DALRIADA Park is in the heart of Thomas Clarke’s territory.
So when Dungannon was caught in the grip of Tyrone v Armagh All-Ireland final fever in 2003 of course the entire estate was festooned in red and white bunting.
All, that is, but except one little outpost.
In the best, neighbourly traditions of the GAA, the men who put up the bunting decorated Paddy McArdle and his next door neighbour’s houses – a little island of Armagh – in orange and white instead.
Armagh City born, Paddy is 91 on Christmas Day. Gaelic Games have been a constant factor in his life and his family’s ties to GAA in the Orchard County go back before his time to when the Association was young.
His father Patrick (a breadman) was one of nine businessmen who put up the money - £1000 in total, £100 in his case – to buy the Athletic Grounds in July 1936 (the GAA contributed £200, the Armagh clergy £100 and the Armagh Feis committee £100).
“I never knew anything about that and I played on that field for years,” says Paddy as he settles down to recall a litany of games, players, scores and incidents from over 80 years.
“My father never said anything about it. He was in the background, he wasn’t prominent and by chance myself and my brother (the late Hugh) discovered it one day.”
His father was involved with the Craobh Rua club (a football team in Armagh) which emerged from the popular ‘Street League’ in Armagh which pitted Navan Street, Irish Street, Thomas Street, The Shambles and Milford against each other.
“I went up to the hospital to visit a man who had played for Armagh years ago called Tom Daly,” Paddy added.
“He played for Navan Street and Craobh Rua and we were talking about the College (St Patrick’s College, Armagh) team that won the Hogan in 1946 in Croke Park. He said: ‘Sure, your father was involved in running a train to that game’.”
Young Paddy (11 and in Croke Park for the first time) was on board that train and from the Hogan Stand he cheered on ‘Iggy’ Jones, Eddie and Jim Devlin (all Tyrone), future Armagh skipper Pat O’Neill, Gerry O’Neill and the rest of the College boys as they beat St Jarlath’s, Tuam (who included Galway great Sean Purcell) in the first-ever Hogan Cup final.
“They were nine or 10 points down with 10 or 15 minutes left,” recalls Paddy.
“Then ‘Iggy’ Jones let loose. He scored three goals and they ended up winning by a point.”
WATCHING wide-eyed as such drama unfold lit a fire in him and it became Paddy’s ambition to play on the sacred ground at Croke Park himself one day.
He honed his precocious skills at Armagh CBS and was part of the Armagh Harps side that reached three consecutive county minor finals.
“St Peter’s beat us in the first one (1950) by two points,” he says.
“Clan na Gael beat us in the next one but, lucky enough, we beat them in the third one in Lurgan.”
Versatile Paddy, at home in midfield or at full-forward, had a trial for the Armagh minors (Armagh were All-Ireland champions in 1949) in 1950. He didn’t make the grade but the following year the talented youngster won a place in the squad.
Armagh beat Fermanagh in Clones to win the Ulster title and went on to play Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.
The game was played at the Athletic Grounds and Paddy was pulled down twice in the square. The first was missed but Johnny Crossey scored the second and forced a draw.
The replay was scheduled for Croke Park as the curtainraiser for the 1951 All-Ireland senior final (Mayo beat Meath in it to win the Sam Maguire and, of course, haven’t won it since).
“It was great to get playing in Croke Park,” says Paddy, who also hurled for the Orchard County at minor level and won a county title for the Cuchulainns club.
“We stopped at Butlins to get something to eat and then went on to Croke Park. Somebody said to me once: ‘The 78,000 (capacity crowd) weren’t there to see yous…’ Maybe they weren’t, but they were there!”
In a low-scoring game (as many were back then) Armagh held a slender lead at the break but Kerry rallied and led by a point with a couple of minutes left when Armagh won a free-kick in Kingdom territory.
Johnny Crossey launched the ball into the square…
“There was a whole scramble,” Paddy recalls.
“About six or seven yards from the goals the ball broke and I connected and put it in the net. Simon Duignan was the referee and the ball was kicked out and it bobbled about for 30 seconds or so and then he blew the whistle, we won 2-3 to 0-7.”
Armagh were through to the All-Ireland final but there was trouble back at home. Cavan had lodged an objection after losing to Fermanagh in the Ulster championship. Their grievance was upheld and chaos reigned as the GAA ruled that Armagh had to play the Breffni county in an Ulster final replay.
The Orchard youngsters won their second provincial final of the year but the complications in Ulster meant the All-Ireland minor final against Roscommon wasn’t played until December.
Despite one of their players forgetting the teams had changed ends at half-time and marauding past his own bemused defence to score an ‘own point’, Roscommon won the game 2-7 to 1-5.
“We were disappointed surely,” says Paddy.
“But we’d had a great day with the fact that we’d got playing at Croke Park the day of the All-Ireland final.”
Paddy went on to play for Armagh at ‘junior’ and senior level. The Orchard County reached their first-ever All-Ireland senior final in 1953 and he was on the panel that won the Lagan Cup the following year.
GAME-TIME was limited at county level but there was no shortage of it with his club Armagh Harps. Paddy won his first county title in 1952 as an 18-year-old full-forward.
He missed the final the following year with a knee injury but he was back in the blue and white jersey, now operating at centre half-back, for the 1955 decider when the Cathedral City side beat Killeavy in Crossmaglen. In 1957 he won his third county title when the Harps beat Keady in the decider.
