In this touching tribute, Mikey Sheehy reflects on the strong bonds within the Dublin GAA community, contrasting it with his own experiences in Kerry. He also details his unique friendship with the late Paddy Cullen, forged despite their iconic clash in the 1978 All-Ireland final.
Something struck Mikey Sheehy as he stood outside the church after Paddy Cullen ’s funeral on Wednesday. Sheehy, Ger Power, Ger O’Keeffe and Seánie Walsh had jumped on a train in Tralee at 7am, then into a taxi at Heuston Station and out to Castleknock. “We just got in at the start of the Mass and we met them all,” says Sheehy. “It was a lovely ceremony.
The priest, he was outstanding, he spoke very well and Paddy’s son spoke very well and Alan Larkin then spoke on behalf of his teammates and his friends - he did a brilliant job as well. We met all the ex-Dubs that we would have been rivals with. They’re really nice lads, nice guys and they really appreciate you being there.” And while Sheehy and Co’s array of honours eventually outstripped the Dubs’ by a considerable distance, he reckons that they have something that the Kerry lads don’t. “It’s a thing that I notice, whether it’s a fact that Kerry’s such a big county and we’re all over the place, but even outside the church after the Mass, the Dublin fellas, Jesus, they’re very tight as a group. They’re tighter than we are. “Several people have said that to me down through the years. I know it is a big city but Dublin is a smaller kind of an area I suppose and they get together quicker but they would have a lot more gatherings together than we would down through the years. “And it isn’t that we didn’t get on, we all got on. Once any of our team crossed the white line and went onto the pitch, you backed each other but I would definitely say that those Dublin fellas are probably, as a group, a good bit tighter than we would be as a group off the field.” Indeed, in some instances, the bonds are stronger between the former Kerry and Dublin players than is the case with those they shared dressing rooms with. “Oh there would be, I’d say. Like Jimmy Deenihan and Bernard Brogan have a fierce friendship for years. I think Bernard Brogan met his wife through Jimmy, a Listowel lady, and they would be very tight. “Ogie and Tony Hanahoe would have been very tight down through the years. Loads of lads. Seán Doherty now, another great character who’s such a sociable man, he’d be very friendly with a lot of the boys.” And then you have the friendship that Sheehy and Cullen struck up, an unlikely one, perhaps, given how they were the polarising characters for THAT goal that flipped the 1978 All-Ireland final - and arguably football history, too. “I would have met him on All Star trips when we’d win the All-Ireland or Dublin win and obviously we’d socialise together but particularly when he had the pub all those years ago in Ballsbridge because we used to always call in there after meetings with the Irish Permanent. “If you were staying up there, Jesus you’d go down. Most times he was there. Sometimes he wouldn’t be. I remember on several occasions he was there and it was a fine bar, busy bar, and Paddy would be delighted to see you and then he’d jump ship after a while, he’d come outside the counter and he’d have one and then he’d have two and sure you’d have great fun with him. “I remember a few nights then he brought me away - I can’t even remember the restaurants, the two of us just on our own went away and he looked after everything. Very decent individual. Just loved the company and he was so easy to converse with. “I used to be conscious of that bloody goal and we spoke actually very little about it but he accepted it. It was lucky, as I always said. Sometimes fellas would say, ‘Jesus Christ, you must be fed up of talking about it’, they’d hold it against you, but he never would.” Indeed, Cullen came to embrace that moment to such a degree that he even requested the apparel that inflicted the misfortune upon him. “He said to me one day, I was above in the bar, ‘Would you give me your boots? Have you still got them?’ I said, ‘I think they’re somewhere, I’ll get them for you’ and I gave them to him. I was in the bar several times after, I never took any great notice of them. He had them behind the counter!” This afternoon, the St Brendan’s divisional board is hosting a luncheon at the Rose Hotel in Tralee to mark the 50th anniversary of Kerry’s All-Ireland final win over Dublin in 1975 ahead of the counties’ Allianz League game at Austin Stack Park this evening. A few of the Dubs will be there, and more of them again when the teams get together at Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare in April for a two-day event to mark the golden jubilee. Paddy Cullen’s absence will leave a gaping hole. “You’d miss him big time there, you would of course,” says Sheehy. “Janey Mac, you would. If he was at something like that he’d be the life and soul of the place
GAA Dublin GAA Kerry GAA Paddy Cullen Mikey Sheehy All-Ireland Final 1978 Friendship Dublin Community
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