I think I made right decision..

THE careers of Dave Barry and David Beggy intersected in the dying seconds of the drawn All-ireland final of 1988.

With Cork leading by a point, Meath ace Beggy won a breaking ball from a Martin O’connell sideline and charged towards goal. Barry or Cork moved in to challenge him, the ball spilled loose and he picked it up. Referee Tommy Sugrue blew for a free. It was contentious to say the least.

Brian Stafford converted and Meath won the replay.

At the time, Barry doubled up as a midfielder for Cork City in the League of Ireland, while Beggy had parked his rugby ambitions two years earlier in order to give Meath his full focus.

Would either have been there in ‘88 if the ban had still been in vogue?

Given that Barry had played for Cork since 1980, four years

before Cork City had even been formed, the answer is probably yes for him. But, yet, he hadn’t played against Meath in the 1987 final as a result of what was essentially a fresh take on the ban from Cork county board.

“A bunch of lads around the Bishopstown/blackrock area, they formed Cork City and they asked me to join so I was more than happy to get involved but I was a Cork senior player now at this stage,” Barry explains.

“The Barr’s (St Finbarr’s), we were in a county final and I went up to Dundalk and broke my leg in my first game with Cork City. We were playing Imokilly and we went in as favourites and we lost the fecking thing so there weren’t too many people buying me drinks after that game. But look, that was ‘84.

“Then in ‘86/87, the county board brought in this code of conduct so anybody representing Cork couldn’t play any other codes.

“I suppose they didn’t like seeing one of their intercounty players showing up in a Cork City jersey and being in the papers on a Monday morning. So it caused problems. It gave me an ultimatum and they said if you don’t pack up Cork City you won’t be representing Cork.

“I thought it was a bit unfair for an amateur organisation. Now, I gave full commitment to the GAA. That was to the

Barr’s and the Cork county team and on my free Sundays I said I wanted to help out City.”

Cork City weren’t putting conditions in front of him. So he stayed loyal to them and watched from the terraces as

Cork footballers lost the 1987 All-ireland final.

“But in ‘88, and it was all thanks to [Cork manager] Billy Morgan really, he came back and asked me to get involved so I met the county board and they told me that the code of conduct was thrown out.”

Beggy came from a devout rugby household but caught Sean Boylan’s eye when playing for Navan O’mahony’s as a teenager in the mid-80s.

He decided to concentrate on football there and then.

“That was a big decision for me because my whole life and dreams were based around winning

Irish caps. I knew I was going to miss out on that when I made the decision but that’s the decision I made and I made the right one in fairness because I didn’t do too bad.”