Feature
Daniel Carey
danielcarey@mayonews.ie
THERE were just seconds remaining in the All-Ireland final of 1948. Mayo, having failed to score at all in the first half, had dominated the second period and had battled back to level. Then a free by Cavan full-forward Peter Donohoe restored the Ulstermen’s lead. Mayo won a late free of their own and had a chance to force a replay. Pádraic Carney lined up the kick, but his effort was blocked down by Cavan’s Mick Higgins.
Debate rages to this day as to whether the centre forward was standing too close to the ball, but the referee deemed that he wasn’t, and seconds later, it was all over. All-Ireland heartbreak in this part of the world didn’t begin with Colm Coyle’s point in 1996.
Ironically, Higgins was well known in Mayo, as he had gone to school in Kiltimagh. He also had two Mayo cousins who shared his name – Mick from Kiltimagh, who was later chairman of Mayo GAA Board, and Michael ‘Tick’ from Claremorris, himself a fine footballer. A member of An Garda Siochána, Mick Higgins was later named on the Team of the Century. Mayo centre back Pat McAndrew commented in this newspaper afterwards that he had ‘held Higgins fairly well in the first half but he began to roam away from me in the second’.
In Mayo many people remember the game as ‘the day the ref blew up early’ – The Irish Times reported that ‘those of us who had kept on eye on our watches thought that there were still four minutes of broken time to play’. But writing in The Mayo News, Seán Piondar was critical of the Mayo performance despite strong displays from Carney, McAndrew, Joe Gilvarry and Tom Acton. Some players, he said, had ‘fouled needlessly, dallied with the ball, shot atrociously [and] left gaps in the defence’. He also pointed that Cavan had scored four points against the wind, while Mayo failed to raise a flag in the same circumstances.
By common consent, it was no classic. Piondar described it as ‘a whistle-a-minute decider’ ands counted 52 frees, 19 wides, ‘innumerable injuries and lying-down’ and few thrills. “There was,” he added, “far too much pushing, shoving and neck-tackling”. But there was also plenty of excitement, thanks to an extraordinary second half comeback from Mayo. Tony Tighe had scored two goals and set up another (for Victor Sherlock) to put Cavan 3-2 to 0-0 ahead at the midpoint. According to to the match report in this newspaper, Cavan supporters came onto the pitch during the interval and attempted to ‘intimidate’ the referee but were turned back by their own players. Peter Solan countered with a Mayo goal early in the second half, but when Higgins netted a ‘major’ at the other end, it looked to be all over.
Mayo weren’t done yet, though. Two Tom Acton goals (the first after a defensive mistake) was fouled by a successful Carney penalty, after Tom Langan was fouled. Carney, Seán Mulderrig and Eamonn Mongey added points and suddenly Mayo were level. Then Donohoe edged Cavan back in front, and that proved to be the final score after Higgins’ controversial block of Carney’s free.
The closing stages were still a source of dispute 37 years later when Higgins was interviewed for the book The Green Above The Red. “I was on the edge of the square and therefore, the fact that it was an angled free put me right, as far as I could see,” he commented. “Of course if it had been straight in front of the post it would have been an entirely different matter – I would have been too near then. As it was, many people, I know, held that I was still too near – but the referee was the final judge and he didn’t ask that the free be retaken.”
Stewarding arrangements collapsed on the day. Piondar wrote that ‘hundreds of the 74,645 who paid for admission were forcing their way out – to escape injury, to recover from fainting fits – at a time when fools were still paying good money at stiles to get in – to see the ball in the air!’ An estimated 25,000 people failed to gain admission, including a plane-load from London who had flown in specially for the match. One spectator noted ruefully: “It’s not the players should get special training! You’d want to be very fit to last three hours of pushing and shoving and tripping and swaying on Hill 16!”
On a lighter note, a Mayo News correspondent noticed a rabbit dressed in the Mayo colours who crossed the pitch before the start of the game. “Cavan supporters captured him, robbed him of his green and red and ‘dolled him up’ in their own colours and he re-crossed the field again.” You couldn’t make it up.
When it was all over, those in blue and white were celebrating back-to-back titles, having beaten Kerry in the Polo Grounds, New York, in 1947. The Mayo players went to a reception in Clery’s on Sunday night and then marched to the Mansion House, only to find that the céilí there had just concluded.
Since this was the era before television, the final was filmed and shown in Claremorris the following week. But there was a note of defiance among players and officials alike. Speaking at a reception in Ballina the night after the game, captain John Forde evoked a military metaphor that would have struck a chord with a post-war audience. “As General McArthur said in the Philippines, we’ll be back,” he said, to warm applause. A precursor to ‘John says – keep the faith’, you might say. Three years later, Mayo had won two successive All-Irelands.
MAYO
T Byrne; P Quinn, P Prendergast, S Flanagan; J Forde, P McAndrew, Johnny Gilvarry; E Mongey, P Carney; W Kenny, T Langan, Joe Gilvarry; T Acton, P Solan, S Mulderrig. Subs: M Flanagan, L Hastings, P Gilvarry, P McNamara, H Dixon, J Munnelly, P Jordan, S Daly.
CAVAN
JD Benson; W Doonan, B O’Reilly, P Smith; PJ Duke, JJ O’Reilly, S Deignan; P Brady, V Sherlock; A Tighe, M Higgins, JJ Cassidy; J Stafford, P Donohoe, E Carolan. Sub: O McGovern.
Some blasts from the past
THE most bizarre football-related story from The Mayo News in 1948 centred on a court case heard in Killala. A Ballina man was charged with a breach of the Transport Act after he was found carrying 24 passengers in a lorry to a football match. The players were members of the Bonniconlon side en route to play Ballycastle. Other cases involved ‘larceny of a bicycle lamp’ and ‘larceny of a saddle’.
Advertisements were no less eye-catching. One entitled ‘A dead calf is dead money’ stresses the benefits of Broncholina, an ‘unfailing remedy’. Another promotion headlined ‘False teeth and a grand smile’ suggested that readers sprinkle their dental plates with Dr Wernet’s Powder.
Kiltimagh-Cavan connections
JIMMY NcNicholas from Trenagleragh, Kiltimagh, won a Cavan club title in 1942. McNicholas, a member of the first Mayo team in 1936, joined the Mullahoran club while teaching in Clonoose National School. As the school was on holidays when Mullahoran met Cornafean in that county final, McNicholas cycled all the way from Mayo for the game, which was regarded by spectators as among the greatest of all time.
Meanwhile, Cavan legend Gabriel Kelly also represented Kiltimagh and East Mayo (with whom he won the Mayo senior championship title). Kelly won a number of All-Star awards with Cavan in the 1960s, and took charge of them for two spells: 1980-83 and 1988-90.
