REMINISCING

Reminisce: to indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events

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That definition is just perfect for this week’s column which, as ever, indulges in recalling times past but on this occasion, alas, those memories have been brought to the surface due to the sad passing of two great Carlow sportsmen.

Martin Dunphy was laid to rest in St Mary’s Cemetery, Carlow last Monday. On Saturday Pat Foster was interred beneath the clay of his beloved Tinryland. Martin Dunphy won three Towns Cup rugby medals in the yellow and black hoops of County Carlow RFC but the stories I am about to tell are mainly about is gaelic football exploits! Pat Foster won three Carlow SFC medals in the blue and white hoops of Tinryland GFC but the stories about him begin at a rugby match!

BORRIS IN OSSORY:

Upon learning of Pat Foster’s death I was immediately transported back to a winter’s Sunday in the February of 1984. The opening shots of the GAA’s Centenary Year were being fired and I thumbed to Borris-in-Ossory for a Laois v Clare NHL game in the local Bob O’Keefee Park. The Leinster SHC Cup is also named in his honour and the Laois team of that era, with such fine hurlers as Pat Critchley (their lone hurling All-Star), John Taylor and Mick ‘Maggie’ Walsh, were real contenders, reaching the Leinster final in 1985. They beat Clare in that ’84 game, Cyril Lyons the only man playing that day to also play in the Banner’s 1995 All-Ireland final triumph. Mind you the right half back in Borris-in-Ossory had a bit of a say in ’95. Ger Loughnane.

Anyway, game over, your scribe thumbed for home, Having got a lift to Portlaoise I was stationed outside the Mental Hospital (there are those who would say inside it would have been preferable) when who should happen along but Pat Foster who brought me all the way to my Brownes Hill doorstep. On reading Pat’s death notice I had it in my head that he was coming from a rugby game that same day so, being able to trace the date of the hurling I browsed in the old archive of this newspaper to see if there was a oval ball fixture in the Portlaoise area that Sunday, February 12, 1984 … TOWNS CUP RUGBY: And indeed there was. In the first round of the prestigious Towns Cup Portlaoise hosted Carlow in Togher, the home side winning 10-nil, thanks mainly to the boot of Shay Booth. A perusal of the Carlow fifteen would explain why Pat Foster was in attendance. Their captain and second row was Tom D’arcy, an Offaly native, who won a brace of SFC medals with Tinryland (’79 and ’81). At out half was Joe Walshe, who won 3 Carlow SFC medals with Tinryland in 1975, ’79 and ’81 as well as playing a power of football with the county while on the left wing was Martin Byrne of Tinryland via Graiguecullen.

There were a few other GAA connections with that rugby fifteen, centre Cathal Ware winning 5 SFC medals with Éire Óg, prop Mick Bowe playing in goal for O’Hanrahans in the1980 SFC final while full-back Bryan Carbery’s son Bryan Junior won 4 SFC medals with Éire Óg. Scrum half Micky Byrne played football with O’Hanrahan’s. His father Micky ‘The Sherriff’ Byrne was on the Carlow team that won the Leinster Senior Football Championship in 1944 and this brings us off down another memory lane …

FOSTER’S FARM:

When I was a small boy, 11, 12 years of age, virtually every Sunday involved tipping over to the County Grounds to watch whatever matches were on. At that time, we’re talking 1971/’72, the only working turnstiles were at the outside pitch end and a small group of old men used to gather there waiting for the stiles to open. One, a little bent, nearly always arrived first; another used to come in on a little motor bike that he’d lean against the concrete wall. Another wore a long army-like coat, smoked a pipe, taking slow deliberate puffs in breaks in conversation. This conversation was always about football and this small boy listened intently especially when they spoke of ’44. “T’was a lucky day for Carlow when big John Doyle landed in Foster’s farm in Tinryland,” said one, “we’d never have won it without him.”

Nods of the head from the listeners. “He was a powerful man, deadly with the placed ball,” said another. “Aye, every kick went over the lath,” said the man with the pipe. “And a good few located the onion sack too,” said the man with the bike.

The Foster’s farm where John Doyle resided for 70 years and worked on for over 50 years – being the recipient of a special long service award from the IFA in 1983 – was the farm of Pat Foster’s father Jimmy.

