The first man to bring Miley to Baltinglass
Johnny was the first man to bring Miley to Baltinglass
WHEN Baltinglass captain Kevin Murphy returned to the town with the Miley Cup in his hands last September after their victory over Tinahely he would have been acutely aware of the long list of proud men who had made that same wonderful journey before him.
It’s very likely that during a quiet moment amid the celebrations or in the days that followed he may have allowed his thoughts to wander back over the years since 1958 when Baltinglass teams and their loyal supporters came up out of Aughavannagh and down into Rathdangan for the traditional rest stop at Junior’s before making the final joyous leg of the trip home.
And the young warrior may well have reflected on the first man to bring the Miley on that by now familiar journey, a groundbreaker who led the charge for years, driving on his beloved club on and off the field, representing the county and paving the way for men like Kevin Murphy to believe deep down in their very souls that to go and win the Miley Cup is something akin to a God given right. But it wasn’t always this way.
Johnny Kenny was that first man to return home to the West Wicklow town with the Miley Cup. There has to be a first. There has to be a leader. Just before Christmas Johnny turned 90 years of age and Kevin Murphy brought his old friend up to the Kenny home for a socially distanced visit on the big occasion. You can just picture those big, sinewy hands gripping the handles that have been gripped by so many over the years and gazing upon the shining silver. No doubt he could see in his mind’s eye those days in Aughrim when he hoisted Miley above his head to the roars of his colleagues and supporters; beautiful days in the county grounds, different days, glory days.
Maybe he reflected on the bottle of champagne that was poured into Miley that first evening in Rathdangan in 1958, a moment of unusual decadence in that era, or welcoming it back again in 1963 after beating Arklow Geraldines or the wonderful three-in-a-row of 1965, 66 and 67 when they toppled their arch-rivals St Patrick’s twice and Newtown to be kings of the county for three years running.
Maybe, when he had handed Miley back to the young warrior before him, bid them both farewell and closed the family door on the December night outside, he pondered on those decades now past, those frantic years of effort and adventure, marriage and mischief, hope and despair, love and loss and, hopefully, he felt a strong sense of pride at having played a huge role in starting a tradition that has shaped the lives of generations of footballers and their families.
Johnny was born in 1930 in a very different Baltinglass than we see now. This was a place where very little sport was being played at all, where poverty was rife, challenges many and hardship aplenty.
In 2011, a woman named Regina Fitzpatrick sat down to interview Johnny as part of the GAA oral history project. A Google search will locate the interview quite easily and it is 76 minutes very well spent if you have a chance to listen.
What’s both impressive and enjoyable about the interview is Johnny’s easy way and his extensive knowledge of the past. He laments the passing of Peter Keogh close to the end of our own interview with him and you can well imagine the informed chats enjoyed between both given their encyclopedic knowledge of dates and score lines and players.
Football wasn’t high on Johnny’s list of priorities in his early years. Indeed, he never played any until the Minor grade. He remembers his first effort at playing in 1946 when he was asked to step in to fill a hole for the Minor team on the day.
Things didn’t work out too well for Johnny on the field and his father’s reaction afterwards was particularly harsh to say the least.
‘He told me that if he ever saw me playing again, he’d break my two ankles. I never played juvenile football. I started in 1947, 48 and 49 with the Minors, but I never played juvenile,’ said Johnny.
This was a pivotal moment for Johnny. Nobody would have been shocked had he never picked up another football in his life but when you are possessed by a competitive spirit you tend to rise up and be counted when the time comes.
‘I had (the drive). When I started to play in 1947, I got a football and I used to trick around the garden with it and play for hours on my own. I got excited about it then, to see if I could win something. In 1953, we played Donard in a West Intermediate league, and we had Jack Kilcoyne from Wicklow town, he had transferred to Baltinglass. He won a couple of Senior championship medals with Pat’s. And we were delighted to have a player who had won a Senior championship medal playing with us and that drove us on from there.
‘The last time I played Minor football was in 1949 and that was against Louth in Croke Park. That was Ascension Thursday. There wasn’t six at the match. It was played at 6pm on a Thursday evening and Louth beat us by 2-8 to 1-7 that day.
