1963 – music, football and hurling thrive in Westmeath

At the outset, a sincere well done to Joe Connaire and countless others on their fantastic work before and during the wonderful event that was Fleadh Cheoil 2022 in Mullingar.

A personal highlight was a couple of hours spent in my native town last Saturday morning with my two beloved Moate-based grandchildren. My grandson is, give or take a few weeks, the precise age that I was when the Fleadh last came to An Muileann gCearr in 1963.

His mental arithmetic is excellent for one so young and while I didn’t get him to add 59 to 22, he will get his ‘bus pass’ in November 2081, please God! Official notification that mine is on the way shortly arrived by post in the midst of the revelry in Westmeath’s capital town a few days ago. I know of a now-deceased local businessman who always ripped up any envelopes with harps on the outside prior to drinking pints of Harp in the bar next door. I was only too delighted to see this particular ‘harpy’ envelope arrive and salute it with a fizzy water.

I see a lot of similarities between my grandson in 2022 and six-year-old yours truly back in 1963 – some good, some bad! However, a glaring difference is my grá already at that tender age for the Westmeath jersey, but his total apathy. No amount of sweets and chocolate bribery has worked to date to cajole him to games. But one trait we share is stubbornness – so I haven’t given up!

While my memories of Fleadh Cheoil 1963 are quite hazy – albeit I did successfully suggest to the editor of this paper that reproducing Bishop Kyne’s post-Fleadh front page rant about the more unseemly aspects of 59 years ago in the town would be worth it last week – my recollection of a great year on the playing fields for An Iarmhí is crystal clear.

The junior grades were prestigious then – Kilkenny and ‘foreign’ teams making up this year’s weekend-packed JFC semi-finals and final says it all about the grade nowadays. Two Leinster titles were garnered in that heady year of 1963 – minor football and junior hurling – and another decider was contested – junior football – thereby constituting a great year by our (unfortunately) low standards, only numerically matched since by the minor/U21 double in 2000. All of 22 years later, (even more unfortunately) neither title has been regained.

Remarkably, seven years after the legendary Sean Purcell/Frank Stockwell ‘Terrible Twins’ were perceived as the key men in Galway’s annexing of the Sam Maguire Cup, Westmeath had its own twin threat in 1963, Pat Bradley (still living in Mullingar) and Ray Niland (who sadly passed away a matter of days before I had the huge honour of jointly organising the minor footballers’ Golden Jubilee reunion in 2013 along with team member Paddy Buckley). The latter is now sadly reunited with the aforementioned Niland, and colleagues Tom King, Rob Cornally, Gerry Frawley, Frankie Connaughton, and Mickey Fagan in the great ‘pitch in the sky’.

Bradley (as skipper) and Niland’s unforgettable year also featured a Leinster colleges senior ‘A’ hurling win with the now-defunct Patrician College, Ballyfin, prior to a narrow defeat in the Croke Cup final at the hands of a Christy Ring-trained St Finbarr’s, Farranferris (also in the ever-lengthening ‘now-defunct’ list of Gaelic games-promoting schools).

Between that and representing their various underage and adult clubs in and around Rochfortbridge and Athlone respectively, I think it’s fair to say that ‘player welfare’ was not on the GAA’s agenda in 1963. Ironically, as I recall through maroon-tinted glasses, injuries were few and far between back then, and this despite the on-field hitting being harder and more frequent, and tolerated by referees.

Understandably, given the passage of time, a glance at the three team photos attached conjures up a lot of sadness at the number of deceased on board. Conversely, it is great that so many players and fans are still around to recall memorable days for maroon and white-clad teams. In this regard, I wish a sincere happy 92nd birthday (yesterday, Monday August 8) to a regular reader, Dublin-domiciled Frank Wallace, granduncle of Dublin’s ‘King’ Con and brother-in-law of Commandant Dinny O’Callaghan (far left in the back row of the hurling team).

And maybe, just maybe, in 59 years from now, my grandson will be fondly recalling Westmeath’s Tailteann Cup and NHL Division 2A double from 2022!