Cork football mourns passing of legend Miah Dennehy
Cork football great Miah Dennehy, one of Leeside's most loved footballers, has died aged 73 after a long illness.
He scored twice in a playoff with Shamrock Rovers to help Hibs win the League of Ireland title in 1971 and most famously scored the first FAI Cup final hat-trick as Hibs overcame Waterford United in 1972.
In 1969, Dennehy, who had cut his teeth with Northvilla, had gone to watch Cork Hibs’ reserves playing and was invited to tog out when they found themselves short-handed.
Three years on, he took 18 minutes to complete the first hat-trick in FAI Cup final history.
Inevitably, the goalscorer grabs the headline but the rest of the Hibs team that April Sunday contained the names that evoke an era in the history of the city, not just the game: O’Grady, Bacuzzi, O’Mahony, Sheehan, Herrick, Finnegan, Sweeney, Lawson, Marsden, Wiggington and unused sub Dreaper.
‘It was a proud day for Cork football, a great one in the history of the club and a memorable one for Miah Dennehy,” wrote Billy George in Monday morning’s Cork Examiner.
‘The slim, blonde 22-year-old carved his name in history with a second-half hat-trick of goals. He personified Hibs’ courage and professionalism with an aggressive, imaginative performance to set the seal on a magnificent season for him personally and for Dave Bacuzzi’s entire squad. Hibs took the glamour prize of Irish football in the grand manner.’
Much to the chagrin of Cork viewers, RTÉ’s live broadcast if the match ended before Neil Blaney TD, then president of the FAI, presented the cup to Bacuzzi. For a chance to glimpse the silverware, the majority had to wait until an open-topped bus took the victors from Kent Station down to the Grand Parade on Monday night.
The front page of the Evening Echo that hit the streets in the hours before the procession contained a caricature of Dennehy, beneath the headline ‘Miah the Magnificent’ and he became the city’s pin-up. It would be 17 months before a crew-cutted Jimmy Barry-Murphy would take the mantle from him for his exploits in a different code.
By then, Dennehy was ensconced at the City Ground following his February, 1973 £20,000 transfer to Nottingham Forest.
Over the course of the three seasons, Dennehy played fewer than 50 first-team games. Originally signed by Dave Mackay, he had finally established himself as a regular during the first half of the 74-75 season and was in possession of the No 7 shirt when Brian Clough’s arrival spelt the end of his tenure.
That summer, he departed for Walsall where he scored 22 goals in 128 appearances over three seasons. Following a season with Bristol Rovers and a short flirtation with Cardiff City, Dennehy was playing with non-league Trowbridge Town when Cork United brought him back and briefly made him club captain in the ‘80s.
There was a stint with Waterford United too after that but his time at the highest level was winding down.
His exploits in the FAI Cup Final had earned Dennehy a call up to Liam Tuohy’s Irish squad that travelled to the Brazilian Independence Cup in June 1972. He made his debut in a 3-2 victory against Ecuador on that trip, and although seven of his subsequent 11 international caps came as a substitute, he scored twice for Ireland, against Norway and Poland.
He also figured in the memorable game between Brazil and Shamrock Rovers’ All Ireland XI at Lansdowne Road in 1973. Having kept to himself the fact he was struggling with a broken toe, Dennehy came off the bench for a bit-part role in the 4-3 defeat by a side containing Jairzinho and Rivelino.
‘You couldn’t coach Miah Dennehy,’ said Paddy Mulligan in the 1975 edition of the Bass Sports Book of Irish Soccer. ‘This fellow has complete natural ability and you shouldn’t even try to stifle it. You should just tell Miah go out and play. He’ll probably end up scoring more miraculous goals, like taking a shot from 40 yards and doing a Pele on some poor goalkeeper! He’s great for taking people on - he’s got great pace and there’s no question mark about his heart - he’ll run till he drops.’ Vindicating a commonly held belief in his home city, that for Dennehy it was always about the love of the game, he was still togging out for Mayfield -based Village United in the Cork AUL at the age of 51.
Once he crossed the white lines, everything else was incidental. Having hurled with St Vincent’s he used to play Gaelic football for a club in Leicester at the height of his professional sporting career.
In 1976, he even won a British inter-provincial title on a Warwickshire team that defeated a London side containing Tony Grealish.
When Cork United was expelled from the league in 1982, Dennehy played for Thurles Town, Waterford, Limerick, Drogheda and Newcastle West.
‘When you are successful in any sport in Cork, the people show you so much respect,” said Dennehy. “And I will never forget the respect that was shown to me over the years.”
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