Dr Pádraig Carney: My Football Idol

Hero worship is one of the traits of youth and I was no exception. Growing up in Ireland, my Gaelic football idol became Dr Pádraig Carney from Swinford, County Mayo’s greatest footballer, who achieved fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The first game of Gaelic football I recall listening to was the Mayo v Dublin National League semi-final on April 25, 1954. Mayo County Board brought Dr Pádraig Carney back from New York for that game (he had emigrated earlier that year) and he led Mayo to a thrilling 0-11 to 0-7 victory over Dublin, scoring seven points. Micheál Ó Hehir, a wonderful commentator, immortalised Pádraig that day as the ‘flying doctor’. It was exhilarating for a youth from the nearby parish of Killasser to hear Micheál describe the man of the match performance by a footballer from Swinford that day and he became my hero. It was many years later before I met him at a lunch in Galway in May 1978 when he brought a group of American doctors to Ireland. I really got to know him when he came to open the pitch and Community Centre in Swinford on May 13, 1979. We have been friends since.

Pádraig Carney, who wore the green and red senior jersey of Mayo with distinction from 1945 to 1954, is undoubtedly one of the greatest Gaelic footballers of all time. He won every honour in Gaelic football: two All-Ireland senior football medals, 1950 and 1951, four Connacht senior medals 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1951, two National League medals 1949 and 1954 and one Connacht Minor, 1946. In addition, he won three Sigerson Cup medals with UCD in 1946, 1947 and 1949 and was captain in 1948. After playing for the Combined Universities in 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1951, he was selected for the Rest of Ireland against the Combined Universities in 1952 and 1953. He won a Railway Cup medal with Connacht in 1951, as well as two Mayo senior football championship medals with Castlebar Mitchels in 1951 and 1952 (while working in the County Hospital) and a junior championship medal with Charlestown Sarsfields in 1953 (while serving as a doctor in Charlestown). Pádraig Carney was elected to the Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) Hall of Fame in 2001, when a postage stamp (30p/38c) was issued in his honour on 5 September that year. (Following the selection of the football and hurling teams of the millennium in 1999 and 2000 respectively, the annual Hall of Fame Award scheme was inaugurated in 2001, whereby two hurlers and two footballers are inducted each year.)

Mayo Senior Team

Even after several magnificent displays as a minor (under 18), his selection on the Mayo senior team was not assured as the selectors considered him too young. Pádraig Carney was chosen to play for the Mayo senior football team in August 1945 at the age of seventeen in a challenge game against Galway at Charlestown, and is said to have scored a point with his first kick. His consistent and brilliant performances over the following nine years far surpassed his great early promise and all expectations. While still a minor, he was selected to play for Mayo at centre-field in the 1946 Connacht senior championship with Henry Kenny (father of Enda, the future Taoiseach or Prime Minister of Ireland), an All-Ireland winner from 1936 who had come out of retirement. On his championship debut, Pádraig scored four points as Mayo defeated Sligo by 2-9 to 2-6. In 1946, Mayo lost a controversial final to Roscommon. This great and strong Roscommon team also defeated Mayo in 1947.

After drawing with Kerry in the first round of the League that year, Pádraig Carney was one of five Dublin-based players who wrote a letter to the County Board, dated November 5, 1947, demanding a new approach to team selection, training, and the provision of challenge games. The County Board responded, as did the players. The year 1948 was very exciting for Mayo. After easy wins over Leitrim and Sligo in the Connacht championship, Mayo defeated Galway in the final after extra time in a replay by 2-10 to 2-7, the county’s first Connacht title since 1939. Pádraig Carney was outstanding in both games at centre-field, and scored nine points in the replay. James Laffey in his excellent book, The Road to 51: The Making of Mayo Football, stated:

"The Swinford man was still only 20 and knowledgeable football men in the county were already saying they had never seen anything like him…. The nine-point salvo in the Connacht final replay propelled Carney’s burgeoning reputation through the stratosphere. The finest young footballer in the country had been revealed in all his splendour. And he was wearing a Mayo jersey. The famine of the Forties was officially over."