“Jack Bratten was the captain and I was vice-captain but he was injured and couldn’t play so I ended up being the captain,” he explains.
“I accepted the cup (the McKillop Cup then) that day which was a great honour.”
Those were the days before provincial or national club competitions. The Ulster club competition officially began in 1968 and before then county champions were invited to play against each other in various tournaments around the province.
“Omagh was a great tournament we went to,” says Paddy.
“Their prize was ‘suit-length’ (a length of cloth to have a suit made from) or a gold watch, it wasn’t actually gold but a watch was a watch. We won the tournament and I got a watch, I think I gave it to a friend of mine one time, I can’t remember.
“We went to Portglenone, Dungannon, Carrickcruppen, Desertmartin, Irvinestown, Ballybay, Monaghan, Bellaghy, Coalisland, Cookstown, Lavey, Termonfeckin, Ballina, Galway… We went to tournaments all over and they were very competitive.”
To celebrate the opening of Casement Park in 1953 the Harps (the reigning Armagh champions) were invited to play in a prestigious tournament at the West Belfast stadium. That tournament is regarded by many as the first staging of the (unofficial) Ulster club championship.
A team of relay runners from athletic clubs all over Ireland carried a silver urn which contained soil taking from the pitch Semple Stadium in Thurles (birthplace of the GAA) to Casement and arrived just before the opening ceremony.
The urn and a set of gold medals were the prize for winning the tournament and the Harps began their campaign against Louth champions Dundalk Young Irelands who included Jim Tuft (famously described as: ‘Tuft by name, tough by nature’ by legendary RTE commentator Michael O’Hehir) winning 2-6 to 0-2.
“I scored a point that night,” says Paddy with a smile.
Next up were Tyrone champions Thomas Clarke’s of Dungannon and this time the Harps won even more convincingly, it finished 3-4 to 1-1.
“Two goals,” says Paddy, jabbing a finger in his own direction, who was marked by Dr Tommy Campbell, of Tyrone and Ulster, in the game.
In the final, the Harps took on Antrim’s own St John’s from the nearby Whiterock Road. The ‘Johnnies’ would have fancied their chances of bring the prizes back to their Corrigan Park home but in front of a packed grandstand on Sunday, June 21, 1953 the Harps emerged victorious.
At the end of a ‘rousing first half’ (according to The Irish News report the following day) the sides were level but the Harps pulled away and added 1-4 without reply to win the tournament.
“I got the goal,” says Paddy, his smile probably as big as it was 72 years ago and he goes on to list the Harps team from that Brattre
Right half-forward was Malachy McMahon, who played for Armagh in a famous junior final against Dublin in Dundalk in 1948 that was replayed in Croke Park.
Joe Cunningham, an All-Ireland minor winner with Armagh in 1949 and another great footballer. He played in the All-Ireland senior final in 1953. He became a professor and went to America and ended up down in Cork.
John Hanratty was left half-forward. John scored our first goal in the All-Ireland minor semi-final win against Kerry and went on to play at senior level for Armagh.
Jimmy Carlisle, a great hurler too, was right corner-forward.
I was full-forward and another Paddy McArdle (we called him ‘Buddy’ and I was ‘Big Paddy’) was in the other corner.
Eddie O’Neill must have come on in the game because I always remember it was him crossed the ball that I punched to the net. Francie Grimley, Peter McKinney and John Mackle were subs as well.
IN 1958, Paddy, an electrician by trade, left to work in London. Based in Finsbury Park, he was invited to get involved in GAA teams but decided against it. He was a regular at Highbury Stadium cheering on Arsenal until 1962 when he was offered a job back on home soil at South Tyrone Hospital, Dungannon.
Coincidentally, Paddy had played against Dungannon’s Thomas Clarke’s in tournaments (including the prestigious Casement competition) down the years.
“We played the Clarke’s in the final of their tournament one year and there was a big crowd up at it,” he recalled.
“They had a good team then but we were winning and we were well on top and then the referee gave a penalty against us. He decided – I say ‘decided’ because I don’t think he was right – that Joe Cunningham touched the ball on the ground in the square.
“‘Iggy’ Jones took it and Gerard Wilson saved it, but it came out to Paddy Devlin and he hit the rebound into the net. ‘Iggy’ took his boots off then and played in his socks, he was well known for doing that. He was fast and the next time he got the ball he went on a solo run and put the ball in the back of the net.”
The Harps had a chance to equalise near the end but missed and when the final whistle went they were in no mood for hanging about.
“After the match, the ladies’ committee put out teas and buns and sandwiches for us but the whole team was raging over the penalty,” Paddy explains.
“The Harps’ boys went on and got onto the bus, all of them except me. I was the only one who stayed for the tea.”
Paddy’s girlfriend, Margaret Grimes, was one of the ladies’ committee members and his gentlemanly behaviour was rewarded when he and Margaret tied the knot. They settled in Dungannon so he transferred to Thomas Clarke’s and won a Tyrone intermediate title with them.
Paddy’s sons followed in his footsteps with the club, winning county minor championships and, in a Tyrone twist to what began as an Armagh tale, all three went on to wear the red and white.
Pat, the eldest, played for Tyrone U21s, Michael played for Tyrone Vocational Schools and Tony, the youngest, was goalkeeper for the Red Hand minors. Paddy’s grandson, a member of the Thomas Clarke’s senior team, continues the tradition.
“Aye, they were all good players,” says Paddy.
Yes, but not as good as the main man...
