Roscommon’s Greatest Game by Tony Fallon©.2014
In July 1962, this is now
more than 50 years ago
The Connaught
final was being played, far off in Mayo.
We didn’t have enough spare money,
to travel so far,
And we all envied my sister
Cora who worked in Castlebar.
All the experts said Galway, would be champions by dark
And expected to be playing
for Sam, in Dublin’s Croke Park.
I worked with Matty Rogers in
O’Connors, with the pay of a lad,
Brendan Donnelly and I were
from Rahara, we were football mad. .
Jimmy Jones and I sewed flags
of the colors blue and gold
And by Saturday evening at
four o’clock they were all sold
It was the topic of
conversation, in our house day and night,
And we knew Roscommon was
ready, to give them a fight.
Football was the only
conversation, in the Knockcroghery pubs
The Roscommon Champion had a
list, of all the players and subs
The circle round our radio,
would be greatly enlarged,
And my father had the second
battery, ready and charged.
The newsman said the weather
in Castlebar, was only fair,
And we knew in 15 minutes,
we’d hear Michael O’Hehir.
The roar in Castlebar, could
be heard across the valley,
When the Rossies took the
field, behind Gerry O’Malley.
The pressure kept on building,
while they sang the soldiers song
And we knew the throw in,
would take place, before too long.
The first half wasn’t too
exciting, as they were us outscoring,
But the crowd was in the game,
and it certainly wasn’t boring.
Our kick-outs weren’t long
enough, they weren’t going far
And lording mid field was Matty
McDonagh, from Ballygar.
A free for Roscommon, and
there was not a sound in the room
There were very few misses by
Don Feeley, the man from Kiltoom.
But more scores were going to
Galway, and it looked like they’d survive,
And with less than 15 minutes
left, they were ahead by five.
At least one Galway fan was leaving, and starting up his car,
When Aiden Brady leaped up,
and pulled down the crossbar.
A carpenter with a hammer and
nails, was within a few minutes found,
And fans said to each other, “this
never happened on any other ground”.
When repairs had been quickly
made Brady said he understood,
That it was only temporarily
held together and wasn’t very good.
When the game resumed, O’Malley
had been moved, to mark another foe
And for the rest of this
Connaught Final, he put on a one man show.
He caught the ball, he solo
ran, he passed it off; the ball is in the net,
The crowd went wild with
excitement, there was some hope yet.
Points were exchanged, Galway are still ahead by two, then three
And the Brideswell man has
the ball again, he doesn’t want a free.
He’s going through, I can’t
stand it, my shirt is soaked in sweat.
O’Hehir screams on the radio,
“the ball is in the back of the net.”
Oh mercy, oh mercy we all
wish we had gone, even if we had to walk
And poor Michael O’Hehir was
so hoarse, he could barely talk
The sides were now level, who
could think we’d come back so far,
O’Malley to the other Feely, for the lead, as Des sent it over the
bar.
All over the world, Roscommon
people prayed, that this would be our day,
That the Blue and Gold would
hold the lead, and there would be no replay.
My mother knelt in front of
the Blessed Virgin, with rosary and missal,
Praying Roscommon would hold
onto the lead, until the final whistle.
They’ll talk forever about
that great victory, below in Castlebar.
And about Gerry O’Malley,
Aiden Brady and the broken cross bar.