Both games are still remembered for the brilliance of Pádraig Carney and Galway’s Seán Purcell. Raymond Smith writing about Carney and Purcell in those games said: “they played football that stirred the blood, played it with natural, easy flowing grace”. Jack Mahon, Galway, referring to the 1948 Connacht final performances of Pádraig Carney and Seán Purcell, said: “they were the greatest displays I ever saw on a football field”. Mayo caused a national sensation in the All-Ireland semi-final when they defeated a team of Kerry legends by ten points and qualified for a memorable final with the reigning champions, Cavan.

Greatest Disappointment

Pádraig Carney admits that his greatest disappointment as a footballer was the 1948 All-Ireland final, in which Cavan defeated Mayo by 4-5 to 4-4. The bizarre half-time score in that game, as every Mayo supporter well remembers, was Cavan 3-2 Mayo 0-0. Mayo, then aided by the gale, staged a magnificent second half recovery and came within one point of Cavan (4-5 to 4-4) with approximately four minutes left to play. Mayo attacked and were awarded a close-in free. Pádraig Carney took the free but to the astonishment of the crowd, Mick Higgins, the Cavan centre-forward is said to have advanced within fourteen yards and blocked down the free. The referee did not order the free to be re-taken. Mayo supporters claim to this day that Higgins was less than the required fourteen yards from the ball when he blocked down the kick. To make matters worse, seconds later, the referee blew the final whistle approximately three minutes from full time! It was a bitter disappointment for Mayo and especially for young Pádraig Carney, who fully accepts that the referee made a mistake. However, he had the distinction of scoring the first goal ever scored from a penalty in an All-Ireland senior football final in that game. One of Pádraig great memories became the wonderful homecoming reception they received.

All-Ireland Triumph

Mayo went on to win the National football league title in 1949 with Pádraig Carney excelling in all games. Mayo defeated Louth in the final by 1-8 to 1-6. In the 1949 championship, Mayo defeated Roscommon in the first round, then Sligo by 7-10 to 0-2 and Galway in the Connacht final by 4-6 to 0-3. Great things were expected of Mayo after the 1948 final and successful League campaign, but they were surprised by a good Meath team in the All-Ireland semi-final, 3-10 to 1-10. A number of players were played out of their usual positions in the game especially in the half-back line where Pat McAndrew’s presence was missed (he had emigrated). In the 1950 Connacht championship, Mayo defeated Roscommon by 1-7 to 0-4 in the decider at Tuam. Pádraig Carney was brilliant at centre-field. Mayo defeated Armagh by 3-9 to 0-6 in the All-Ireland semi-final and went on to defeat Louth by 2-5 to 1-6 in the final to take the Sam Maguire Cup to Mayo for the second time. Mayo had a very successful league campaign in 1950-’51 but, without the injured Pádraig Carney, lost to Meath in the final by 0-6 to 0-3. Pádraig Carney was one of ten Mayo players who won the 1951 Railway Cup with Connacht, the first since 1938. In the 1951 championship, Mayo beat Sligo by 3-7 to 1-5 in the first round, then Galway in the the Connacht final by 4-13 to 2-3 and Kerry in All-Ireland semi-final in a replay. Mayo, with Pádraig Carney at his brilliant best, retained the Sam Maguire Cup by defeating the 1949 champions and reigning League champions, Meath, by 2-8 to 0-9 in the final. He was “man of the match” and “sports star of the week”.

Disillusioned after receiving their 1951 All-Ireland medals in the post, and curtailed by injuries, Mayo were in the doldrums for 1952 and 1953. In 1952, they defeated Sligo in the first round but were beaten by Roscommon in the final at McHale Park by 3-5 to 0-6. In 1953, Roscommon again defeated Mayo by 1-6 to 0-6 in the Connacht final at St. Colman’s Park, Roscommon.

