Unheralded Dempsey striving for recognition

AS long ago as 1977, when he was still a teenager at Carlow CBS, people could tell that Luke Dempsey had the makings of a seriously good football manager.

Leo McGeough is a reporter with the Nationalist newspaper in Carlow these days but he was frequenting the same school halls as the current Longford manager back in the mid-70s who was making waves even then.

“He was a year ahead of me in school and even then he was a bit of a hero figure because he was so enthusiastic,” says McGeough. “He was the best footballer in the school but it wasn’t just that.