‘Then we came on and we run our own tournament here in Baltinglass with Rathvilly, Stratford, Dunlavin and ourselves. We won that tournament, and that was the first medal that we won and that sort of drove us on again.
‘The same year we beat Valleymount in the West Intermediate League. We were Intermediate at the time. In 1951 we went to the Intermediate final against Roundwood and they beat us by 0-6 to 0-3. But we still kept going and went to the Intermediate final again in 1953 and Annacurra beat us by 0-2 to 0-1 in a gale. Then Intermediate was abolished that year and we either had to go Junior or Senior and the County Board said we were good enough to go Senior and we did,’ he added.
The arrival of Baltinglass as a force at Senior level didn’t just happen out of the blue. You’ll always find a significant effort has taken place at underage prior to a club making a major breakthrough at adult level.
‘The most important thing for that team to come through was the winning of four Minor championships in a row, 52, 53, 54 and 55. That was the nucleus of the good Senior team coming through. You must look after your juveniles to move forward,’ said Johnny.
‘Peter Brophy was secretary that time. He was the man who brought them through. He looked after the Minors. It was a fierce effort. Ken Browne and all those lads, they were on the Minor teams that won the four titles. Blessington won it in 1956 and Baltinglass won it in 1957. So, they were coming all the time,’ he added.
And so, it was on to the big time. Senior football and the chance to win the Miley Cup. Standing in the way were teams of the ilk and power of St Patrick’s, Donard, Newtown and others. But Baltinglass were coming. That was undeniable.
‘We went to the Senior final in 1956 and we were beaten by St Patrick’s after a replay. We should have won the first match. The real outstanding game that time was in 1955, we played Donard in Hollywood in the championship. Before we played that match there was a funeral and the curate made us kneel down on the field and say a decade of the rosary before the game. That was unusual.
‘We beat Donard by a point and St Pat’s beat us by a point in the final.
‘Then we decided that we’d get a good trainer, so we got Danny Douglas from the Curragh. He was an army man and he played with Laois and Leinster. He came over and he worked on us in 1958 and we got through to the final in 1958 and won it thanks be to God.
‘It was 1-3 to 0-2 at half-time so it didn’t look too good for us. But we came out in in the second half and really upped the game. He (Douglas) gave us a bit of a revving at half-time and we won 2-6 to 1-4. That was our first title. I remember the band and everything met us outside the town and played us through the town. It was a great achievement. At that time, Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin used to be on the radio of a 10 o’clock of a Sunday and he came to the Wicklow results and he said that the ‘bonfires were blazing in the Wicklow hills when Baltinglass won their first Senior championship’. I remember listening to that that night.
‘We went to Rathdangan as usual. Any time we won a championship we always stopped in Rathdangan. Joe Germaine, the hotel man from Baltinglass, had a bottle of champagne and we emptied it into the cup in Rathdangan. It’s a great tradition we have.
I’m the first man to bring the old Miley and the new Miley to Baltinglass,’ remarked Johnny. ‘St Pat’s won the old one in 1959, 60 and 61, and it was replaced then you see. We won that one in 1958. And then the new one, Kilbride won it in 1962 and then we won it in 1963,’ he added.
Not content with leading the charge for his club on the field, Johnny Kenny assumed the role of club secretary from 1958 to 1969 during which time he undertook the not insignificant adventures of getting married, starting a family and helping the club buy their own football field.
‘I was captain of the Baltinglass team from 1952 to 1965. I was secretary from 1958 to 1969. We ran a car draw. We bought the football field around the mid-60s. We hadn’t our own field, we were
We went to Rathdangan as usual. Any time we won a championship we always stopped in Rathdangan. It’s a great tradition.
renting one out at the river. We bought land out near the hospital for 665 punts, about five or six acres at the time. I remember it was boggy land. I remember Hugh Byrne of Rathdangan, he was County Chairman at the time, I remember his telling me, ‘you’ll never make a field out of that’. There were rushes growing on it an everything.
