Inside Track: What about us, a Cooley reader asks

The screen on which these words appeared before being dispatched for printing came alive with a recent query.

Another came via by mobile, which, I should say, is a Mickey Mouse job. Good for taking a call and sending one. Same with messages. Also useful for RTE radio’s Gold when sleep refuses to visit. But nothing much else that I know of.

A Cooley writer makes the point that a lot was made in Inside Track in recent weeks about the big representation St Mary’s had on Louth teams back in the 1940s

“But what about Cooley’s” he asks. “The Louth team that won the 1948 Leinster title had seven players who were born on the peninsula. Not all were playing with Kickhams at the time, but those who weren’t had done so before transferring to other clubs.”

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Right enough, there were seven who first saw the light of day in Omeath, Greenore, Ravensdale, and, as the writer say, “other places”.

Frs Kevin Connolly and Mick Hardy, along with Stephen White, represented Kickhams at the time, while Seán Thornton, Eddie Boyle, Seán Boyle and Hughie O’Rourke had changed allegiance.

Thornton and Eddie Boyle went to Seán McDermott’s in Dublin, Seán Boyle to Ardee St Mary’s, and O’Rourke to Dundalk Gaels. At a later stage, Stephen White transferred to Young Irelands, winning championship with the Dundalk club.

So while Mary’s might have been the ‘Cream of the County’, Cooley could be termed the ‘Breeding Ground of Brilliance.’ Fight it out among yourselves, lads and lassies.

Danny from Dundalk wants to know if any player other than Kerry’s Johnny Culloty won All-Ireland medals as an outfield player and goalkeeper.

Culloty, who died recently, won his first Celtic Cross as a corner forward in 1955, and four more as a goalkeeper, the last of them in 1970.

A scan of the records going back to the first All-Ireland 1887 shows that the feat had indeed been previously achieved. In 1943, a year that’s been prominent on these pages in recent weeks, Owensie Hoare played outfield when Roscommon won their first ever All-Ireland.

When the Rossies retained the title, Hoare was in goals having taken over from Bill Glynn. Keep those queries coming, but don’t make finding an answer too difficult. There’s an email address at the top of this page.