Offaly - Westmeath rivalry topic

[Bord na Mona man]

Jersey burnings, opposition flag waving and other snippets to be posted up on this topic.
It might rally our troops before the battle!

[Bord na Mona man]

David Henry talking about the Dublin Meath rivalry:

"To be fair, there wouldn't have been an awful lot of bitterness between the counties. Even though the football wasn't for the faint-hearted, the supporters would have been fairly gracious to one another.

"Maybe up around the North County Dublin, you might get a bit of it (bitterness). But I think, in general, it's good and healthy. Tough mind, very tough. But I often go down to Offaly and the rivalry between them and Westmeath would be bitter stuff."

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/colum ... html?r=RSS

[TheManFromFerbane]

Most of one side of my family is Westmeath. I was at an Offaly game where my brother (who was playing) was called a knacker and when my sister who was around 7 or 8 stood up for her brother she was called a knacker too.

Also at an U21 game where my da was involved with Offaly I heard many shouts of traitor coming from the stands.

Its a bitterness bourne out of decades of us fighting well above our weight and them fighting in their division and it is f*cking bitter.

[Bord na Mona man]

Time to get the dander up with the yarns and horror stories.

- 2004, Wastemeath beat Offaly for the first time in 55 years.
The Westmeath Examiner prints up a mock up of the scoreboard reading:
Westmeath 0-11
BIFFOS 0-10

A more accurate scoreline Westmeath 0-10, Offaly 0-10, Blind umpire 0-1.


- 1999 Offaly play Westmeath in the O'Byrne Cup. The match was played in driving rain, freezing January conditions.
Westmeath seal the win with a late Dessie Dolan goal to wild celebrations from the home crowd. The Offaly players trudge to the dressing rooms only to find that the locals "forgot" to turn on the hot water for a shower - gas men. The team heads to the hotel for grub. When the players are being called for the sitting, the announcement goes like "Could the victorious Westmeath make their way to the XXX room and could the LOSERS go to the YYY room."

- 2006. This was that infamous Saturday night in Parnell Park when Offaly were playing Dublin and didn't score for about 50 minutes. I was talking to a man from Leitrim a few weeks later. He was in that Mullingar night with a group and decided to head to the pub to watch it on Setanta. In the pub, each Dublin score was greeted with an explosion of jubilation from the customers. Leitrim man and his mates were thinking "there must be huge stag party down from Dublin", "Jayz, I never knew that so many Dubs had moved to Mullingar".
As the game wore on and conversations were struck up and accents twigged, they realised that all the punters were locals. Yer man couldn't believe it and thought it was the cracked altogether

- Sometime in the 70s. A now passed on vet of ours hailed from South Westmeath. He was renowned for his terrible driving and failing eyesight (handy if you had a TB reactor). One day he was out driving, took a corner wide and forced the oncoming car into the drain. The Vet jumps out all apologies and dashes over to assist the poor unfortunate other driver. As he approaches, he sees the other driver has a priest's collar and so his concern is even greater. Seconds later, he cops that other driver is actually Fr Tom Gilhooly, Offaly's All Ireland winning football manager from 71 and 72. At this point the Vet turns dog and starts letting fly with the verbals at Fr Tom. He jumps into the drain and starts calling him every f'er and bollix under the sun until a helpful passer by hauled him away!

[the rat]

Most of my family orginate from Westmeath and I refuse to let them fly the Westmeath flag outside the house...
I wouldnt be the biggest fans of Westmeath supporters but all the same I would not put them in the same bracket as some of the scum who support Dublin.

[Lone Shark]

Being honest, neither of these two teams are going to win the All Ireland. One is an Offaly team that is carrying serious uncertainty in key areas of the field and lacks experience, the other is a Westmeath team, so that says it all by itself.

What is true is that to a big chunk of this county, this is the most important game we will play this year. I'm a sceptic when it comes to how much tradition counts for in games - I don't think it matters a jot what teams fifty years ago did. What does matter is the strength of your spine, the depth of your character and your willingness to go that extra yard. It is based on this that Offaly have achieved what they have on the fields of Gaelic Games, and it is a spirit of instinctive competitiveness and pride of place that is bred into each and every one of us. Some choose to discard it by moving up to the city and ignoring their past and developing a D4 accent, others of us thank God for our Biffo roots every day, whether we wake up in Rhode, Walsh Island or Rhode Island and it is people like these that pass on the torch of what it means to be an Offaly native from generation to generation. It is no coincidence that the Offaly Associations in London, Dublin and New York continue to thrive when most of the others have fallen by the wayside - being fom Offaly matters and we know it, the residents and the ex pats alike.

The world is full of people who think they are individuals, but ultimately are no different to many others. We are something else - we are a breed of our own, not individuals, but one gloriously individual community. We are not midlanders, which is a generic term used when talking of people from Laois, Longford or Westmeath - we are the Biffs. We are a unique culture, hewn out our unique landscape and united by a common love of that place and the people around us in all of our towns and villages. Unlike the east coast, we don't need to ape a bigger culture to feel proud of who we are. Unlike the west coast, we don't need to live up to the stereotype and go around having impromptu music sessions in pubs and developing piercing leprechaun like shouts. We are Biffs. We don't need any more.

