Painful memories of the one that got away in 1960 and how emigration ended Shinrone's golden generation

ALONG with Rahan, Shinrone holds the unwanted distinction of being one of two parishes in Offaly who have never won a senior championship.

They now find themselves one game away from putting themselves on the Offaly senior hurling roll of honour as they face off against favourites Kilcormac-Killoughey in Sunday's final in Tullamore.

They almost got the monkey off their back in 1960 as they were pipped by then mighty Drumcullen in a thrilling shootout in Birr, 4-11 to 4-10 – it was Drumcullen's 17th and last title to win.

It was a real humdinger of a game. Playing in their first final, Shinrone could get little going in the first half and were 3-3 to no score down after fifteen minutes. Shinrone settled in the second quarter and scored 1-4 to trail by 3-5 to 1-4 at the break.

They had a fighting chance and they almost took it. They got on level terms with ten minutes to go and took the lead for the first time with a Monty Franks free in the 52nd minute. Drumcullen legend Paddy Molloy equalised with a long range free but Franks converted another free to put Shinrone ahead 4-10 to 4-9 as it entered injury time. Molloy got a fantastic equaliser for Drumcullen and deep in injury time, Johnny Spain fired over the winner.

It was a famous final and was debated for many a long day after it in Shinrone. It was also significant as it was the first time the Sean Robbins Cup was played for – a native of Clara and later a Birr club man, Robbins had played football and hurling for Offaly earlier in the century and went onto become one of the county's most distinguished administrators. A firm adherent to the ban on foreign sports, he did two stints as Offaly GAA chairman (1926-1927 and 1935-1942) while he was Leinster Council chairman from 1936 to 1938.

Paddy Molloy became the first man to lift the Sean Robbins Cup but it could so easily have been Shinrone. The manner of their defeat left a sour taste for several years afterwards and even now, it still brings up anguished memories. Seven minutes of injury time was played and the scale of this was hotly contested by Shinrone. Ironically the man in the middle was one of the top referees in the country at that time, future GAA president John Dowling – Dowling also refereed the All-Ireland senior hurling an football finals in 1960 as well as the hurling ones in1962 and 1968 and football in 1959.

In 1960, the world brimmed with possibilities for Shinrone. They won the Minor Hurling Championship in 1959 and members of that team were key players in 1960. They also won the U-21 hurling in 1960 and it seemed that Shinrone's day would come – instead emigration ravaged that fine side with players dispersing to the USA, UK and other locations and within a few years, they were back in junior ranks. They were beaten by Coolderry in the 1961 semi-final but then went five years without winning a senior hurling game and were relegated back to junior – there was no intermediate championship at the time. They returned to senior when winning the Junior Hurling Championship in 1968.

Now as they prepare for another tilt at the ultimate honours, memories of 1960 have resurfaced for the older generation and four of them gathered to reflect on it all last week – goalkeeper John Landy, wing forward Sean McGee, centre half forward, Andrew Hoctor and sub, Denis Mullally.

They were all members of the Shinrone team that won minor in 1959 – they are all now around the 80 mark but their memories of that game have not dimmed. The details of the match may be gone but the trauma of defeat, the sense of injustice remains acute.

What are your memories of that final?

Andrew Hoctor - “Not good ones. They got a point in the last minute or two to give them the lead. The second half was close. We could have won it, if we had a proper referee.”

Sean McGee - “I don't remember an awful lot about it. I was gone to America almost since it. There was no discussion in San Francisco about Shinrone hurling. I went in 1963. When it is that close, it is anybody's game. People will tell you afterwards it was all about the referee and stuff. It was atrocious. Someone even wrote a song about it but that is the way it goes sometimes. Once I went to America, I forgot about it but it bothered me for years. We could have won it.”

Denis Mullally - “My reading of it is that we had it won. We were gone seven minutes over time and that time wasn't like now. There wasn't a lot of added time and there was never a question of us playing so many minutes. We were ahead in injury time.”

John Landy - “All I remember is we got off to a very bad start in the first half. It was 3-4 after a quarter of an hour or something. We didn't even have a score got. You could see the lads going off the hill at half time. They thought we were going to be beat out of Birr but we turned it over in the second half. It was a great game of hurling.”

The refereeing by Tullamore man John Dowling was a hot topic for years but there is a reluctance now to go into it in detail.

Andrew Hoctor - “I am not going to dwell on it. I have said my piece on it. The man is gone now and can't defend himself. I prefer to leave it is as it is.”

Sean McGee - “Obviously it was a big factor in the final. I met him several times out in San Francisco afterwards. It is like Andrew said, it's over and done with. You can't change anything and that is all there is to it but there was a bit of bitterness about it all right. It was our one and only final until this one on Sunday.”

Denis Mullally - “We were winning at full time. Maybe he was right to play extra time, maybe he wasn't. I don't know.”

