COUNTY final day. The clatter of boots on the changing room floor, the thump-thump-thump as nervous hands bounce a ball off the wall…
When Father Malachy Murphy came through the door a respectful hush descended.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…”
The Clann Eireann players and management knelt as the priest led the prayers before they ran out onto the Athletic Grounds to take on overwhelming favourites Crossmaglen in the 1963 Armagh Senior Football Championship decider.
Having lost the four previous finals (two against Cross) you can understand why some said the Lurgan men didn’t have a prayer back then but that attitude didn’t filter into the Clann Eireann camp.
“The Cross are red-hot favourites this Sunday and they were red-hot favourites when we played them but we went out and beat them,” says a defiant Roy McCafferty, who played at full-forward that day 58 years ago.
“We never let them into the game and that’s what I’m hoping our lads do on Sunday. It’s the only way, there’s no point in hanging back; you get in right away.
“That’s how the match was won in ’63. We got stuck into them from the start, there was no fear.”
It had been nine years since Clann Eireann had last won the championship but they had contested the previous four finals. They’d taken Cross to a replay in the 1960 decider but in 1962 the south Armagh club won with six points to spare and – with seven county players in their ranks - they were expected to retain the title.
The Irish News report of the game noted how 5,000 spectators had turned out to watch and added: “The Lurgan boys proved much fitter and more determined. Clann Eireann were the first to score and they held their lead ’til half-time.”
Roy led the way with two goals.
“The first one came early in the first half,” he recalls.
“That was the point that we knew we were going to beat The Cross. The second one was well into the second half. The late Danny McCrory gave Harry Hoye a pass and Harry put the ball over Tom McCreesh’s head into my hands and I put it in the net.
“Unfortunately Harry never saw the goal for McCreesh flattened him! But we didn’t care because the ball was in the net and that’s all that mattered.”
Roy was a versatile player who often lined out in the Clann Eireann defence. It didn’t matter to him where he played as long as he was in the team.
“I loved the football,” he says.
“Gaelic Football was all we had growing up. We had nothing else and we enjoyed every minute of it. It’s great to see the club back in the final and we were down with the lads on Sunday and it was great to see them.”
He says his nerves “wouldn’t stick it” at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday but he’ll watch the match on television and he’ll be cheering on his great-nephews Sean Corry and Oran McCafferty.
“Let’s hope the McCaffertys sink The Cross again,” he says with a chuckle.
“I hope they bring the cup back to the Shore Road.”
That cup now bears the name of the late Gerry Fagan who captained Clann Eireann to their success in 1963. Gerry scored 1-1 in the 3-6 to 1-4 win and after his playing days – which included appearances for Antrim and the Orchard County – he went on become a respected referee and revered administrator as secretary of the Armagh county board.
“He was a great GAA man,” says Roy.
“He was GAA through-and-through and he was a great influence on us all.”
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A WEEK before the 1963 final, Clann Eireann stalwarts Liam McCorry and Pat Grogan were suspended by the Armagh County Board and, amid talk of a boycott, the Clann Eireann players met to discuss whether they would play at all.
After a prolonged debate they decided that the show would go on and the rest is history - Clann Eireann caused a considerable shock be dethroning Crossmaglen with an eight-point victory in an entertaining decider.
“It was a great period for the club,” says Brian Curran.
“We got to seven finals in 10 years but we only won one of them. Really we should have won more.”
Brian had played his football for the St Peter’s club in Lurgan before was appointed to teach at Tanaghmore Primary School in staunchly Clann Eireann territory. Clann Eireann stalwart Alf Murray was the principal and Pat McMahon, manager of the club, was a colleague. Brian made the switch across the town and his first final was the draw in 1962 and also played in the replay and the ’63 and ’65 finals on the right of a half-forward line that included Harry Hoye in the centre and Michael Murtagh down the other flank.
“There was no great tactics involved in our training sessions,” Brian recalls.
“It was all physical work to get you fit. I remember the manager Pat McMahon put us all into the Clann Eireann bus one night and drove us to out to the Lough shore and says: ‘Right boys, make your way home’. We had to go over fields in the middle of the night to get back to Lurgan, over electric fences and all this, we were lucky we weren’t electrocuted! That’s the sort of stuff we did at training.”
The special forces-style preparation did pay off though because Clann Eireann progressed to their fifth county final in succession and, despite previous disappointments, they boarded the bus to the Athletic Grounds with confidence and a grudge to settle after the suspensions of Grogan (who had joined the club from Aghagallon) and McCorry, who had been sent off in the semi-final win over Madden.
“Pat and Liam, who was an iconic figure in our club, were both suspended the week before the final and we had a meeting to see whether we would play,” says Brian.
