My rivalry
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:44 am
Not to burst a balloon but was there not an unfortunate Championship meeting and replay in 1949 with Westmeath, Now I was only a year old but living in Doon and attending school & church in Ballinahown in Westmeath in the Fifties and early sixties we lived the rivalry every day.
Kevin forgets that from the Westmeath border below Ballinahown, Offaly faces Roscommon across the Shannon from Bloomhill to Clonascra, all Doon territory ,,,,,,, Two Ryan houses back onto the Shannon across from Clonown Church. Until the Fifties those families were more likely to attend Church in Clonown, 100 yards across the river rather than the 3 miles, partially across a boggy boreen, to Ballinahown. The fathers of Sean and Mick ( the goalie ) and Michael (the corner back ) Ryan actually played their football with Clonown ( forerunner of Clan Na Gael) and at least one of them is believed to have played with Roscommon. For younger readers read grandfather of Donie & Fintan,,,,,,
Then we had a certain Agricultural Instructor in the Ferbane Area which included Doon) around 1957 to 1962 who happened to be a famous Roscommon centre back and while walking to school every Monday we would meet his car heading to Ferbane from his family home in Brideswell. On a Monday after an Offaly v Roscommon National League game we either stood and cheered loudly or hid behind a hedge.
Gerry O'Malley was a revered figure not just in Ros.
The Frankie Kinlough saga in the Forties did add to the rivalry and then John Oliver Moran in 1961, raised on the Main St Shannonbridge and still living there playing for Ros v Offaly in the All Ireland semi was a further element of the rivalry......