Lilywhites unsung hero

HIS name will not be familiar to a younger generation of GAA followers outside of Kildare, but Pat Dunny has a list of achievements to his credit which merit special recognition.

He is part of a select group of dual Railway Cup medal holders, he won All-Ireland medals in U21 football and junior hurling, and uniquely, was chosen on both Kildare millennium teams.

Add in a career in administration which featured membership of the Central Council for a decade and a half and a spell as chairman of the Hurling Development Committee. You could say he is one of the county’s best-known players of his generation.

In common with a succession of teams which represented the county in senior football before and after an involvement stretching from 1962 to 1979, he was never lucky enough to win a championship medal — despite playing in five finals. Easy to appreciate, then, why he would have gained so much pleasure from the Lilywhites ending a wait of 42 years when Mick O’Dwyer brought them all the way to the All-Ireland final of 1998.

Kerry were the inaugural winners of the U21 football championship in 1964 and Kildare succeeded them as champions, beating Cork in the final when Dunny was captain. That year marked the second of three All-Ireland final victories, the others coming in junior hurling.

“I was lucky enough to be on the first Kildare team to win a junior hurling All-Ireland in 1962 [at the age of 17],” he recalled. Four years later he won another medal.

The ‘66 season also saw Kildare lose their U21 crown to Roscommon in the semi-final and it marked the first of his five Leinster senior final appearances.

He says that he was always a dual player, explaining: “What happened was that a Kilkennyman and a Clareman came to live around the area in the early ‘50s and they started a hurling club. Every kid in the place started to play hurling and football.

“The players on the ‘65 U21 football team had all grown up together. We had all played U14 for our parishes and up through minor.

His other Leinster final appearances were in 1969, 1971, ‘72 and ‘75.

“Losing in all of them was a bitter bill to swallow,” he remarked, noting that the teams which beat them [Offaly three times and Dublin twice] all contested the All-Ireland finals.

He was the first Kildare native to be picked to represent Leinster in hurling and ended up winning four Railway Cup medals — and achieving the double in 1974.

“It was amazing to be picked on Leinster teams,” he recalled.

“I played with the likes of Brian Mullins, David Hickey, Willie Bryan, Tony McTague, Bertie Cunningham and ‘Red Collier’. In hurling, I played with Eddie Keher, Tony Doran, Mick Jacob, Pat Henderson and against Ray Cummins, Gerald McCarthy, Charlie McCarthy, Martin Doherty, Ger Loughnane, Tipp lads like Francis Loughnane and Noel O’Dwyer and the Hartigans of Limerick.

“It was something magical I can tell you for a chap from Kildare.”

Medals apart, he has a treasure trove of memories including a trip to the US for the Cushing Games comprising representative teams which played in several cities when he got to know Christy Ring.

“The memories are with you forever, that was the great thing about our playing times. If I were to get into serious difficulty in any county in Ireland, there is someone you could pick up the phone and they’d come and help.

“That was the great thing that came out of our time playing. There was nothing handy or soft, but once the game was over, everybody was friends and everybody had great respect for one another. I assume it’s still the same. I am not sure.

“I would have to say that Christy Ring was one of the nicest fellows I ever met. I went out to America to play football and hurling around 1964 and it didn’t matter that I was from Kildare — that I mightn’t know a hurl from a cricket bat. He was something else.

“I knew at the time that I was privileged to have met him and I still know it.”

He was drawn into administration nearing the end of his playing days, starting as a club delegate to both the Kildare hurling and football county boards. Eventually serving as county chairman for eight years, he took over as Central Council delegate in 1990 and held the position up to five years ago.

“I was lucky in one sense being involved in the Central Council. I saw Croke Park from what it was to what it is — when all the big decisions were being made. It was a unique experience.”

Lauding Mick O’Dwyer for bringing huge enthusiasm to the county and then “driving them on”, he credits Kieran McGeeney with his organisational skills and the thoroughness of his approach.

“There is an expectation around the county and hopefully it will be realised,” he commented.

Looking in from the outside, he notes that football has evolved to the stage where “it is no longer a skilful kicking game” — where it is relatively easier “to become” a footballer.

“I see it in Kildare certainly. If you are athletic and you pass the ball, you can play football at inter-county level because you needn’t kick it at all. In our days it was a totally different thing.”

He is more positive about the current state of hurling, maintaining that it “has not evolved to the same degree”.

“It has become less physical, I must confess and the ball is very rarely struck on the ground,” he commented, adding: “it’s really a catching and hitting game.”