Father and Son…..
Seneschalstown people have more reason that most to celebrate Meath’s All-Ireland victory this year, as one of their own, Graham Geraghty, had the honour of lifting the Sam Maguire.
50 years ago, another of their clubmen, Fr Tully, played a prominent role when the Royal County made the breakthrough at All-Ireland level. Colm Coyle, along with Martin O Connell, holds the distinction of being the only Meathmen to have won three All-Ireland souverirs. Mattie McCabe has two in his possession.
It’s clear Seneschalstown have contributed their fair share to Meath All-Ireland success stories, but this was the first time one of their players got to lift the most prestigious trophy in Irish sport Graham joined Brian Smith, Peter McDermott, Peter Darby, Mick Lyons, Joe Cassells and Tommy Dowd in an exlusive club.
The parish of Kentstown and its surrounding environs turned out in their thousands to welcome Graham, Sam and the rest of the Meath team home, the Monday following that memorable win over Cork. From the stage erected at Maguires pub, the village’s favourite son addressed the crowd.
After parading the silverware and thanking wife Amanda, he added, “I would like to thank my family, especially my father”.
It was a proud occasion for Graham’s father, Ger, an occasion perhaps only surpassed by the moment his only son raised Sam Maguire above his head. “It was a great moment, one to savour,” beams Ger. “it’s not every day a member of your family gets the opportunity to lift Sam Maguire. At the time it was a bit of a shock, it took us a couple of weeks to come to terms with it”.
Did Ger believe, when Graham was handed the captaincy by Sean Boylan, that he’d get his hands on gaelic football’s blue ribbon prize?
“The league campaigne didn’t offer much hope but Graham won the All-Ireland minor in ’90, an under-21 medal in ’93, the senior in ’96, so with this being ’99, I hoped that he’d be getting another. I felt that they weren’t really in too much trouble during any game, the final was probably the toughest, yet they never looked like getting beaten”.
“The penalty miss was a bit of a setback, but it diden’t upset them too much and they weren’t long in regaining control after Cork got their goal”.
Graham calmed Royal County nerves with the first of his three points coming shortly after Joe Kavanagh’s goal. He certainly played a captain’s role and those who doubted his suitability to lead the Royal County were left with egg on their faces. As well as the three points, he set up Ollie Murphy for the goal and was fouled for the penalty.
“He played well enough”, was his father’s modest version of accounts. As regards his positioning at full forward Ger comments: “He dosen’t mind where he plays. As long as its’ between number one and fifteen he’s not too pushed. Personally, I think his best position is further out the field, in the half back or half forward line, but Sean Boylan knows more than me”.
Can Meath retain the All-Ireland in 2000? “I don’t see any reason why they can’t. A lack of discipline cost them dearly in ’97 and ’98 but that doesn’t seem to be a problem any more, it certainly wasn’t this year. It will take a good team to beat them, that’s for sure”.
Two weeks after the All-Ireland decider, Graham was on the plane heading “Down Under” with the rest of the Irish International Rules team.
“We were delighted when he was picked to play for Ireland. To represent your country must be a great thrill and there’s not many chances to do so in the G.A.A. It was a tremendous honour”.
When Graham was growing up, Ger was involved with the Yellow Furze underage teams. In his speech at Kentstown, the full forward expressed gratitude to the likes of Tommy McDonnell, Tommy Finnegan, Seamus Carolan and others who guided him up through the juvenile ranks.
As you would expect Ger wasn’t a bad footballer himself. He played all his underage football, and indeed a lot of his adult football with his native Duleek. His brothers Vincent, Eugene (current chairman of the east Meath club) and Desmond all wore the green and white colours. Ger featured on the Duleek XV which captured Intermediate Championship honours in 1966.
His performances with Duleek attracted the attention of the County selectors and he was chosen to wear the green and gold at minor (’67), U21(’69) and junior levels. He also gat a couple of runs with the seniors in tournament games.
On moving to Kentstown, following his marriage into the Lawyer family, he switched allegiances to the local side in 1977. That same year he lined out at half forward on the Seneschalstown team which failed to prevent the mighty Summerhill from annexing their fourth Keegan Cup in a row.
Summerhill proved to be his Achilles heel as Ger was full back on the Seneschalstown outfit which lost to the same opposition in the County SFC decider of ’86. He hung up the boots in ’90 after lining out on a league winning team with Graham.
Ger was a senior selector alongside Tommy Finnegan and Pat Smyth this year but the Padraig Coyle trained team lost out to Ballinlough in a play off for the quarter finals.
“We had every chance of beating Ballinlough” he recalls “They took their chances whereas we didn’t. It was disappointing, because we had hoped to make, at the very least, the quarter-finals. Then, once you are in the knock out stages, anything can happen but it just wasn’t to be for us”.
Despite the poor performance this year, Ger is upbeat about Seneschalstown’s future. “We’ve got some good young players coming up. Against Ballinlough we had an U15 (J.Sheridan) in goals while there were two U17s (M. Carey, D. Sheridan) in the half forward line. We’re rebuilding at the moment but the signs are good”, he concluded.
