1963 MINORS
Westmeath, All-Ireland minor finalists, 1963. Front row l\r: Andy Gillivan, Oliver Egan, Dessie Hamm, Ray Niland, Mickey Fagan, Rob Cornally, Frank Connaughton (captain), Kevin Higgins, Pat Buckley, J.V Costello, Kevin Kelly. Back row l\r: Gerry Frawley, Tommy Reeves, Terry Smith, Paddy Gilsenan, Dan O’Dowd, Brendan Glynn, Tom King, Jimmy Murray, Pat Bradley, Paddy Malone, Kieran Coffey, Ned Daly
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF HISTORIC MINOR FINAL APPEARANCE
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his year marks the 50th anniversary of Westmeath’s first appearance in an AllIreland minor football final. Here, two of the stars of that trailblazing team, Mickey Fagan and Rob Cornally, share their memories of a campaign that had many highs but ultimately ended in defeat to Kerry. Thirty-two-years before Westmeath finally got their hands on the Tom Markham Cup, the Lake County unsuccessfully contested the 1963 All-Ireland minor football final against Kerry. The campaign captured the imagination of Westmeath supporters who travelled to Croke Park in their thousands on September 22 in the hope of seeing the county win its first All-Ireland title in football since the junior-winning year of 1929. But it wasn’t to be as the football aristocrats of Kerry romped to a 1-10 to 0-2 victory. When we spoke to Rob Cornally and Mickey Fagan, who lined out at
left half back and left corner forward respectively, they both agreed that the decision to overnight in Bray before the final backfired badly on a Westmeath team that carried the favourites’ mantle. “It was a big mistake,” remembers Rob, who was a student in Carmelite College, Moate at the time and was secretary of the football board when Westmeath won the All-Ireland minor title at the second time of asking in 1995. “We went up to Bray the night before instead of travelling up on the morning of the final. I was sharing a room with four or five other fellas and we spent half the night chatting. The following morning we went for a run and that wasn’t necessary either. The preparation was all wrong in my opinion. We should have been left in our own environment.” Castletown-Finea’ Mickey Fagan, who would go on to become one of Westmeath’s greatest ever dual players, ruefully reflects: “It was a terrible idea. Booking a group of
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young lads, some of who had never spent a night away from home, into a hotel the night before an All-Ireland final was the worst thing the team management could have done. I’m convinced we would have beaten Kerry if we had travelled up on the morning of the game instead. “As far as I’m aware, Kerry travelled up that morning and they’re a lot further away from Dublin than we are. We should have done what the ’95 team did and slept in our own beds the night before” Westmeath were managed by Fr. Michael Cremin, the Cork native who guided Carmelite College to three Hogan Cup successes in 1976, ’80 and ‘81. His selectors were Michael Reynolds (Mullingar Shamrocks), Paddy Guinan (Moate) and Bill Smith (Athlone). Eoin Dalton was chairman of the minor board, while Kit (Christy) Whelehan was secretary. A talented Lake County team signalled their intent by hammering Longford on a 3-14 to 0-2 scoreline in their championship opener at Cusack