Carlow's quartet of Croke Park triumphs
Carlow v Wicklow - Croke Park poster, 1971.
A statistic to start with, or, more accurately, a question to start with to which the answer is a startling statistic. How many competitive inter-county senior football games have Carlow won in Croke Park?
And while we are at it we’ll ask you another connected question. How many competitive inter-county senior football games have Carlow played in Croke Park?
Now competitive in our book is defined as games played in the Leinster SFC, the NFL, the Tailteann Cup, the O’Byrne Cup, Centenary Cup, Tommy Murphy Cup, All-Ireland Senior B Championship and the old Leinster League which was played instead of the NFL during World War II.
That definition rules out games played by Carlow’s number 1 team in the Leinster and All-Ireland Junior Championship as many of their opponents were second-string outfits of senior counties. It also deems ineligible any tournament or challenge games played in GAA headquarters.
Right, having clarified all that, you might be surprised to hear the figure regarding games won is four? Some will be taken aback that it’s so low, others astonished that it is as high.
The number of games played in Croke Park stands at 31, the first in 1898 when the venue was known as Jones Road, the last the 2018 Leinster SFC semi-final. 21 of those appearances have been in the championship, nine in the league and one in the Leinster League, the 1945 final against Meath.
It is Carlow’s appearance in next Saturday’s National Football League Division 4 final that prompted the topic for this week’s column and while it might be viewed as putting added pressure on Joe Murphy’s charges ahead of their 5 o’clock showdown with Longford I prefer to believe it will serve as motivation for the men of 2026 to add their names to the elite list of just 60 Carlow footballers who have experienced the joy of walking from the ‘field of dreams’ a winner.
The 1941 Leinster SFC semi-final marathon which saw Carlow and Wexford play three draws, one after extra-time, finally came to a conclusion on Sunday, July 27 when Carlow fashioned a convincing 2-8 to 0-3 victory, which to this day, stands as our county’s only SFC win in Croke Park. Jimma Rea and Micky ‘Sherriff’ Byrne scored the Carlow goals. John Doyle kicked half a dozen points. An outbreak of foot-and-mouth delayed the final v Dublin until November and deprived Carlow of the momentum an August setting would have provided.
John Quinlan (O’Hanrahans); Johnny Darcy (Tullow), Johnny Lawler (Fighting Cocks), Jim Archbold (Tullow); Peenie Whelan (Tinryland), Tom Donohue (Kilbride), Lar Moran (Tinryland); Jim Morris (Ballon), Luke Kelly (Ballymurphy); John ‘Buller’ Moore (O’Hanrahans), Micky Byrne (O’Hanrahans) 1-0, Jimma Rea (O’Hanrahans) 1-0; Tom ‘Drakes’ Walker (O’Hanrahans) 0-2, John Doyle (Tinryland) 0-6 4f, Ned Butler (Kilbride).
Armagh had nearly won the All-Ireland in 1953, an infamous missed penalty denying the Orchard County victory over Kerry in the final so Carlow’s 1953-’54 National Football League semi-final defeat of the Ulster champions was a massive result, the 1-10 to 1-7 triumph earning the Barrowsiders a place in the points competition final for the first and only time in their history. While well beaten by Mayo in the decider that Armagh game, watched by an attendance of 17,268 on Sunday, April 11, ranks as one of the greatest days in the county’s GAA history, big Ned Doogue’s 1-3 crucial to the Billy ‘Skinner’ McGuill captained Carlow recording a famous Croke Park triumph.
Aidan Magee (Ballymurphy); Liam Murphy (Palatine), Billy ‘Buller’ Canavan (Tullow), Paks Connolly (Clonmore); Martin Molloy (Clonmore), Andy Murphy (Tinryland), Paddy Delaney (Tinryland); Jim Fogarty (Clonmore), Eamon Kehoe (Clann nan Gael, Dublin) 0-1; Billy ‘Skinner’ McGuill (Palatine) Capt, Ned Doogue (O’Hanrahans) 1-3, Micky Whelan (Tinryland), ‘Fair’ Willie Walsh (Ballymurphy) 0-2; Jim Hayes (Palatine) 0-2, Liam Quigley (O’Hanrahan’s) 0-2, Jack McAssey (Palatine).
While many GAA people would have been aware of Carlow’s win in the fourth game of the ’41 marathon and that 1954 NFL semi-final win over Armagh, the third win was not as widely recalled. It came in 1962, the year that Carlow rattled All-Ireland champions Down in the NFL semi-final, when the ‘Scallion Aters’ won a group play-off against Cork in Croke Park on March 11, two goals from full-forward Pat Brophy decisive in a 2-6 to 1-6 victory.
