U12s sowed seeds of future success
THE Valentia Under 12 team of 1970 will always have a special niche in the annals of Valentia football, holding dear and cherished memories for those who played in that team and those who observed them as spectators.
It must be remembered that Valentia senior football was very much in the doldrums in those days due to the phasing out of the team in the late sixties and Valentia being declared an Open Area. However, the future seeds were being sown, as these under 12s, in association with the South Kerry minor championship winning team of 1972, played a major role in latter years, a golden era for Valentia Young Islanders.
These players honed their skills in O’Connor Park GAA grounds in Chapeltown and played there in a spontaneous and free flowing way as naturally as the trout that swam in the nearby Caol river. They organised matches between themselves and the oft used phrase among them ‘are you going for a kick, led to hours and hours of football played in the rain, hail or sunshine of O’Connor Park.’
They developed their skills in a field where life held no print or plan in a similar way to the ‘street football’ of soccer players, so often nostalgically referred to by Eamonn Dunphy and Johnny Giles. Many of them also, in the sixties, attended the old Ballyhearney school, built in 1875. Though the school had almost been 100 years old when they attended, there were no flushing toilets, no running water and the only source of heat was a turf fire. The yard in which they played football was narrow and filled with puddles of water.
Those under 12s and subsequent underage teams were lucky to have been looked after by two dedicated mentors, namely Paddy Gallagher and Johnny ‘Mund’ Murphy, sadly both now deceased. Paddy Gallagher, a native of Achill Sound in Mayo, was a Valentia-based Health Inspector who gave huge commitment to under age football and many other affairs of football in South Kerry and Kerry in general. ‘Mund’ was the regular chauffeur of these under-age players, sauntering along in his familiar blue Mini. Paddy’s wife Joan was also the principal of the aforementioned national school.
The under 12s of 1970 were very successful, wining all before them in South Kerry, and they also took part in a county seven-a-side blitz in Killorglin, defeating the cream of urban and rural clubs. Pat O’Connor, John Paul Curran and Michael A O’Connell went on to be lethal Valentia forwards of a golden era for Valentia football and also won senior championships with South Kerry.
Ger Lynch, who also played with them in those successes, won three All-Ireland senior football medals and an All-Star award. Dan O’Connor was a Kerry minor corner back in 1976 at the opening of Páirc Ui Chaoimh.
Kevin Curran captained Valentia to a South Kerry senior championship win in 1981 as a goalkeeper. None of the team emigrated. Kevin Curran, John Paul Curran, Dan O’Connor, Ger Lynch, Pat O’Connor and Paudie Lynch all settled in Valentia.
Michael A O’Connell lives in nearby Dromid, Donal Curran resides in Limerick and Michael Curran resides in Dublin.
Today, we salute those marvellous under 12s of 1970 and their late mentors Paddy Gallagher and Johnny ‘Mund’ Murphy.