Inside Track: Noonan was the 1958 captain

Noonan was the 1958 captain

Hands up....again. Johnny Robinson didn’t captain Dundalk’s 1958 FAI Cup-winning team, as stated here last week. As Mick, Willie, John, Paul, George and Ringo have been telling us since, some of them angrily, it was Shay Noonan.

The Dalymount Park final was against Shamrock Rovers, and included on the Dundalk side were three locals, Joe Ralph, Ken Finn and Niall McGahon.

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Another, Gerry ‘Guider’ Mullen, was 12th man, and Tommy Kerr came down the road from Drogheda. Dundalk won with a Hubie Gannon header.

Finn lived only a stone’s throw from Oriel, in Malachy’s Villas, and here is an estate from which a number of other Dundalk players made their way up the Carrick Road for home games.

Joe Ralph – also a Cup winner in 1952 – lived there for a number of years prior to his passing. Also, Davy McArdle, another Oriel favourite and a member of the league-winning side of 1962/’63, captained by none other than the man on the mic, John Murphy.

And it’s now home to Patsy Cole, a regular wing-full in the Alan Fox’s era of the 1960s. He had the distinction of being on the team that played in the last game in the ‘old’ Oriel Park.

Doohan’s club do the double.

It’s been good for Eoin Doohan’s over the past few weeks. The Dundalk-based businessman was in his native Ennis to see his first love, Éire Óg, win the Clare senior hurling championship a fortnight ago, last Sunday, scoring an emphatic win over Sixmilebridge.

A number of that team were out in the club’s colours a week later for the football final. It was easier for Éire Óg this time. Winning the title for the fourth time in five years, they beat St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield by seven points.

The drinks are on you, Eoin.

Passing of a great GAA man

The death last week of Anthony Murphy was not only felt in Clogherhead, where his association with Dreadnots extended from when he was first able to kick a football up to his passing, but throughout the county.

He gave outstanding service to the Dreadnots, first as a footballer and over a long number of years in the club’s committee room. More recently, he was the club’s Co Board representative.

His work for the Louth County Board was invaluable, among his many tasks, doing gate duty at club and county games. Anthony will be missed in Clogherhead and throughout the county.