Liam a True Blue to the end
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THERE was widespread sorrow throughout the town and county at the recent death of Liam Leech. Liam grew up in Beechgrove where his home was a halfway house and a Mecca for football fans.
His parents Joe and Maisie were both popular and respected people over a wide area. Joe’s brother Liam was one of the many casualties of the Irish Civil War. He was shot dead on Pitcher Hill steps on June 22nd, 1922 during the shelling of Millmount.
In his young days, gentleman Joe was an outstanding footballer with the Wolf Tones, at a time when the ‘Dulla Gate’ club was the kingpin of Louth football.
His speedy runs down the wing earned him the nickname “Freewheel”.
He had four sons Paddy, Liam, Joey and Mickey. Four lads with one thing in common – the love of sport, especially Gaelic football. While all four were accomplished players, Liam walked the tallest. He was in everybody’s mind ‘ The Special One”. To begin with, he was a natural athlete, capable of adapting to any sport of his choosing. Back in the 1950s, athletics thrived in Drogheda thanks to the efforts of Fr Connolly.
Delaney winning gold in Melbourne, and of course Bannister breaking the four-minute mile, an event which made news worldwide. Liam took up the running game and Kieran Judge maintains he had the makings of another Delaney if he had to put his mind to it. He joined the Newtown Blues in 1956 and played his first game, a challenge match against the Fechins on their home pitch on the Sheetland Road. I missed that game, but I recall the following day at the dinner table, my father speaking highly of the young Leech. He claimed he ticked all the right boxes, except on his lack of confidence in front of the goal, a fault he was sure he would overcome in time. He certainly did!
Two years later, when the Blues won the Junior Championship, Liam was by then the complete footballer. The once shy young fella in front of goal was now the club’s leading scorer. If his talents had blossomed two years earlier, there’s no doubt he would have made the Louth All Ireland winning team of 1957.
The Junior victory gave the Well Road club Senior status, which in turn gave the flying winger a bigger stage to perform. It was only a matter of time before the Louth selectors came knocking at his door. In hindsight, it must be said, he repaid their trust in him in full. For over a ten-year period, he wore the red jersey with pride and passion.
Liam won an O’Byrne cup medal with the county in 1963 and had the honour of representing Louth in 1965 and ‘ 66 Railway Cups.
He won the first of his nine Senior Championship medals in 1961 and his last in 1974. This is a record he shares with three of his team mates. He played a major role in all these victories and never missed a game. He led the Blues to championship victory in 1966, his brother Paddy had the honour in 1964 and Mickey, the youngest in the family made it a treble in 1974 when he planted the Joe Ward Cup on the family sideboard for the third time. His father Joe had to be a proud man.
What made this man tick? First of all, he was a team player, he had style and speed to burn, a sharp football brain, deadly with right and left foot, but to me his greatest gift was his will to win. It was immaterial to him whether the game was a challenge or a senior final, Liam always gave it his best shot. To him, every game was there to be won.
When the Blues trained in the CBS field on the Well Road, the sessions always ended with a so-called friendly match. As soon as darkness descended on the field, the trainer ‘Jacko’ would call out “next goal wins”! This always raised the tempo a notch or two more. But Liam would never quit until his side got the winning score.
Danny Nugent, the club supremo, claims that Liam was a role model for any youngster aspiring to be great. High-fielding big ‘Ja’ Clarke always claimed him a football genius and felt privileged to have played alongside him for club and county.
Bobby McDonnell, a Blues legend, marvelled at his side step and how he rounded his opponents with ease without selling the same dummy twice. He certainly was no one-trick pony.
The chairman, Peter Judge, a pillar of the club, had a presentation dinner in the Grove Hotel. He claimed he would not swap the Beechgrove wizard for Mick O’Connell, which caused Nedser Fagan, a Blues fanatic to ask the chairman “why the bloody hell would you?”
During his playing career, Liam had trouble with his ankle but never his ego, because he simply didn’t have one! He went through life with a smile on his face, and a modest friendly word for everyone. He will be remembered as an unassuming man, as modest as he was the day he togged out in the shelter of the ditch, in the corner of the pitch on the Sheetland Road. Liam’s great devotion was to St Anthony and never missed his novena every Tuesday morning. And you can be sure his favourite Saint and his lovely wife Yvonne, will be waiting for him at the Pearly Gates.