There is no natural selection - we are not now, nor never were, any more endowed with natural gifts than the men in our neighbouring counties, men who look at their sparse histories of occasional success amidst sustained mediocrity and weep at what we have achieved. We did not win All Ireland and Leinster titles through any magic, but by being brought up in a community that cared about where we came from and wanted to do something for it.

On Saturday our footballers go out with that community not dependant on them, but driving them on. I do not ask that our players fight harder than Westmeath for every ball, because I know I don't need to. It is who we are. We may or may not win, but I believe that if every player spends thirty seconds before the game looking into his soul and calling, nay demanding that he do justice to the nurturing he received in our homeland, we will once again remind our neighbours to the north why we are who we are and why they can only aspire to maintaining a comfortable spot in our shadow.

The blood tingles at the prospect. Roll on Saturday.

[Kevin]

Nice!!!!!

COME ON OFFALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OffalyManAway]

Jaysus LS - only yourself and Vincent Hogan can get me going like that !
Pure class. Mill into them lads !

[DD]

Being honest, neither of these two teams are going to win the All Ireland. One is an Offaly team that is carrying serious uncertainty in key areas of the field and lacks experience, the other is a Westmeath team, so that says it all by itself.

What is true is that to a big chunk of this county, this is the most important game we will play this year. I'm a sceptic when it comes to how much tradition counts for in games - I don't think it matters a jot what teams fifty years ago did. What does matter is the strength of your spine, the depth of your character and your willingness to go that extra yard. It is based on this that Offaly have achieved what they have on the fields of Gaelic Games, and it is a spirit of instinctive competitiveness and pride of place that is bred into each and every one of us. Some choose to discard it by moving up to the city and ignoring their past and developing a D4 accent, others of us thank God for our Biffo roots every day, whether we wake up in Rhode, Walsh Island or Rhode Island and it is people like these that pass on the torch of what it means to be an Offaly native from generation to generation. It is no coincidence that the Offaly Associations in London, Dublin and New York continue to thrive when most of the others have fallen by the wayside - being fom Offaly matters and we know it, the residents and the ex pats alike.

The world is full of people who think they are individuals, but ultimately are no different to many others. We are something else - we are a breed of our own, not individuals, but one gloriously individual community. We are not midlanders, which is a generic term used when talking of people from Laois, Longford or Westmeath - we are the Biffs. We are a unique culture, hewn out our unique landscape and united by a common love of that place and the people around us in all of our towns and villages. Unlike the east coast, we don't need to ape a bigger culture to feel proud of who we are. Unlike the west coast, we don't need to live up to the stereotype and go around having impromptu music sessions in pubs and developing piercing leprechaun like shouts. We are Biffs. We don't need any more.

There is no natural selection - we are not now, nor never were, any more endowed with natural gifts than the men in our neighbouring counties, men who look at their sparse histories of occasional success amidst sustained mediocrity and weep at what we have achieved. We did not win All Ireland and Leinster titles through any magic, but by being brought up in a community that cared about where we came from and wanted to do something for it.

On Saturday our footballers go out with that community not dependant on them, but driving them on. I do not ask that our players fight harder than Westmeath for every ball, because I know I don't need to. It is who we are. We may or may not win, but I believe that if every player spends thirty seconds before the game looking into his soul and calling, nay demanding that he do justice to the nurturing he received in our homeland, we will once again remind our neighbours to the north why we are who we are and why they can only aspire to maintaining a comfortable spot in our shadow.

The blood tingles at the prospect. Roll on Saturday.

Jasus LS, you had me so psyched up after reading that, I'm just after bursting out through the office door, throwing a few shoulders at my colleagues and roaring "c'mon the faithful!!"
It's roll on Saturday alright..

[faithful till I die]

Thats mighty stuff boy. thata what im talking about. COME ON THE FAITHFUL !!!!!

[Johnno81]

LS has summed it up why I love my county so much!!!!!

[Bord na Mona man]

Great stuff!
We are part of something elite and special.
While other county folk look down and mumble into their chest when asked where there are from, Offaly people look you square in the eye and announce with vigour and pride, not merely where we are from, but who we are.
Offaly is more more than just a place.

[MF35]

Thanks LS, I'm just after making sh1te of me mouse!!

[GOOFY]

Aahemm, LS you owe me a flat screen, just after puttin me fist through it as well.
Super post, by the way (would you be interested in a pre match speech before the lads go out on saturday evenin

[royalblue]

Good man LS brilliant article it makes you proud to be an Offaly man no matter where you're from. We have to get behind the team on Saturday evenif things are going bad these lads won't let us down. i think since Brian Cowen has become leader of Ireland offaly people are showing this since of pride and our GAA teams are showing this as well .