FOSTER BROTHERS:

If the farm produced a ‘dowler’ in John Doyle, winner of 10 SFC medals with Tinryland, the Foster’s sons were good footballers too. Liam, a steely defender, won 5 SFC medals with Tinryland and was a regular on the county team for years, while Pat won three SFC medals on the field of play, coming on as an impact sub in defence in the 1971 and 1979 finals, collecting another as an unused sub in 1972. But the day of days for the Foster’s was 1975 when a goal from Brendan Hayden proved decisive in a 1-7 to 0-7 victory over Myshall’s Naomh Eoin. Pat was heroic in the left half back position while alongside him at No 6 was the team captain, his brother Liam. On the back of that domestic ’75 form Pat Foster played a fistful of games with Carlow in the 1975-’76 National Football League, his debut coming as a sub in the unusual inter-county setting of Shannon, County Clare. He had serious health issues in recent years but brought the same grit and determination to the battle as he did to the playing field. To Pat’s daughter Sharon and his brothers Liam and Seamus our deepest sympathy.

The accompanying photo of Pat was taken on one of his proudest days, the 1975 county final.

MARTIN DUNPHY:

The only time I can remember talking to Martin Dunphy was underneath the Hogan Stand in Croke Park in 2015, he having just watched his son Ross play a starring role in Carlow CBS winning the All-Ireland Colleges Senior Football ‘B’ title by beating Abbey CBS Tipperary. Though Martin was well known as a rugby man it was about his own gaelic football days we spoke. Martin, you see, was full-back and captain of the Carlow CBS team that won the Leinster SFC ‘B’ title in 1983, their All-Ireland ambitions ended at the semi-final stage by St Finbarr’s, Farrenferris of Cork. Thanks to lifts from the late Sean McGrath of Talbot Terrace, a SFC medal winner with Leighlinbridge in 1957 and whose son Sean Junior was on the CBS team, I got to witness first hand my alma maters victorious South Leinster and Leinster (Clonard Cup) campaigns. Three of their four games in South Leinster were one-point victories, including the semi-final v Good Counsel in St John’s Park, Kilkenny (the home of O’Loughlin Gaels, a club with which Pat Foster’s brother Seamus has a deep association). The Leinster semi-final was fixed for Athy against Dublin’s Drimnagh Castle for whom future soccer international Niall Quinn was the stand out player. In ended in a draw. The replay, also in Athy, went to extra-time, the Carlow boys winning by, yes, a point. Geraldine Park also hosted the Provincial final, North champions, Portalington beaten by four. ‘The Nationalist’ report of the semi-final replay victory over Drimnagh, penned by either Paul Donaghy or Charlie Keegan, while slow to single out individuals, stated, “there was no denying the great contribution of full-back, Martin Dunphy, who played a really splendid composed game.”

BRAVERY:

It was that composure under pressure which stood to Martin Dunphy when in the cauldron of Towns Cup rugby he was part of a Carlow team that won three successive titles in 1992, ’93 and ’94, his back row bravery a stand out feature of the victorious campaigns. He was required to call on that bravery again in recent years when life presented Martin with difficult challenges. Martin’s wife Deirdre is a daughter of Dan Carbery who passed away last year as did Martin’s father Billy just last December. Our deepest sympathy to all the bereaved.

Fair play to Martin’s son Ross, a county regular, for lining out with the footballers in Portlegnone last Sunday and contributing to a great victory. Nice touch too the Rugby Club standing down No 6 jersey associated with Martin for their first round Towns Cup game v New Ross in Oak Park on Saturday night.

CROKE PARK DOUBLE:

When talking to Martin Dunphy that day in Croke Park he was, of course, immensely proud that his son Ross had shone on the green sward of GAA headquarters. However Martin was too modest to reveal that he himself had also left stud marks on Croke Park’s field of dreams! And not once. But twice! In 1979 Carlow’s U-14 footballers reached the Leinster final which was played in Croke Park the same day as the senior final. Martin Dunphy of Éire Óg was the Carlow full-back on a team well beaten by Dublin. Three years later Carlow drew Louth in the 1982 Leinster Minor and Senior Football Championships, the games fixed as a double-bill in Croke Park. In the minor curtain-raiser, which Carlow lost, the right full-back in red, yellow and green was Martin Dunphy.