The Nationalist to mark 80th anniversary of Carlow's Leinster Championship win with special supplement free in Tuesday's paper
1944 anniversary magazine
ON 30 July 1944, Carlow beat Dublin in Athy to win the county’s, to date, one and Leinster Senior Football Championship.
“Glory Days” is a very special free pull-out supplement by The Nationalist to mark the 80th anniversary of that wonderful success but this magazine is about much more than just that one match.
Thanks to the magnificent records collected through the years by the one and only Leo McGough, this is the definitive story of how Carlow built up towards that famous day in July in Athy, Kildare and then went to play Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Leo has worked tirelessly through the years with the help of people like Tommy Murphy, Joe Foley, Dermot O'Brien and Donie Nolan to build up an unparalleled history of the events surrounding Carlow GAA through the early decades of the 1900s. Although all the ’44 heroes have passed on to their eternal reward on the great Gaelic Football field in the sky, Leo and Tommy had the opportunity to speak to many of the men who helped Carlow beat the Dubs that day and you can read their account of that day here in the supplement.
We also feature a very special kick by kick detailed report of the semi-final against Kerry when Carlow were denied a place in the All-Ireland Final by just two points.
Some of the stories contained in the supplement been published before, many of them have not, but to our knowledge this is the first time that all these memories have been combined into one magazine which makes it a very special historical souvenir for GAA lovers around the county so don't miss your chance to get your hands on the supplement when the The Nationalist hits the shelves on Tuesday.
“I had a great game that day. It was indeed the biggest thing in my life. It was very important for us to win, as football was everything to people then.”
“I can’t express myself as to what it meant to us, to win something, especially with Carlow when we thought we’d never see the day. But Christ when we did, ‘twas great, to come out and to get clapped on the back and couldn’t get up the town such was the homecoming. It was fantastic”.