Married

A brilliant student as well as a sports person, Pádraig qualified as a doctor in 1951 and worked for four months in Cavan General Hospital, then for almost two years in the County Hospital, Castlebar, before spending a year as dispensary doctor in Charlestown. He married the former Moira McCabe, a native of Wexford, also a medical doctor and a member of his UCD class, in St. Michael’s Church, Dun Laoghaire on 14 October 1953. After their marriage, they lived in Charlestown. The 1950s was a most depressing decade in Irish economic history with few opportunities and massive emigration. Pádraig and Moira decided to emigrate to New York in March 1954, a most difficult decision to make having regard to his achievements as a footballer and the adulation he enjoyed, but he was as ambitious to excel in medicine as he had on the football field and saw that opportunity in the USA. (They had intended to return to Ireland after a few years.) He played his last game for Mayo before emigrating in Castlebar against Cavan in the League on 28 February 1954, which they won by 1-11 to 1-3 with Pádraig scoring six points. It has to be appreciated that he was then at his prime as a footballer and this factor has to be taken into account in any evaluation of his football career. One can only speculate as to what may have been the fate of Mayo football in the mid and late fifties had he not emigrated, but it was possible that Mayo could have won All-Ireland titles in 1954 and 1955.

“The Flying Doctor”

Mayo qualified to meet Dublin in the 1954 National football league semi-final in Croke Park on 25 April, 1954. Dublin were league champions at the time and warm favourites. Mayo County Board, under the chairmanship of Fr Patrick Towey, decided to bring Pádraig Carney from New York for the game. He had to leave Idlewild Airport in New York (now JFK) on the Friday evening, with a stop in Gander, Newfoundland, for refuelling on the then almost twelve hour flight to Shannon, before going on to Dublin. After the game, he had to fly back to New York for work on Tuesday morning. He was the first footballer to be flown from the USA for a game and became known as “the flying doctor”. Never has a county’s faith in one man been so richly repaid, as Pádraig Carney captained Mayo to a magnificent 0-11 to 0-7 victory over Dublin, his finest hour in the green and red. Supporters draped him in Mayo flags and carried him in triumph to the dressing room. He was again “sports star of the week”. Pádraig Carney had reached the zenith of his distinguished football career and won an indelible place in the hearts of all Mayo supporters. Pádraig admits today that the Dublin game was his greatest thrill as a footballer. He was again flown home for the 1954 league final in which he captained Mayo to defeat Carlow by 2-10 to 0-3. It was his last competitive game for Mayo on Irish soil. One can really reflect on his amazing achievements when it is appreciated that he played his last game for Mayo in the Polo Grounds, New York, in October 1954 at the age of twenty-six! Mayo officials believed that they could win the 1954 Connacht championship without Pádraig Carney and had arranged to bring him home for the All-Ireland semi-final and final (such faith!). However, Galway and a brilliant Seán Purcell had other ideas and exploded the Mayo dream by defeating them in the Connacht championship.

Skills

Pádraig Carney excelled in all the skills of Gaelic football and perfected them assiduously, almost on a daily basis. He played most of his football as a mid-fielder or centre-forward and regularly moved between both positions as the occasion demanded, adopting a simple direct style. He assisted all his colleagues and used his foresight to advantage, frequently gaining crucial and opportunistic possession. A great strategist and team man, Pádraig was always superbly fit and in all games exploited his speed, side step and body swerve. He was undoubtedly one of the strongest players of his time, fourteen stone plus, but never used his strength to unfair advantage. Neither did he shirk a challenge. His remarkable stamina was evidenced by the fact that he could, and did, play three competitive representative senior football games (inter-club, county, varsity) on the same day, without apparently tiring or reducing his work rate. His fielding was perfect and rarely did he lose possession. He perfected the pickup, the chip and the solo run, all of which he used intelligently for team advantage in defence and attack. In kicking, the essential art, he was equally good with each foot from play and placed balls and was consistently Mayo’s leading scorer. Following the advice of his great mentor, Fr Patrick Towey, he believed that the first ten yards were the most important in the race for possession and to be alert for every opportunity especially quick frees for and against your team. Features of his performances were his consistency and enormous work-rate. For him, every game was unique, and he always adapted to and mastered the conditions and circumstances. Pádraig was a non-drinker, a non-smoker, a superb athlete and golfer as well as Gaelic footballer.

