KILDARE ARE IN NEED OF ANOTHER SAVIOUR

ONE sports story captured the imagination of Ireland in the summer of 1990. And it wasn’t the All-Ireland football championship.

The Republic of Ireland’s historic debut in the World Cup finals in Italy held the nation spellbound. The football was awful but who cared as Kevin Sheedy hit a late equaliser against England and Ireland ended up in the quarter-finals.

The All-Ireland series trundled on at its own pace, though nobody paid too much attention.

Infamously, the Ulster Council insisted on scheduling a semi-final between Donegal and Derry at the same time as Ireland faced Egypt in Palermo.

An Ulster GAA official ordered a journalist to turn off a portable television after observing him watching the soccer match. Ironically, the GAA game was more exciting than the tedious 0-0 draw in Palermo but only a few thousand showed up in Clones.

It was hardly surprising that another result earlier that season largely went unnoticed. Wicklow fashioned their first-ever Leinster championship victory over Kildare.

Kevin O’Brien – who won an All-Star later that year – fisted the winning goal in Aughrim after Kildare full-back Davy Malone and goalkeeper Sean Sergeant got their signals crossed and went for the same high ball which had been hoofed into the danger zone by Pat Baker.

Paradoxically, it was in Kildare where the result had a seismic impact, setting in motion a chain of events which resulted in Mick O’Dwyer being chosen as their football saviour.

GUIDED

O’Dwyer was by some distance the highest-profile GAA personality at the time, having guided Kerry to eight All-Ireland successes in 12 seasons.

As the late Eugene McGee – who, as a manager, had famously plotted Kerry’s downfall in the 1982 All-Ireland final – later wrote, O’Dwyer was a football addict. “Only an addict could possibly reconcile himself to driving 250 miles each way from his home to partake in football. And he does that several times a week.”

The Kildare County Board had never shown much ambition when it came to their senior football team. After all, they had allowed Larry Tompkins, their best footballer for a generation, to defect to Cork.

It was the county’s supporters club who instigated the revolution. The late Michael Osborne, then manager of the world famous Kildangan Stud, was the driving force. He enticed many leading business people in Kildare to join. Money was not an obstacle.

They drew up a shortlist of three candidates: O’Dwyer, McGee and Kevin Heffernan, all of whom had managed counties to All-Ireland wins.

Heffernan and McGee ruled themselves out and initially O’Dwyer was reluctant. But during a series of meetings in Adare, Osborne persuaded him to make the biggest switch in the history of the GAA.

The story caused a sensation. When O’Dwyer made his first official visit to Kildare to watch the county final in Newbridge between Naas and Clane, he was mobbed by the huge attendance.

Kildare lost their first Division 2 league game at home to Leitrim – in those days, the NFL began on the first Sunday in October. But O’Dwyer eventually turned their fortunes around. When Leitrim faltered in the home stretch the following spring, Kildare secured promotion.

Teams promoted from Division 2 were then eligible to compete for the league title. The Kildare bandwagon gathered momentum with wins in the knock-out phase over Kerry and Donegal.

But a fluky goal from Dublin’s Vinnie Murphy dashed Kildare’s dream of a national trophy in O’Dwyer’s maiden season. Current Kildare manager Glenn Ryan played in the final, as did Dublin selector Mick Galvin.

But the disappointment felt by the fans that day paled into insignificance compared to the shock they experienced a few weeks later in the quarter-final of the Leinster championship against Louth in Drogheda.

Kildare kicked up a hullabaloo about the venue, claiming it wasn’t big enough to cater for their fans. Louth dug their heels in and refused to concede home advantage. It was a 1990s version of ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’.

The estimated 15,000 who packed into the ground witnessed an absorbing contest. Kildare were missing full-back John Crofton. In his absence, Stefan White ran riot, scoring 2-4, including the match-winning goal in injury time.

SHOCK

On the same afternoon, O’Dwyer’s native Kerry fashioned a shock win over back-to-back All-Ireland champions Cork, which prompted the legendary Con Houlihan to suggest that O’Dwyer was the only unhappy Kerryman in the world that day. It turned out to be a hell of a missed opportunity for Kildare.

The profound impact made by the 1991 Leinster championship was arguably responsible for reviving the All-Ireland SFC as a broad-based spectator sport. It was, of course, the summer of the famous fourmatch saga between Meath and Dublin.

Meath were shattered when they fell over the line at the fourth attempt, in a game in which O’Dwyer was co-commentator on RTÉ television.

Wicklow nearly caught them, as did Laois, who beat Louth in the other semi-final which produced one of the most memorable all-in brawls ever seen in Croke Park. In those days, the Leinster championship was box-office viewing.

Kildare did eventually win a Leinster title in 1998 – when they reached an All-Ireland final for the first time since 1935 – and 2000 during O’Dwyer second reign.

Ultimately, the story came full circle. Eighteen years after Michael Osborne persuaded O’Dwyer to manage Kildare, the Waterville legend found himself plotting the Lilywhites downfall in his new role as Wicklow manager.

And he succeeded, with 6/1 outsiders Wicklow securing their first-ever championship win at Croke Park by beating Kildare, then managed by rookie boss Kieran McGeeney.

The qualifiers saved the ex-Armagh captain as he guided Kildare to a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Wicklow, meanwhile, who were beaten in the semi-final by Laois, were not allowed to play in the qualifiers under a crazy rule which excluded teams from Division 4.

O’Dwyer kicked up such a fuss that the GAA scrapped the restriction. He was a remarkable man, the likes of whom may never be seen again.

But he might never have had such an influence on Leinster football (he also guided Laois to a provincial win) had O’Brien not scored that goal in Aughrim 34 summers ago.