Joe Dooley recalls the time a former Taoiseach tried to get him to join Glen Rovers

Joe Dooley of Offaly in action in the 1999 Leinster final against Kilkenny. Over a decade earlier former Taoiseach Jack Lynch tried to get the Seir Kieran man to join Glen Rovers in Cork. Picture: INPHO/Patrick Bolger

Former Offaly star Joe Dooley has revealed how a personal plea from former Taoiseach Jack Lynch almost resulted in him playing for Glen Rovers in Cork.

The three-time All-Ireland winner and ex-Offaly manager is a Seir Kieran stalwart but applied for a job with the ESB in Cork in 1987.

That was just two years after his first All-Ireland win with Offaly and, in truth, the ESB employee didn't actually want the Cork gig and only applied as he was expected to do so.

Word quickly got out of his application and two Cork greats, Lynch and Denis Coughlan, did their level best to bring Dooley to the Glen.

Dooley told the A Hurler's Life podcast: "I worked with the ESB, I was working in Rhode Power Station as a level two clerical officer at the time. If a job came up, a higher job, you were expected to apply for it.

"So a job came up in Inniscarra Power Station down in Cork, as a level three clerical officer. I just put my name in. Word somehow or other got out around Cork that I had applied for this job.

"Glen Rovers approached me, Denis Coughlan, the famous Cork hurler, was managing Glen Rovers at the time and he approached me and asked would I transfer to Glen Rovers if I got the job in Cork?

"I said, 'Sure I'll think about it'. I probably would have had to because it was so far away. Anyway, Jack Lynch, the former Taoiseach at the time, wrote to the chief executive of the ESB, Paddy Moriarty, letting him know that I had applied for this job and that maybe he might be able to put in a word for me.

"So I was summoned to Dublin nearly straight away. Kevin Heffernan was the HR manager, so I was told to come up to Dublin and I was interviewed by a HR manager for about two hours.

"I explained my story, that I had just applied for this job because I was expected to. So the ESB in its wisdom decided not to give me the job.

"I was very nearly going to Cork but the company did the right thing for Joe Dooley. And somebody had to tell Jack Lynch that they weren't going to grant him his request.

"I don't know who did but I was very chuffed that Jack Lynch wrote a letter on my behalf."