An All-Ireland ‘B’ title and a broken cup
WICKLOW’S misfortune on a provincial and national level are well-documented. They share the unenviable distinction of being one of only two counties, along with Fermanagh, to have never won a provincial title. Clubs have made up for this on a couple of occasions, with Baltinglass winning an All-Ireland senior football title in 1990 and Rathnew winning Leinster senior football title in 2001. However, when it comes to the men, such success has largely alluded them.
The exception to the rule came in 1992, when the Donal McGillycuddy-managed footballers defeated Antrim to win the All-Ireland ‘B’ football championship. As captain Kevin O’Brien, who was part of the Baltinglass team that won a national title two years prior and had himself become Wicklow’s first and only All-Star that same year, climbed the steps in Navan and was handed the trophy, the reality of the county winning an All-Ireland – to that point, an alien concept – seemed to send ripples through the fabric of existence itself; within seconds of lifting the cup high over his head, O’Brien was left gobsmacked by one of the handles snapping clean off.
‘I have gotten a bit of slagging over the years: ‘aw, you’re the man who pulled the handle off the cup. You’ve been a frustrated Wicklow player for years and, when you got your hands on silverware, you broke the cup,’ O’Brien recounts with a laugh. ‘In fairness, it wouldn’t have been the finest piece of silver. The handle happened to be hanging off. A child would have broken it.
‘Funnily enough, down the line there was a photography competition on the Late Late Show and I think it won third prize, so I think we may have made a photographer famous.
‘I was down in Kerry one time and we were doing a charity thing. There was somebody from every county there. The Sam Maguire was there and Peter Canavan and all these lads were there. I lifted it to take a photo and they were yelling: ‘Don’t! He’ll break the handle.’ Although, I wouldn’t mind getting the chance to try and break the handle off Sam. Maybe, one day, a Wicklow player will get to.’
The breaking of the trophy was not the only unfortunate circumstance to befall it. Shortly after some of the squad arrived back at their hotel, they discovered that it was on a minibus back to Bray, which O’Brien accuses the Lenihan’s as having orchestrated.
‘You’ll have to go do your investigation, but I think it was the Lenihan’s.
‘Either way, it ended up in Bray. I walked into Hennessy’s in Blessington and Jimmy Dunne - a great man from Wicklow GAA - was looking for the cup and all I had was the handle. That’s the truth, you can print it if you want. The cup didn’t come back with me,’ he laughs.
None of what transpired in the immediate aftermath could dampen Wicklow’s spirits after winning the All-Ireland ‘B’. For the five class of 1990 Baltinglass players that featured in the starting XV that day – brothers Kevin and Sean O’Brien, Hugh and Billy Kenny, and Thomas Donoghue – it was the culmination of what was an extraordinary decade for the club, with the West Wicklow men winning eight consecutive county titles over that time, as well as a Leinster and All-Ireland club football championship.
Of course, a handful of players does not make a championship team. The rest of the panel that drove Wicklow to success that year was a who’s who of household names of Wicklow GAA, which Kevin is quick to affirm.
‘Billy Kenny and these lads were always the heartbeat of the Baltinglass team. Pat Baker and all of these lads.
‘These were household names. Fergus Daly and Pat O’Byrne was a very formidable midfield. Pat Baker would walk onto the team in any county. There was a young group - my brother Sean, Terry Allen, and Paul Allen - these were top players for their clubs. It was not a bad side. John Walsh from Bray was in the goals. If I am to tell the truth, he was one of the best goalkeepers I have every played with, and he went on to play soccer with Bray Wanderers and Finn Harps.
It was a well-balanced team. There were a few older, experienced players like Pat O’Byrne. He was one of the most accomplished players to ever play for Ireland in international rules.
‘Pat Baker was another experienced player. Then, we had a good mix of young players coming through. There was a nice blend. There was a tremendous togetherness.
Due to having so many outstanding, experienced characters in squad made Kevin’s job as captain all the easier. Already one of the most decorated players the county has ever produced, he never felt burden of leading the players on his shoulders, such is the responsibility that many of the men took on themselves.
The game itself was of a bittersweet variety for him. He remembers how he was familiar with many of the Antrim players as a result of his time playing in America, describing them as ‘friends in battle.’
He didn’t let his fondness for many of his opposition get in the way of the task at hand, with Darren Behan got the key goal on the day in a 1-5 to 0-4 win. It was the first and only time that a men’s Wicklow team would win an All-Ireland title, one which Kevin takes great ride in, regardless of it not being Sam Maguire. His only regret is that they couldn’t use that win as a platform from which Wicklow could build onto bigger and better things.
‘It was great for the people of Wicklow who had followed Wicklow. It was a significant All-Ireland at the time. To say that it is an All-Ireland ‘B’ - yes, it is a ‘B’, but it was the second competition, and any county to play in it were very serious.
‘Every year, the championship is made and every year, you give yourself a chance, no matter who you are drawn against. You give yourself hope. It never dragged you down, but you were always disappointed. We felt there was a lot of talent in there, but it didn’t happen. Hopefully, someday, it will.’