Frank Power (O’Hanrahans); Mick Redmond (Kildavin), Billy ‘Buller’ Canavan, Pat Somers (O’Hanrahan’s); Paddy Darcy (Tinryland), Paks Connolly (Clonmore), Joe Gorman (Tinryland); Ed ‘Cran’ Hogan (Eire Og) 0-2 ’50, f, Enda Smith (Tinryland); Mick Nolan (Kildavin), Mick Donovan (Tullow), Brendan Hayden (Tinryland) 0-2; Pat Brophy (Tullow) 2-0, Ned Doogue (O’Hanrahans) 0-2, Eddie Walker (O’Hanrahan’s). Sub: Willie Hogan (St Andrew’s).
The fourth win on the sacred soil was an obscure fixture that I’d say only those involved recall and one man involved recalls it very well indeed of which more anon. It was an ordinary NFL against Wicklow on Sunday, November 21, 1971 - which for reasons explained below had a Croke Park setting – and Carlow, who had ended the record run of 17 straight defeats (a run lowlighted in this column a couple of weeks ago) by beating Clare 3-9 to 0-4 in Dr Cullen Park on October 31, then followed up with a 3-10 to 4-3 away victory over Kilkenny in Nowlan Park made it three wins in a row when outscoring Wicklow 1-11 to 1-3 in Páirc an Chrócaigh.
On the Carlow green flag ‘The Nationalist’ report states: “John Kenny’s delivery led to Tom Rea’s goal when the Éire Óg forward shouldered the Wicklow ‘keeper over the line.” The ‘Irish Press’ report the day after told of how Carlow did enough to be 0-8 to 1-1 ahead at the break before “nearing the end they increased their tally with a goal by Tom Rea, whose shoulder on Wicklow goalkeeper Pat Cronin forced the ‘keeper over the line after he had fetched a tentative cross.” I once asked Tom Rea to talk me through the goal, which, in fairness, he remembered with clarity for a couple of reasons. “I drove the goalkeeper into the net,” said the diminutive but sturdy Tom, adding, “me father Jimma {a Carlow footballing legend} said he’d give me a half-crown if I scored a goal, that he had scored a goal or two himself in Croke Park, and I had a bet of a pound with Billy Hutton that I would score a goal.” “At which end did you score it?” we asked. “Oh the Canal End, sure I damn near drove the goalman into the canal!”
Andy Ellis (Eire Og); Tommy Corcoran (Eire Og), Tom McDonald (Grange), Sean Treacy (Palatine); Johnny Byrne (Ballinabranna), Joe Kirwan (Kildavin); Jimmy Doyle (Kildavin); Tom Geoghegan (Eire Og), Sean King (Eire Og) 0-3; JJ Canavan (Palatine); Tommy O’Neill (Tinryland) (Capt) 0-3, Willie Cullen (Palatine) 0-2; Tom Rea (Eire Og) 1-1, Brendan Hayden (Tinryland), Cyril Hughes (Ballymurphy) 0-2. Subs: John Kenny (Eire Og), Joe Sheeran (Ballinabranna).
A bizarre set of circumstances ordained that Carlow’s last Croke Park victory was played there at all?! It had all to do with the 1971 All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship final, a marathon affair involving Wicklow and Hertfordshire which took three games to decide not to mention a bit of board room wrangling following an innovative refereeing decision in the first replay?!
On day one, the British champions came away from Aughrim with a draw. Sutton Park, Luton housed the early November replay and at the end of normal-time the sides again finished level. With fading light ruling out the possibility of playing the stipulated half-hour’s extra-time, Dublin referee Denis Doody came up with an innovative – but illegal – solution. He decided the teams would play ‘extended time’ and that whoever scored first would be declared the winners!
Eight minutes into that ‘extended time’ Hertfordshire secured a point that sparked off hectic celebrations, the exiles thrilled with an historic All-Ireland victory. Not sure if the Cup was presented, we presume it was, but we’re equally sure that before Wicklow’s plane had touched down in Dublin Airport that moves were afoot to contest the unusual solution.
Not surprisingly, Wicklow were awarded a re-fixture, the third instalment fixed for Sunday, November 28, with neutral Croke Park the venue for the 2.45 throw-in. That was also the day Wicklow were due to host Carlow in the NFL and the sensible decision was made to pencil the NFL Div 2 match in as a 1.30pm Croke Park curtain-raiser.
Thus Carlow’s list of Croke Park winners gained 16 new entries, a list that has not been added to in the intervening 55 years.
We started with a question requiring a numerical answer, we’ll finish with a question requiring a numerical answer: How many Carlow footballers have experienced that winning feeling in Croke Park more than once? A perusal of the victorious teams above will reveal that ‘Billy ‘Buller’ Canavan, Paks Connolly, Ned Doogue (all 1954 and 1962) and Brendan Hayden (1962 and 1971) are the only four men to have enjoyed Jones Road success on the double.
