A Mayo trail-blazer remembered

A trail-blazer remembered


Another of Mayo’s All-Ireland heroes  of 1950/1951 passed away last week

Tribute
SeΡn Rice

JOHN McAndrew (85), whose death has taken place in Birmingham, was one of a distinguished group of Mayo men who blazed a trail of glory throughout the football fields of Ireland some 60 years ago.
Their feats in winning back-to-back All-Irelands are seared into the consciousness of the dwindling numbers of people who remember their conquests. Call those icons to mind and McAndrew’s name is not the first to pop up, possibly because he emigrated after qualifying as a general practitioner.
But scroll through the team and ask those who saw him in action and you become aware how integral a part he was, and how significant a part he played in those halcyon years.
On that team no one was less prominent than any of the other 14 or subs. All shared equally in the glory, McAndrew’s contribution as fruitful as that of Flanagan or Prendergast or Mongey or Langan.
The Bangor native was the youngest of a family of six children. His older brother Pat played for Mayo in the formative years of the great team of the 1950s and was a member of the side that beat Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final of 1948, which was regarded as a magnificent achievement at the time.
“Pat was a huge man and a wonderful footballer,” said John in an interview some years ago. “He helped lay the foundation for the rest of us and sadly when success came, he was not part of the team. He had emigrated to the US in 1950 and continued to play football at the highest level in New York.”
John McAndrew was a key member of the Crossmolina team that won the club’s first Mayo senior championship in 1949. “I cycled 20 miles to Crossmolina to play and then played at midfield in my first Mayo senior football final in1949. I then had to cycle the 20 miles back,” he said.
“I first got selected for Mayo in 1949 after the success with Crossmolina, and although we had a good team in Bangor Erris, I had to play away from home to get noticed by the selectors.”
He attended St Muredach’s College in Ballina and then the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and while a student there won all his football honours. He also won a county senior medal with Castlebar Mitchels in 1959.
John, who was 6ft 3”, paid tribute to his schoolmaster Mick Mulderrig, a prominent member of Mayo teams in the 1920s and 1930s, for his football development.
As his teacher, Mick Mulderrig gave him all the encouragement he needed. “He was the one man who sowed the seeds of success. He was also father of SeΡn and Mick who went on to win All-Irelands in 1950 and ’51.”
In addition to winning two All-Ireland medals, McAndrew also won a National League title in 1954, and an All-Ireland junior medal with Mayo in 1957.
At medical school in Dublin, he and fellow students travelled around the city on bicycles. His brother Pat preceded him at the college and also qualified as a doctor, practising first in America and later in Perth in Western Australia.
Following their win in 1950, the team was given a great welcome home. “It was a long time to wait as Mayo last won the title in 1936. There were great scenes at the end of the game and I remember old men with tears in their eyes. We had a wonderful time travelling around Mayo with the cup.”
He said their success over Meath the following year tasted even sweeter.
“The victory over Meath has to be my greatest memory. Football fever had swept the county and we won by five points.”
He set up practice in Birmingham on completing his medical training in 1959.
“I had retired from the county scene by this time but continued to play the game. I joined the Birmingham John Mitchells Club and remember the former Down star Joe Lennon playing with us prior to Down winning in the early sixties.”
McAndrew later became County Board chairman in Warwickshire.
Asked to single out one star among that constellation of the fifties, he chose Tom Langan who, he said, possessed a talent without equal in any county.
“You had those fine footballers Purcell and Stockwell, both of whom I rate very highly and, of course, I was influenced by my older brother Pat. But the greatest player was our own Tom Langan from nearby Ballycastle. God bless his soul.
“He was tall and lanky and had everything. He could field a ball and score – there were so many memorable goals. PΡdraig Carney and Eamonn Mongey were the other great Mayo players at the time.”
The Bangor man, who retired from his medical practice several years ago, was honoured at a function in Castlebar in 2009 for his outstanding contribution to Irish exiles in the British Midlands.
Only four members of that all-conquering side survive: Paddy Prendergast, Peter Quinn, PΡdraig Carney and flying wing forward Mick Mulderrig.