USA

In New York, Pádraig played football for Mayo and for New York against visiting Irish teams, including Galway in 1957. He was interviewed on a number of occasions for a radio station in New York by the great Swinford-born tenor John (Jack) Feeney (1903-1967). By then, Jack was the leading Irish-American tenor of his generation, with his most popular hit When Its Moonlight in Mayo, a song composed in New York in 1914 by Percy Wenrich and Jack Mahoney. (Jack Feeney and Frank Ryan sang the Irish and American National Anthems before the 1947 All-Ireland senior football final between Cavan and Kerry, which was played in the Polo Grounds, New York, on 14 September.) After spending some time in New York, Pádraig and Moira Carney went to California on the advice of a Killasser-born priest from the diocese of Los Angeles, Fr. John Conlon (1899-1960). After a short time there, Pádraig decided to specialize in gynaecology and obstetrics and undertook further studies in Detroit from 1956 to 1959. While in Detroit, he played for Mayo and won the US Mid-West championship (which included teams from Delaware, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto and Buffalo). In 1959, the Carney family (by then there were three children, together with his mother and father who had moved out to the USA to be with them) packed into a Chevrolet car and drove to Long Beach, California, an amazing adventure covering about 6oo miles a day. There, Pádraig developed a very successful private practice and quickly established a national reputation in his field. He was attached to the Memorial Medical Centre, Long Beach, a training hospital for the Medical Faculty of the University of California at Irvine. Pádraig and Moira Carney, exemplary spouses and parents in every respect, have a family of four: Brian, an orthopaedic consultant attached to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Terence, an attorney, and Cormac, a federal judge, both in Orange County, California, and Sheila, a librarian at John Hopkins University in Washington DC. All four excelled in sport, with Cormac playing American football in division one.

A Football Legend

An admirable attribute of Pádraig Carney was the way he was able to handle fame throughout his life. He kept focused on his goals and progressing, accepting the wisdom of the words of the English poet, John Milton, in Lycidas: ‘Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil’. With a great interest in Gaelic games and all aspects of Irish life and culture, Pádraig and Moire regularly visit Ireland twice a year, usually attending the All-Ireland football final, and follow all developments in the country with interest.

Pádraig Carney holds a special place in the hearts of Mayo football supporters and his name and deeds are still remembered with affection. While he was fortunate to be a member of a good Mayo team, including three others of all-time great stature, Paddy Prendergast, Seán Flanagan and Tom Langan, Pádraig was, nevertheless, its talisman, to whom his colleagues looked for inspiration and leadership. It was his ambition to be the best in everything he did and had an indomitable determination to succeed. That was exemplified by former Mayo and Louth (All-Ireland title in 1957) footballer Dan O Neill in his book Divided Loyalties. When Pádraig was appointed captain of the Mayo team for the 1953/54 League campaign, he told his team that he wanted them to win the competition. In the first game, Leitrim were thrashing Mayo at half time. He refused to let the team go to their dressing room and told them in a pep talk that: “If you don’t win this match, I will. So let’s go out there and do it”. He delivered on his promise, scoring 2-3 as Mayo went on to win by 3-6 to 3-4. (As recalled above, Mayo won that League title). According to his team mate Éamonn Mongey, “Pádraig Carney was a man with whom no footballer could live when he opened up”. Mayo’s great full-back, Paddy Prendergast told James Laffey: “Pádraig Carney was one of those rare, rare footballers who combine great skill and intelligence with raw pace and power. Carney had it all, and we were a lesser team whenever he was not there”. In a tribute, Paddy Jordan, a member of the Mayo panel in 1951, told James Laffey for his book: “I felt privileged to be playing alongside men like Pádraig Carney who, in my mind, is the greatest player ever to have pulled on a Mayo jersey. There was nobody to beat Carney. Nobody.”

Mayo captain in 1950 and 1951, Seán Flanagan in a tribute in 1979 said:

“Pádraig Carney was gifted, fearless and at his best majestic. He combined great strength with the most delicate touch and gained more possession than any of his contemporaries. Of his greatest there is not and never will be any doubt and he is deservedly a legend”!

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble

It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).

An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).