‘We spent a lot of money on it. We ran a ‘car for a bob’ draw and we travelled everywhere, Punchestown races, football matches, all over. And the man who was behind all that, Sean O’Toole, he died last week. He was our President. He was treasurer for 33 years. He was a great man in the club, a pillar in the club. It’s very sad. I knew him when he came to the town first, in 1947. He came to work in Quinn’s as a shop boy, and he went and bought his own place and done a good stint in it, down near the chapel.
‘I went to work in Athy in 1958 and got married in 1958. We won the final on October 26 and I was married on November 5 to a Donard woman, Maggie Flynn from Donard, steeped in football tradition as well.
‘It was good craic (when Baltinglass played Donard), you’d get right ribbing, but they were a great team that time, a really good team,’ he said.
There was also a love of hurling in Johnny Kenny’s life.
‘I won a Junior hurling championship with Baltinglass in 1967. We won a double that year. We beat Pat’s in the final by a point, Tom Scott got a last-minute point and we won by a point. Then the hurling died away. Some lads went to Kiltegan and that was the end of hurling in Baltinglass. They don’t teach it in the schools in Baltinglass. I used to play full-back. I loved the hurling,’ he said.
For many years Johnny Kenny was the sole representative for Baltinglass on the Wicklow county team. It was a role that Johnny thoroughly enjoyed and a time whicih he reflects on with great pride and fondness.
‘I first played with the county Minors in 1948/49. I played with the Wicklow Juniors in 1950. We played Wexford in the Leinster championship in Gorey and I was playing on a fellow that day who played for Ireland after in the rugby, Seamus Kenny of Lansdowne. He played out half for Ireland shortly after.
‘The first time I played Senior we played Meath in Aughrim in the league. Meath were after coming back from New York after beating New York. We gave them a good game, 2-10 to 2-7, and I was playing right half-forward that day on a lad by the name of Christo Hand, a savage operator.
‘The following Sunday we played Dublin in the league in Croke Park and I was playing on a lad called Frank McGarrity from Donegal. He was playing right half-back that day.
‘After that we travelled along alright. I didn’t play too much in the winter time, in the league, but I came back when the championship was on.
‘The match in 1954 in Croke Park was the real downer. The referee from Laois played nine or 10 minutes over the time and he didn’t blow it until Meath got the winning point. It was sickening.
‘There was uproar. We were sick. Always (seems to be something going against Wicklow). It’s things like that that go against us. It we had got the break that day we might have won the Leinster, we might not, but Meath won the All-Ireland that year. That time we were in the first division of the league, in with the Dublins and the Meaths, the Galways, Roscommons, Offalys and Laois and competing well with them.
‘We played Westmeath in 1955 and we were sort of half favourites for the Leinster championship. We had beaten Westmeath a few weeks before in the O’Byrne final and when it came to the championship, Westmeath beat us by a point.
‘I wasn’t playing in 1957, I broke my arm in the garage here. I was swinging a tractor that backfired. Played very little football in 1957.
‘The county came to an end in 1963. We were playing the Kildare Juniors in Baltinglass and I came on as a sub. That was the last day.
‘Great memories. I played eight times in Croke Park. That was very special, to be able to tog out in Croke Park. I played four against Louth, three against Dublin and one against Meath. Those were the highlights, to be able to go out there and look around and take it all in.
‘For years I was the only one there (from Baltinglass). It’s all changed now,’ he added.
Like all the greats, the playing days must come to an end. For Johnny Kenny it was his body who told him it was time. And he was far too intelligent a man to ignore those messages.
‘Father Time catches up with you. I was heading for 40 and I was taking longer to recover from injury. And I’d say to myself, ‘what am I doing out here playing football at this age?’ So, I decided to give it up. I started on my own here in the 1980s. I set up my own business here. I hadn’t much to do with football in the 80s. My time was all gone into trying to work up a business here. I kept going to games and supporting them.
‘I trained them in 1976, they weren’t going to well before that, and we beat Hollywood in the county final by 0-5 to 0-4, a low-scoring game. I gave it up after that again.
‘A big difference (between playing and managing). When you’re training there’s not much you can do, it’s the lads inside who can turn it on for you. If you were playing you could do something yourself. It’s a big difference when you’re not playing, you can give orders to lads but they mightn’t listen,’ he said.