John Landy - “It didn't help anyway. It was the first year of the Sean Robbins Cup and I thought we were going to take it. It just didn't work out that way.”

Denis Mullally recalled that the team really got going in 1960 after they had to play Carrig-Riverstown three times in the first round – there was a Carrig-Riverstown objection to the first game, a Shinrone one to the second game, he remembered. “They really brought us on. We won the third one and took off from there.”

Their big win was over powerful Coolderry in the semi-final.

Shinrone's decline was abrupt after 1960 and emigration was a huge factor in it. Sean McGee went to San Franciso in 1963, setting up business there and that remains his home – he was home on a holiday last week but returned on Monday and will miss the final, though he will be following it very closely in America.

Sean McGee - “A lot lot went to America, a lot of the good guys. Monty Franks, George Brereton. The Offaly team out there was doing a little recruiting in New York. Once I left for the States, you keep track of it but you are not living it because I wasn't here. I wasn't hearing anyone telling me this or that down at McKenna's Pub or John's pub. We were all 18 in 1960, we all won minors the year before. The biggest problem was so many left the parish to go to America, England and all that stuff. You might ask why we didn't come back the year after or two years after when we were so young but we were all gone.”

John Landy - “We probably had a better team in England than what we had at home. There was no work here. They were all gone to England or the best part of them.”

1960 was in the midst of an era when Offaly club hurling gained notoriety for its fractious, violent nature. The rivalry between Coolderry and Drumcullen is part of folklore in Offaly but it went a lot deeper than this as players and spectators fought, pitches were invaded, players were maimed, referees' attacked and rivalries were occasionally carried on outside of the confines of a pitch, ending up in court hearings.

Was it as bad and as tough as people say?

Andrew Hoctor - “I have lots of memories of it (laughing). Ah jaysus it was tough. Not much class but an awful lot of toughness. You did the best you could and that was it.”

Sean McGee - “That time, a ball would be dropping into the goalkeeper and they would nearly wait for the goalkeeper to catch the ball and then the ball and the goalkeeper would be in the back of the net. That is a fact. The style of hurling was completely different to what it is now. It is all speed now. That time, they would nearly wait for you to come up the field to have a clatter at you. Drumcullen were tough. They had some great hurlers but they used the other side as well. It is the way the game was played at the time.”

Denis Mullally - “I gave as good as I got. I was never too shy that way. I was an eighteen year old, as strong as a small pony and it didn't bother me. I had to do that to survive. I played full forward most of the time and it wasn't for the faint hearted. I remember coming home from matches and there was hardly a bit of skin on my back from the full back's hurl sawing up and down along my back. That was the sort of hurling that went on them times but it didn't bother me.”

John Landy - “It was always Drumcullen and Coolderry in the final every year. You see, it was a farming community there as well. They were all at home the whole time. Our lads wouldn't be there half the time. It was hard to keep a team together. I was the poor goalkeeper and I often ended up in the back of the net. You would get used to it after a while. It was shocking at that time, I don't know how many stitches I got in my head. My full back line would do the best they could but shur, they would be all in the back of the net as well.”

The star player in Offaly at that time and one of the best in Ireland was Paddy Molloy. The quartet are unanimous in their opinion of him.

Andrew Hoctor - “Paddy was a brilliant hurler.”

Sean McGee - “Brilliant, the best that ever came out of Offaly in my opinion.”

Denis Mullally - “I would say he was the best hurler in Leinster at the time. He was on the Leinster team in the Railway Cup. Definitely in the top few.”

John Landy - “I agree with that.”

What would it mean to people in Shinrone to win on Sunday?

Andrew Hoctor - “It would mean the world to the parish. We will go on very happy.”

Sean McGee - “It would be fantastic. Even though I am a million miles from here, I still follow Shinrone and always will.”

Denis Mullally - “Myself and a brother (Dan) of mine, there is only a couple of years between us, often discuss this and in recent years we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't live to see one. Dan was only 16 in 1960 and Richard Liffey came to him and said he was too young. He played matches prior to that but he told him he was too young and maybe he was right. He was disappointed but maybe in hindsight it was the right thing.”

John Landy - “It would be unbelievable.”

Apart from their deep passion for Shinrone hurling, there is also plenty of family ties for them with Sunday's final.

John Landy has two grandchildren on the panel – Adam and Darragh Landy.

Sean McGee has four grandnephews on it – Dan Doughan, David Murray, JP Cleary and Paul Cleary.

Andrew Hoctor's nephew Eamon Hoctor is a selector.

The Shinrone team that played in that famous 1960 final was: John Landy; Seamus “Tobin” Hoctor, Tom O'Meara, Liam O'Meara; Sean Hoctor, George Brereton, Tom Maher; Harry Hoare, Cuimin Moloney; Sean McGee, Andrew Hoctor, Monty Franks; Noel McMahon, Jimmy Landy, Noel Feehan. Sub used – Paddy Holland.