Special day for stars of the 80s

For many of the players honoured in Croke Park yesterday as ‘Stars of the 80s,’ an All-Ireland senior football medal simply eluded them, while for a few of them it was never more than a dream.

All but two of them were All Stars (with Monaghan great Nudie Hughes sharing the distinction of being honoured in defence and attack) and seven represented Ireland in the International series against Australia.

Other honours garnered included Railway Cup medals, a few All-Ireland medals at underage and in the case of two out of four who contested finals, All-Ireland club medals. Colm Browne was one of them, with Portlaoise in 1983 and the other was Wicklow star Kevin O’Brien, with Baltinglass in 1990.

Clan na Gael, Roscommon had the misfortune to lose in four All-Ireland clubs as well as two semi-finals and Tony McManus was a key member of these teams. Peter McGinnity (Fermanagh’s first All Star) was on the St John’s, Belfast side which lost to the Pat Spillane-captained Thomond in 1978.

In all, seven players played in All-Ireland finals — goalkeeper Brian McAlinden (Armagh 1977), Harry Keegan, the late Dermot Earley and Tony McManus (Roscommon 1980), Seamus McHugh (Galway 1983), Eugene McKenna (Tyrone 1986) and iconic midfielder Willie Joe Padden with Mayo in 1989.

Dermot Earley, who died in 2010, is generally regarded as one of the greatest footballers never to win an All-Ireland. His career spanned two decades and he was a member of the last Connacht team to win the Railway Cup in 1969. He was represented by his wife Mary, a native of Moyne, Tipperary.

Kevin Kehilly won minor and U21 medals with Cork and played in the senior semi-finals of 1971, ’74 and 1983. He lost out on the Rebels’ success in 1973 when studying PE in London. Notably, he was the trainer when Cork hurlers won the three-in-a-row in 1976/77/78. His biggest disappointment was losing to Dublin in 1983.

“We gave it away. We had that game won in Dublin,” he recalled. “It’s everybody’s ambition to win an All-Ireland medal and it would have been great to win one. But I had some fantastic times playing inter-county football.”

He won All Stars at full-back and corner-back and Railway Cup medals as a half-back. “I’d say left half-back was my favourite position starting off, although looking back on it now I wouldn’t have had the pace of players like Jack McCaffrey from Dublin. It was a different game then.’’

Kevin O’Brien won a Railway Cup medal early in the season he made his championship debut in 1986 and the best year of his career was four years later. He won his club medal, starred with Ireland in Australia and won Wicklow’s first and only All Star. On a few occasions, they came close to reaching the Leinster final (last reached in 1897), most memorably in 1991. That was the year of the Meath/Dublin four-game saga and in the semi-final, Wicklow also took them to a replay.

“We were always looked on as one of the ‘minnows.’ While every year you gave yourself a chance, we were nearly always coming up against either Meath or Dublin. We always just put on good performances but they were never good enough.”

Against that background, it was ‘special’ to share in Baltinglass’s triumph, recalling: “We threatened Leinster a few times and we weren’t too far off. It was Clan na Gael’s fourth final but everything went well for us that day.”

Another career highlight was his involvement, for four years, as a selector with Mick O’Dwyer. “Micko was a tremendous gentleman to work with and we really got on well. We won the Tommy Murphy Cup and we were down to the last 16 in the country. For Wicklow to do that was remarkable.’’

Monaghan legend ‘Nudie’ Hughes played from 1975 to 1989 and experienced All-Ireland semi-final appearances in 1979, 1985 and 1988 — the same years he won All Stars at right corner-back and at left corner-forward (2).

Hammered by Kerry in 1979, they took the Kingdom to a replay six years later and to this day, it remains the biggest disappointment of his career. “We had them for the taking the first day. The chances were there to cause the upset and we didn’t take them. The team was at its peak at that time and when we came back in 1988 against Cork, a controversial decision in the second half sealed our fate when Dave Barry put the ball in the net. Back in 1985, a shot from John Kennedy came back off the top of the post and Ger Power stuck it in the net. Fate was against us those times.”

With Castleblaney, he also tasted defeat against a Cork side, St Finbarr’s, in a replayed All-Ireland semi-final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 1987. “We were nine points down at half- time. We came back but they got a goal and held on to win by a point!.”

Stars of the 80s

Brian McAlinden (Armagh/ Sarsfields); Harry Keegan (Roscommon/Castlerea), Kevin Kehilly (Cork/Newcestown), Seamus McHugh (Galway/Headford); Jim Reilly (Cavan/Kingscourt), Ciarán Murray (Monaghan/Clones), Colm Browne (Laois/Portlaoise); Dermot Earley (Roscommon/Michael Glaveys/Sarsfields, Newbridge), Willie Joe Padden (Mayo/Belmullet); Peter McGinnity (Fermanagh/Roslea), Eugene McKenna (Tyrone/Augher), Kevin O’Brien (Wicklow/Baltinglass); Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes (Monaghan/Castleblaney), Frank McGuigan (Tyrone/Ardboe), Tony McManus (Roscommon/Clan na nGael).