Proud days are plentiful in Baltinglass when it comes to the GAA but surely there was no better day than when Johnny watched his three sons, Hugh, Billy and Paul, help Baltinglass to an All-Ireland club title with victory over Roscommon’s Clan na nGael in Croke Park by 2-7 to 0-7.
‘I was very proud the day they won the All-Ireland in 1990. That day, I remember it was a dry, cold day, and we went up with relations of ours. We drove up to the back of Croke Park and, ‘Jaysus,’ says I, ‘how are we going to get in here?’ And the next thing the gate opens and George Delaney of Kilcoole beckoned us in and we got in for nothing.
‘Of course, when we got home that night the streets were packed, out all night, the pubs were all open, no Gardai to be seen. It was a great night.
‘We could have probably won another one or two but things didn’t go right. We could have won in 1993. Éire Óg beat us by a point in Athy. They went to the final that year and they were unfortunate not to win it, a team out of Cork beat them. But that’s the way it goes. It was a great time to be a footballer out of Baltinglass,’ said Johnny.
In fairness, given their father’s innate competitive spirit and passion for the game, it was highly likely that the Kenny boys would follow his footsteps and represent their club and county with pride and honour. In all, Johnny had nine chidren: Sean, Alice, Marcella, Breda, Kathleen and Mairead as well as the three other lads.
‘We had goalposts out here in the back garden and they were learning the skills of the trade out there. I’m very proud; three of them after winning an All-Ireland. Injuries stopped some of them down through the years. Paul broke his leg in 1984, took him a long time to come to. Then he had a cataract problem. Billy had a knee problem for a while but not too bad. Hugh wasn’t too bad either, he escaped with a cracked bone in his foot. There were always injuries, that’s what you were worried about mostly,’ he said.
Baltinglass GAA Club will always have a special place in Johnny Kenny’s heart in the same way as Johnny Kenny will always have a special place in the heart of Baltinglass GAA Club. When we ask him about the ability of a club like Baltinglass to always compete at the business end of the Wicklow championship he is adamant that it has to start with the children.
‘I think it’s the skills (that makes Baltinglass strong). They’re trained in the skills of the game all the way up along. There’s probably too much emphasis on training now and not enough on the high catching and long kicking of our time. There’s more of the basketball stuff in the GAA, and it’s not as good to look at as it was years ago,’ he said.
The game of football has changed radically over the years, for the better some might say. Johnny is quite happy that the famous third man tackle of the 1950s and 60s is no longer in the rule book.
He says the game is now about fitness and that a good runner will make it on the football field in the current game.
Like most people, 2020 was a frustrating one for Johnny. Baltinglass won the Miley Cup again with a limited number of supporters allowed in. He would have liked to have been there to witness another pair of hands gripping that cup and hoisting it high into the Aughrim sky, to see his legacy continue, to hear that roar and feel that tradition and belief take root even deeper than before.
For Johnny though, when the big question about how he looks back on his life and times is asked, it’s not that big win in 1958 that takes precedence, it’s not the journeys home through Rathdangan, it’s not the sporting conquests that matter most to the father of nine. Yes, those wonderful achievements make up the beautiful tapestry of his wonderful life, but they’re not the be all and end all.
They’re not his proudest achievement. That’s his family.
It was marrying the love of his life in 1958. It was starting a family. It was introducing them to Gaelic games, fostering their love for it. It was working hard, paying their way, staying true to themselves and their beliefs.
It was being part of a community, taking pride in their roots, understanding who they were and what they were about. It was about honour and decency and respect.
He speaks with huge pride of his 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, many of whom have embraced Gaelic games: Marie Kealy who plays with Baltinglass and Wicklow, Áine Byrne who plays with Tinahely and Wicklow, Darragh and Padraig who play with Ballymanus to name just a few.
Johnny is filled to bursting point with pride for the current Baltinglass team who defeated Tinahely in last year’s county final. He believes they will come again and be a force to be reckoned with for several more years.
But he always returns to his family.
‘The most important thing was getting married and to rear a family and rear them right and try and get them to follow the Gaelic games as well,’ he said.
Like everything else in Johnny Kenny’s life, himself and Maggie seem to have done a very fine job in that regard.