| Leitrim homage to marvellous McGarty
 By
Henry Wymbs
Larry Cunningham is credited with putting Leitrim on the map with his
song Lovely Leitrim but the great Packie McGarty had already cornered
the market with his marvellous displays for Leitrim and more especially
with his province Connaght in the Railway Cup competitions in the late
1950s and early 1960s.
McGarty is the only man with the exception of Christy Ring to have played
county football in four decades.
He recalls: “The earliest memories I have of playing competitive
football was at a sports day in Mohill in 1944. I was playing for the
schoolboys team in a seven-a-side competition which we won. I was delighted
and went up to receive my medal but to my surprise I got an envelope with
a half-crown in it. Now at that time a half-crown was a day’s wages
for my father but it meant nothing to me. I was absolutely disgusted I
just wanted a medal.
“I played my first senior game for Leitrim against Offaly when I
was 16 in 1949 and finished my career in 1971 at the age of 39.”
Born in Mohill in 1933 into a family steeped in the GAA tradition, McGarty
ate, drank and lived football from a very early age.
He said: “My late father Dan was chairman of the Mohill club for
a good many years. There was nothing talked about in our house but football.
Our home was a meeting place for all local matters relating to Gaelic
football and the love of the game was bred into me.
“As kids we did not have footballs just an old sock filled up with
grass. There was nothing else for us to do but kick any object that looked
like a football.”
McGarty was most surprised at his quick elevation to inter-county status.
He said: “I didn’t have a clue I was being picked for the
county. I was only 16 and wasn’t the biggest of fellows but I was
told ‘get your kit’ and the next thing I was playing against
Offaly. I did ok and got some scores.”
With a Cinderella county like Leitrim it was inevitable that McGarty’s
playing days would be marked by the anguish of seeing his team lose time
and time again.
McGarty recalls: “It was frustrating at times but we had some good
players in the mid-50s like Tony Hayden, Leo Mc Alinden, Columba Cryan
and Frank Quinn. We were always seen as just cannon fodder for Galway.”
Galway would keep Leitrim west of the River Shannon for the whole of the
’50s, when the team contested four Connacht finals from ’57
to ’60 only to be beaten on each occasion by a great Galway team.
McGarty was a veritable ball of energy. He could turn on a sixpence and
for sheer football ability and skill he had no peers in the country.
He said: “Galway had Sean Purcell, Mattie Mc Donagh and a host of
other good players. I always felt we gave then them a run for their money,
especially in ’58 when they beat us by only two points. That Galway
team should have won more in the ’50s; they were certainly as good
as the three-in-a-row team of the ’60s.”
McGarty emigrated to England in 1958 to work for London Transport but
his talent was too good to ignore and the county board flew him home for
all the big games.
He said: “I worked in London from 1958 to 1964 and played for the
Tara team. I was well known on the football scene by then and sadly suffered
a really nasty injury when an opponent struck me a deliberate blow to
the face which left me in hospital with 15 stitches.
“My wife was expecting a child at the time and I was too embarrassed
to see her in the hospital as I had two black eyes and my face was a mess.
I know the thug who did it and to be honest, it put me off football in
England.”
McGarty won his only national honours in Railway Cup competitions and
fortunately for him he got the chance to show his real worth outside of
Connacht.
He recalls: “I was chosen for Connacht at the age of 19 and we won
the cup in 1957, ’58 and ’67.
“I loved playing with Nace O’Dowd of Sligo, Gerry O’Malley
of Roscommon and all the Galway lads. This cup was important to me coming
from a very small county. It was the only chance you had of showing off
your skills. Leitrim had some fine players as well at this time like Cathal
Flynn, Josie Murray, and Jimmy O’Donnell.
“In 1964 I was selected to play in the President Kennedy games in
New York. There were two from each province picked to travel — myself
and Gerry O’Malley from Connacht and some other big-name players.
I met some great people in America and it made me realise what the game
meant to them.”
Centre forward on the GAA Centenary team of players who never won an
All-Ireland and now retired from his shop in Clondalkin in Dublin McGarty
welcomes innovations such as the qualifier system.
He says: “It’s good for the game especially teams like Leitrim.
In our time emigration didn’t help. Most of the players now are
based in Dublin and with collective training and easier travel. Players
are much fitter. The young Leitrim players of today must have pride in
their jersey, be confident and try to make the breakthrough like Donegal,
Derry, Tyrone and Armagh.
“In my time we always seemed to lack self-belief and confidence.
I enjoyed every minute of my football and you know I am getting more awards
now than I did when I was playing. If I were starting out now I would
do it all again-only this time I’d be streetwise enough to maybe
win an All-Ireland.”
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