OLD Leighlin have appointed Laois man Des Brennan as manager of their senior football team.
It is quite a coup for the Carlow champions to attract a person of the calibre of Brennan who lives in Rathcoole, County Dublin.
He had a long senior footballing career with Laois and won seven senior championship medals with St Joseph’s.
He led Moorefield, the then Leinster club champions, to a 2007 Kildare title but it was the previous 10 years he spent with St Mary’s of Saggart that he considers to be his finest achievement.
From the bottom of Division 2 they rose and competed against some of the best club teams in Dublin.
While a championship title was beyond them they did win a Division 1 league title under Brennan’s guidance.
“Ten of the happiest years of my life,” is how he describes his time with the club.
Carlow followers might remember the 1995 point that never was against Laois in the quarter-final of the Leinster championship when Brennan, as a Laois selector, admitted on television that Mick Turley’s last-minute effort drifted wide even though it was waved as a point by an umpire.
The score stood but history was made when Laois offered Carlow a replay the following Sunday.
Brennan acknowledges the huge amount of work which the Old Leighlin club members has done which has helped propel the senior team to three county final appearances in as many years.
He says he is humbled to be offered the managerial position. “I feel I have a huge responsibility to those people,” he said. Club chairman, Seamus Hayden, is delighted with the appointment.
“He is a very likeable character and I know the players will get on with him,” he said.
Meanwhile the death has taken place of Tom Bolger, father of inter county footballer, Tony Bolger.
Tom was extremely active at a number of levels in the Rathvilly club but is best remembered for his role as chairman of the juvenile section for over 10 years.