, tinged with celebration of a life well lived and renewed sadness pervaded the air at St Ita’s Church in Coolderry and the nearby Community Hall on Saturday night at a special tribute to one of Offaly’s greatest hurling heroes.

Many of his Offaly team mates from the 1981 and 1985 All-Ireland senior hurling champions were present as Coolderry GAA Club hosted a special remembrance Mass to mark the 40^th anniversary of the death of the greatest and most successful hurler to come out of one of Offaly’s great hurling hotbeds, Pat Carroll.

His death in March 1986 after a short battle with cancer is still remembered with profound sadness by his family, his home area of Coolderry and the wider GAA community in Offaly and much further afield. Flame haired Pat was a fantastic forward on the great Offaly team that won their first Leinster Senior Hurling Championship title in 1980, going on to win the All-Ireland senior hurling in 1981 and 1985. As tough as they come, Pat was a classic winner and his performances in the big games was instrumental in some of Offaly’s greatest wins as they emerged as a powerful hurling force.

He got a lot of special scores and as the County Board chairman in 1981, Monsgr Sean Heaney reflected in his few words at Saturday’s Mass, none was more important than his brilliant first half goal in the 1981 All-Ireland final win against Galway. That goal kept Offaly alive as they trailed by 0-13 to 1-4 at half time and only for it, their stunning second half recovery would have been very unlikely to have resulted in a first All-Ireland title.

Pat won Leinster senior hurling medals in 1980, 1981, ’84 and ‚85. He was captain when Offaly were desperately unlucky to lose to Kilkenny in the 1982 Leinster final, having victory snatched from their grasp by a controversial late Matt Ruth goal – the ball looked to have gone wide before being batted back into play for Ruth to score. He played in the 1984 centenary year All-Ireland final defeat by Cork and sadly, his last game for Offaly was the 1985 All-Ireland semi-final win over Antrim in Dundalk. His life changed with a cancer diagnosis after that and one of the most moving images in the Offaly GAA story was his team mates bringing the Liam McCarthy Cup to his bedside in a Dublin hospital after their All-Ireland final win over Galway that September. He was just thirty when he died and his famous saying, “I can and I will” is still regularly recounted by his team mates,

Pat passed away the following March and most of his 1981-1985 Offaly colleagues were present at Saturday’s Mass along with the 1981 manager Andy Gallagher and the 1981 coach and 1985 manager, Diarmuid Healy who travelled up from Kilkenny. Dual hero Liam Currums made the journey down from his Donegal home to be present, Paudge Mulhare (St Rynagh’s), the County Board chairman when Pat died in 1986 was there and there was of course a huge turnout of his former Coolderry team mates and friends.

Later on, they gathered for a special function in the Community Hall, where a beautiful pictorial tribute to Pat was unveiled. Former County Board and Leinster Council chairman, Pat Teehan, a proud Coolderry man, also produced a fantastic pictorial/archival display to mark Coolderry’s 31 Offaly Senior Hurling Championship wins. These will be on permanent display across the road in the Coolderry GAA centre while a cup presented to Coolderry after their 1890 senior hurling win was also displayed on the evening. The official Offaly championships only date from 1896 and Coolderry won their first in 1899 – there is a strong case to be made for revisiting the decision to remove the pre 1896 championships from the record but that is a debate for another day.

There are pictures of all available Coolderry senior hurling winning teams, along with scores of finals and earlier games. Snippets from matches are also on the very attractive montage marking each year and these take centre stage in the ones where pictures are not available. Painstaking research went into providing the names of championship winning teams, cross referencing newspaper reports with census returns from the early years – as Pat Teehan joked on Saturday night, they may have had some questionable players in the early 20^th century as details of names can’t be confirmed from census data.

