Tommy’s goals were all in vain

Tommy O’Connell was chatting to a couple of friends in the Croke Park Hotel an hour or two before last year’s All-Ireland final when Jimmy Magee passed by. One of the friends buttonholed Magee and, pointing to O’Connell, asked him why this man had a place in hurling history.

For once the Memory Man was stumped. Not that it was wholly a surprise, for Tommy O’Connell’s place in the annals of the game is an obscure one. The last All-Ireland senior final that ended in a draw prior to this year’s was that of 1959, when a teenage O’Connell scored three goals for Kilkenny against Waterford. By rights he should have been famous forever. The problem was what happened next. Kilkenny were beaten in the replay and history promptly forgot about O’Connell.

He did at least have the consolation of a starring role in one of the most dramatic All-Ireland finals ever played. September 6, 1959 was an afternoon of outlandish contradictions. Kilkenny hit five goals and didn’t win; Waterford sent the white flag flying 17 times, a record for a 20th century final up to then, and very nearly lost. The great Ollie Walsh, magnificent even by his standards, produced a goalkeeping display for the ages. Only a freakish piece of bad luck could have beaten him on the day — and it did.