Revisiting the great Kerry-Dublin rivalry in new TG4 documentary

'GAA 70’s – Réabhlóid Shóisialta' focuses on Dublin’s All-Ireland SFC victory of 1974 - and the effect the victory had on the game.

BLUE STEEL: Dublin skipper Tony Hanahoe faces up to the substantial heft of Kerry's Tim Kennelly in the 1975 All-Ireland Football final. Pic: Connolly Collection/Sportsfile

In the year Kerry and Dublin lost Mick O’Dwyer and Seán Doherty, a poignant tribute to the counties’ great rivalry in a TG4 documentary will be televised on Monday evening.

“GAA 70’s – Réabhlóid Shóisialta” encapsulates how Dublin’s All-Ireland SFC victory of 1974 transformed Gaelic Games in the capital and sowed the seeds for their rivalry with Kerry as between them they claimed the Sam Maguire Cup 12 out of 13 times between ’74 and ’86.

Fifty years on from the final, Kerry goalkeeper Paudie O’Mahony sensed Dublin as defending champions were more nervous than the callow Kerry team of O’Dwyer’s prior to the 1975 final.

“When it came to the final, when we were walking around the field, all the Dubs were chewing gum and worried as hell because of being 4/6 and 1/2 at the bookies. And here we were, the 3/1 outsiders to win the All-Ireland, and we said we’d go out and enjoy the game.” 

When Dublin exacted revenge in the following year’s final, nobody appreciated the significance of beating Kerry more than Dublin manager Kevin Heffernan.

“He actually believed that an All-Ireland win wouldn’t be an All-Ireland unless you’d beaten Kerry somewhere along the line,” said 1976 and ’77 winning captain Tony Hanahoe.

“I would say it (winning in ’76) particularly impressed Kevin Heffernan, who felt that after 20 years he got what he wanted at the end of the day.” Kerry ended Dublin’s dreams of a three-in-a-row in 1978 although so strong was Dublin’s start to that game that captain Denis “Ogie” Moran was resigned to losing. Even Kevin Moran sensed irritation in the Kerry ranks – “you could see that Kerry were really rattled, you could hear them arguing with themselves a little bit.” Ogie Moran was convinced Kerry were going to suffer a third straight championship loss to Dublin. “Jimmy Keaveney had started well that day. And I was saying to myself, ‘At least I don’t have to worry about giving a speech today.” 

Mikey Sheehy’s famous goal later in the game haunted Robbie Kelleher as much as it did Paddy Cullen. “I’ll be forever known as the man who handed the ball to Mikey Sheehy,” says Kelleher.

“I went home to my wife one day and said, ‘When I die, put on the tombstone, ‘Robbie Kelleher, the man who handed the ball to Mikey Sheehy’.” Partly filmed earlier this year when Kerry and Dublin’s 1975 players celebrated the jubilee anniversary of their final with golf and dinner in Kenmare, Doherty admits captaining his county to an All-Ireland the year before went beyond his dreams.

“When I came out through the tunnel in ’74, I could see people in the stands starting to rise, get out of their seats and come up,” recalls Doherty, who passed away in July. “I just had a look around and thought, ‘This is only fantastic.’ 

“It was my dream, it was what I always wanted. But I never dreamt for a minute that I’d ever captain a Dublin team, to lead them out into Croke Park to play in an All-Ireland final. Suddenly, then, I didn’t know whether I was running or walking. I sort of felt a little bit numb.” 

Jimmy Barry-Murphy also makes a contribution having been part of the Cork team that faced Dublin in the 1974 All-Ireland semi-final. “Most people in Cork, ourselves included, thought that we would beat Dublin,” recalls Barry-Murphy, who was part of the winning Cork side the previous season.

“We had this thing in our head that it was a semi-final, we’d get over it and go on to the final again. We thought it was a flash in the pan maybe that they’d won a Leinster title.” 

Galway were similarly dismissive of Division 2 Dublin prior to the final. “I was at your first game against Wexford that year,” Galway’s Séamus McHugh tells Bernard Brogan Snr. “I was in college in Drumcondra and a crowd of us went down and the conclusion we came to, and it was an honest assessment, was we reckoned a good club team would beat the pick out of the two of ye that day.” 

Colie McDonagh recollects: “We didn’t think Dublin would be up to much, so we were very confident in ourselves that we were going to win. Lot of people were dropping into the hotel before and they were all saying, ‘The Sam Maguire Cup will be going back to Galway tomorrow.’” 

Breandán Ó Callarán remembers similar. “Just before we were about to head out onto the pitch, the last thing said to us was ‘no team in Division 2 of the National League has ever won the Sam Maguire Cup. Out ye go now and bring home the cup.’” 

Produced by Bankos Tales, “GAA 70’s – Réabhlóid Shóisialta (GAA 70’s – A Social Revolution)” will be televised on TG4 on Monday, December 22 at 7.45pm. An English subtitles and audio description version goes on December 30 at 9pm.