The Mass itself was full of symbolism. The chief celebrant was Birr curate Fr Aidan Rosney. His brother Aidan Rosney, Birr was a very promising emerging hurler when he collapsed and died at an Offaly hurling training session in March 1983. Known fondly as “Boo”, 19 year old Rosney had played for Offaly in a National Hurling League game against Wexford the previous Sunday and actually died in the arms of Pat Carroll after taking ill during that training session. Fr Aidan was assisted by Father Tom Hannon and Monsgr Sean Heaney. Ballyskenach man Fr Hannon was a very tough hurling defender himself. A former curate in Kinnitty, he won Senior Hurling Championship medals with Kinnitty in the 1970s and played as Coolderry denied them three in a row in 1980 – a day when Pat Carroll won the man of the man of the match award.

Meath native Monsgr Heaney was the Offaly GAA chairman from the mid 1970s to mid 1980s and played a very important role in those great years. He stood by football manager Eugene McGee when the knives were out in the years before they won the 1982 All-Ireland title and he was instrumental in bringing Diarmuid Healy in as hurling coach – him and Andy Gallagher worked very well together in 1980-1981 and Healy’s influence has been acknowledged by all involved.

The items brought up to the altar also reflected Pat’s hurling career. Offaly GAA chairman and another Coolderry man Tom Parlon brought up an Offaly jersey and Coolderry GAA chairman Joe Connolly left a Coolderry jersey. 1981 goalkeeper Damien Martin had a picture of that Offaly team and Mick Kirwan, Coolderry brought a picture of the 1980 Coolderry team. Lusmagh man Joachim Kelly, in mighty form and looking very well after his own recent battle with health issues, proudly left up one of Pat’s two All-Star awards while Noel Teehan, captain of the Coolderry team that won an emotional senior hurling title just months after his 1986 death, carried up a case with Pat’s many medals.

Most fittingly, the readings were by Brian Carroll – Pat and his wife Mary gave Offaly and Coolderry hurling a real treasure in Brian, who was just a young child in 1986. Brian was one of Offaly’s best hurlers in the 2000s and 2010s. A prolific scorer, he is the current Offaly minor hurling manager and the poignancy of the occasion was enhanced by the presence of the daughter in law, Aisling and grandchildren, Ellie and Eanna, that Pat never got to meet. The prayers of the faithful were by Coolderry men Michael King and John McLoughney and the Mass concluded with a moving reflection of “The Hurlers’ Prayer” by 1980s great, Ger Coughlan, Kinnitty.

Pat Teehan gave an outline of the work that went into getting all the pictures of the Coolderry teams, paying a special thanks to the designer, Coolderry man Tim Quinlan for his work in the finished product. He gave a passionate outline of Pat’s career and also spoke with great enthusiasm about Coolderry and the special characteristics that have seen them reach the top of the Offaly senior hurling roll of honour.

Mr Tom Parlon also spoke with pride about Coolderry, describing the function as one of the most special in his term to date as County Board chairman. He saluted the achievements of Pat Carroll and Coolderry, talking about the excellent club facilities they possess.

Coolderry chairman Joe Connolly expressed similar sentiments, finishing the formal proceedings with a challenge to the current hurlers. Noting that they won the Senior Hurling Championship in 1986 a few months after Pat’s death, he said it would be a great way to mark the 40^th anniversary by winning it again.

Pat Carroll’s career

2 All-Ireland senior hurling medals 1981 and 1985;

4 Leinster senior hurling medals 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985;

2 All-Star awards 1980 and 1981;

2 Walsh Cup medals 1977 and 1981;

1 National Hurling League Division 1B medal;

Captained Offaly 1982 and 1983;

26 championship and 62 league appearances for Offaly between 1975 andn1985;

1 railway Cup medal with Leinster 1979;

Represented Ireland in shinty international 1979;

With Coolderry

2 Offaly SHC medals 1977 and 1980;

2 SHL medals 1978 and ’79;

Offaly hurler of the year 1984;

Man of the match 1980 SHC final;

1 Offaly JFC “C” medal 1984;

2 Offaly SHL Division B medals;

1 Bord na Scoil U14 medal.