Charles Haughey wrote to console Mick O'Dwyer after five-in-a-row woe

Tom Spillane, Tommy Doyle, Paidi O'Se, Taoiseach Charles Haughey, Mick O'Dwyar and Jack O'Shea after Kerry won the 1985 All-Ireland title.

A new biography of Charles Haughey has unearthed a previously unpublished letter from the Dublin native commiserating with Kerry football manager Mick O’Dwyer when his side lost an All-Ireland final.

Not just any final: Professor Gary Murphy of DCU, who wrote the biography, revealed the background to Taoiseach Charles Haughey writing a letter of commiseration to O’Dwyer, then manager of Kerry, when his side lost to Offaly in the 1982 All-Ireland final.

Kerry were hunting a fifth All-Ireland title in a row but were undone by a sensational late goal from Offaly substitute Seamus Darby, which gave the Midlands side victory on a scoreline of 1-15 to 0-17.

“In the seventies, after All-Ireland senior football finals, Kerry teams under Mick O’Dwyer would often go out to Haughey in Abbeville the morning after a game, the Monday morning,” said Murphy.

“If they won, that is — presumably if they lost they just wanted to get away home.

“Because they often stayed in the Grand Hotel in Malahide, it was convenient enough to go across to visit him in his home in Kinsealy.

“And Haughey would put on a spread for them — even if they’d beaten Dublin — and they’d relax a while.” 

In his research for the book, Haughey, Murphy discovered a letter written late in September 1982, after that dramatic All-Ireland final.

The text of the letter reads as follows:

Dear Mick, You very very nearly did it!

it was by pure chance in the end that you should have lost.

But you and all your team can be well satisfied that in the best traditions of all Kerry teams you were as magnificent in defeat as you have been glorious in so many victories.

You may have lost the Sam Maguire Cup this year but you left Croke Park having won the honour and respect of all.

With every good wish for the future, 

Yours sincerely, Charles Haughey.

Kerry weren’t the only ones disappointed that year. In November Haughey’s Fianna Fail lost the general election and he returned to the opposition benches.

- The biography, Haughey by Gary Murphy, is on sale now.