OBITUARY: Monsignor Laurence Higgins, Derry footballer who became chaplin to NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It was a weekend like no other. On Easter Saturday, 1947, there was a sensation at Aintree; an unfancied trundler called Caughoo, bred and trained in north county Dublin, won the Grand National at 100/1.

The next day, Connacht hurlers beat a star-studded Munster to win a first Railway Cup and, that evening, GAA Congress amazingly voted for the All-Ireland football final to be staged in New York.

On Monday afternoon, little Derry — who had only reformed a county board 18 years earlier — won the National League final. Simultaneously, in London, All-Ireland champions Kerry were facing Cavan in a tournament at Mitcham Stadium.