“The outcome was: ‘We’ll show them’ so we went into that final highly motivated and we went to win it for Pat and Liam.”
After the match the Clann Eireann heroes returned to the Shore Road to celebrate with supporters and their families. It goes without saying that Brian hopes for the same for the class of 2021 and their manager, his former pupil at Tanaghmore PS Tommy Coleman.
“It’s a long, long time since we won and it’s great to see the club back in the final,” says Brian.
“Cross are hard to beat in finals but we have some good young players and, fingers crossed, we’ll beat them again on Sunday.”
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Sunday’s meeting of Crossmaglen Rangers and Clann Eireann in the Armagh Championship Final rekindles memories of a tremendous rivalry which saw the clubs cross swords in four finals within six years in the 1960s. Brendy McCann recalls those previous battles…
1960: Crossmaglen Rangers 1-11 Clann Eireann 3-5; Replay: Crossmaglen 4-8 Clann Eireann 3-3
EARLY in the first half Clann Eireann had a goal disallowed but they did force the ball into the Rangers’ net after a tremendous ‘shemozzle’ in the square led to an own goal. The second period of an end-to-end affair saw momentum swing one way and then the other and it took a Des McCreery point to force a replay for the north Armagh men.
The replay was fixed for Sunday, January 8 and it did not live up to the standard set in the drawn game. The teams shared four fine goals in the first half. Frank Kernan (who had lined out for Armagh seven years earlier in the All-Ireland final) scored one of them, a penalty, and he added two points to see Crossmaglen lead by two at the interval.
Clann Eireann demonstrated great determination in levelling the game in the early minutes of the second half, but Crossmaglen were able to pull away thanks to goals from Eamon Casey (his second) and Frank Kernan again.
A late penalty for Clann Eireann only served to add a little more respectability on the scoreboard. Kevin Browne placed his shot past Patsy McConville, the only survivor of the Crossmaglen team who had won the club’s previous title in 1947.
In the winners’ rearguard that day was a young Tom McCreesh who later played at full-back for Armagh in the 1977 All-Ireland Senior Football Final. Gene Larkin, the winning captain, collected the cup after a 4-8 to 3-3 success.
1962: Crossmaglen Rangers 3-11 Clann Eireann 0-4; replay: Crossmaglen Rangers 3-11 Clann Eireann 0-4
AGAIN a replay was required to separate the sides. In the first meeting, on August 26, Crossmaglen rued a substantial number of wides over the hour, whilst Clann Eireann passed up two excellent opportunities to win the game late on.
Goals from Kevin Halfpenny and a spectacular reply from Mick Murtagh were the highlights of a first half that ended level. Browne shot his side three points clear in the third quarter only for substitute Oliver McCoy to haul his side level. A siege on the Lurgan men’s goal brought scant reward for Crossmaglen and Murtagh was able to level the game in the dying seconds. When the final whistle was blown the teams were deadlocked at 2-3 to Clann Eireann 1-6 and lived to fight again in the replay on September 16.
Despite Clann Eireann registering the first score the men in black and amber, who had obviously learned many lessons from the drawn encounter, ran riot and built up a 1-6 to 0-1 lead at half-time with Halfpenny scoring the goal.
Second half majors from Eamon Casey and Michael McCreesh saw Cross to victory and Gene Larkin once again lifted the McKillop Cup.
1963: Crossmaglen Rangers 1-4 Clann Eireann 3-6
AFTER losing four successive finals (two versus Cross and one each against Collegeland and Carrickcruppen), Clann Eireann’s luck changed in the 1963 decider when they overcame their great rivals.
With Danny McCrory and Kevin Browne in control at midfield and a tremendous performance by Larry Mitchell, aided by Harry Hoye, Mick Murtagh and Seamus McConville. Roy McCafferty registered two critical goals and Gerry Fagan scored the other in a dominant performance. Future county secretary Fagan lifted the cup as he had in the Lurgan men’s only other previous title-winning season of 1954.
1965: Crossmaglen Rangers 2-5 Clann Eireann 1-3
A RECORD crowd turned out to watch as the rivals went head-to-head for the fourth (sixth including replays) time in six seasons.
Cross, still smarting from their defeat in the 1963 showpiece, set about dismantling the Clann Eireann challenge and kept them scoreless in the opening half. At the other end, goals from Kevin Halfpenny and Eamon Casey saw them 2-3 to 0-0 clear at the break.
Larry Mitchell tried to breathe late life into Clann Eireann with a second half goal but Crossmaglen had done enough to secure 17th county title. Brendan Donaghy lifted the cup, but man-of-the-match was Tom McCreesh, who had given an exhibition of high fielding and lengthy kicking from the full-back position, in a 2-5 to 1-3 win.
