The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Local heroes re-live glory days of ’71
MEMBERS of the Dingle team that earned a place in local history when they won the County Junior Football Championship in 1971 gathered in O’Flaherty’s bar on Sunday evening to relive their days of glory and take time for a pint and a chat with old comrades at a celebration that was as warm as the evening sun shining outside the door.
Before that famous seven-point win over a very-fancied Milltown-Castlemaine side, Dingle GAA was in the doldrums and, depleted by emigration, sometimes struggled to even field a team. On occasion team manager Pádraig Lynch would resort to searching the streets for likely recruits to fill the gap when a regular team member was missing. At Sunday evening’s celebration Carl O’Flaherty - who compiled a wonderful little book of GAA nostalgia for the occasion - recalled being whisked out of the Temperance Hall where he was playing snooker and an hour later he was playing football for Dingle in Gneeveguilla.
However, despite its failings, The Dingle team that grew out of the amalgamation of Sráid Eoin and Na Piarsaigh in 1967 wasn’t lacking in talent and The Kerryman’s report of the Junior Championship final noted how “Dingle had a fine goalkeeper in Michael O’Connor and magnificent defenders in Gearóid O’Connor, who had a ‘blinder’, Mike Dillon, Micheál (Toose) Fitzgerald and Paul Scanlon. Michael Slattery turned in a pile of valuable work at midfield whilst, in attack, Joe O’Sullivan and Pat Bawn Brosnan gave excellent support to Dillon.”
The victory was the stuff of dreams and it was celebrated wildly with the team stopping to fill the cup in Annascaul and Lispole before the parade of champions around Dingle behind the Fife and Drum Band and then another round of the town, with frequent pit stops to refill the cup – and the team.
Before 1971 and that famous Junior Championship victory the Dingle GAA Club got by on a wing and a prayer; afterwards the club was reinvigorated and there was a sense of confidence for the future and for what they might achieve. On Sunday evening Dingle GAA Chairman Jimmy Bambury said the subsequent development of the club and even its most recent successes owe a debt to the heroes of 1971, some of whom continue to be actively involved.
His views were echoed by 1971 team member Danny Lynch (of Kilfountain and Croke Park) who recalled that: “In 1969 we were struggling to survive. The aim was not to let the club die, so winning in 1971 was huge and it became the catalyst for the successes that followed.”