30 years on – A trip Down memory lane

It’s the 30th anniversary of Down’s fifth All-Ireland SFC triumph Shaun Casey speaks to Pete McGrath and Neil Collins about their memories of the season.

DUBLIN were due an All-Ireland title. They needed it. 11 years had passed since Sam Maguire last visited the capital and when the Dubs reached the 1994 decider, the time had come for them to improve their record on the roll of honour.

That was the general consensus, in the southern media anyway, but up in Ulster, plans were afoot to keep Ireland’s most prized sporting possession in the northern province, it’s home for the previous three years.

Down carried Sam across the board in 1991 and inspired All-Ireland winning triumphs in Donegal and Derry in the next two seasons. Down were back for another crack at the title in ’94 and eager to add to the success of three years previous.

Dublin’s need for an All-Ireland title meant little inside the four walls of the Mourne County dressing room. They wanted history and were willing to do whatever it took to retain their 100 per cent record in All-Ireland finals.

“Dublin had been beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final the year before, they were beaten in the final the year before that, and they were involved in that four-game saga with Meath back in 1991,” recalled legendary Down manager Pete McGrath.

“This was a very, very experienced Dublin team. I remember, particularly in the southern media, the narrative was that the GAA needed Dublin to win this All-Ireland because it would do so much for Gaelic Games in the city.

“That didn’t affect our approach to the game, but it was certainly the angle and the perspective that a lot of people in the south were taking. Dublin had the hard luck stories in those recent years, and they were coming into that final as a very experienced team.”

Down hadn’t pushed on after capturing their fourth All-Ireland title in 1991. In fact, having gone from zeroes to heroes that year, they failed to back up their tag as champions and were dumped out of the championship by Derry in 1992 and 1993.

McGrath said: “I think a very strong motivating factor at the start of the ’94 campaign was the fact that we had two pretty poor championships in ’92 and ’93,” McGrath continued. “We felt that vindication for us was another All-Ireland – it wouldn’t just be ’91 sitting there on its own.

“People may have said it was a one-off so for us, ’94 was about vindication and showing ourselves that we were good enough to come back and win another All-Ireland quite soon after the success of ’91. That was definitely something that drove us on.

“91 was the breakthrough. Looking back on it, winning the Ulster title that year was a huge moment as well because Down hadn’t won an Ulster title since 1981. If we’d have only won Ulster in ‘91, a lot of people would have been very happy and very satisfied.”

Down’s two-time All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Neil Collins echoed McGrath’s thoughts, “We wanted to keep that record of having never lost an All-Ireland final and to get the second Celtic Cross in the back pocket.”

The campaign began with a bang as Down overturned the reigning All-Ireland champions Derry in their own backyard. It was only the opening round of the championship, but that encounter is still considered an all-time classic.

Man-to-man duals were the name of the game at that time and both sides were laced with insane amounts of quality. In the end, the Mourne men just shaded it with two-points to spare and that got the ball rolling for a summer to remember.

The two counties had built up quite a rivalry in the recent championships, with the Oakleafers having the Indian sign over their opponents, but Down were determined to flip the tables and get one over their old foes.

“They took us to pieces in ‘93 and then Pete took in Pat O’Hare, who was my old PE teacher in the Red High in Downpatrick,” reflects Collins. “Pat injected a lot of energy. The training was brutal – there was a huge focus on going to Celtic Park and it turned out to be a hell of a game.

“It was hard-hitting, there were a lot of good scores and luckily Ciaran McCabe got us over the line with a brilliantly taken goal. We didn’t really look back after that, it was absolutely tremendous.”

On the legendary status that encounter still carries, 30 years on, McGrath states it’s still the game that springs to most people’s minds. “A number of weeks ago I got a phone call from Sean Moran of the Irish Times out of the blue.

“Sean told me that day was the 30th anniversary of the Celtic Park game. How often would a journalist phone to remind you that it’s the 30th anniversary of a first-round game? That in itself indicates the iconic nature of that game.

“It’s the game that people will still talk about. They don’t actually talk as much about the All-Ireland final or the Ulster final, they’ll always ask about Celtic Park. That was a knock-out game, and everything was on the line for them and for us.

“There was the build up and sense of anticipation. We had history over the previous three years so that game was a showdown, it really was. The game itself has become earmarked as one of the great games in Gaelic Football in the modern era.”

The next day out is another that will live long in the memory, but for very different reasons. Their semi-final clash with Monaghan took place less than 24 hours after the Loughinisland Massacre where the UVF murdered six people and injured another five at O’Toole’s Pub.

Football was an inconvenience. But the fixture had to be fulfilled and Down set their eyes on reaching the Ulster final. “It was total shock, and it was a heinous crime that was committed to the people and the community of Loughinisland,” Collins continued.

“We had a reunion for the 25-year (anniversary) in the Loughinisland club and a lot of the families were there. People were talking about Down players being heroes but those Loughinisland people with their fight for justice, they are proper heroes.”

On the actual game, Collins added, “That was a strange match and a strange build up. It was quiet, it was very reserved, obviously Gary Mason was from Loughinisland, and we were all supporting Gary.

“Normally in an Ulster Championship match you can’t hear the players on the field, but the crowd was very stifled as well. We got over the line and Gary played very, very well that day.

“I remember Wee James (McCartan) told him that we’d do all the running, and he could just hit the frees but Gary produced far more than that. If that 70 minutes of football brought a wee bit of relief for people, then that was a good thing.”

Down got through it in the end and qualified for the Ulster final, where they collected the Anglo Celt Cup and continued on their journey to bigger and better things.

McGrath commented: “We won that Monaghan game without a great deal of fuss, but what happened the night before obviously became closely identified with the game itself. We beat Tyrone in the Ulster final and beat Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final and there was a certain pattern emerging, in that we would go into a lead and be in control and then there was a certain amount of sitting on the lead.

“The final against Dublin followed that pattern as well. Halfway through the second half and into the last quarter, we were leading and then let them back into it. They got the penalty opportunity and all the rest of it, but we hung on.”

A first half goal from “Wee James” put Down firmly in the driver’s seat but as McGrath alluded too, the final followed the same similar trend that had built up in all their other championship outings, and Down allowed Dublin back into it.

Step forward Neil Collins. With the Dubs closing in on the All-Ireland crown, a goal, in front of Hill 16, would surely drive them forward for victory. And that opportunity fell to Charlie Redmond in the form of a penalty kick.

Dessie Farrell, the current Dublin boss, was the man upended in the square and Redmond, who had slotted home a spot kick against Kildare in the quarter-finals of the Leinster Championship, faced the imposing image of the Down netminder.

Collins leapt to his left, but Redmond’s swiped shot flew down the centre of the goals. Collins had enough composure to fling the ball back into play with a strong two-handed save, and DJ Kane was on hand to flick it away safely.

“Brian Burns put a hand on Dessie’s back, and he went down, it was a soft enough penalty to be fair,” insists Collin. “We’d done our homework on where we thought Charlie would go, we’d watched a lot of videos.

“I was only ever going one way, and he didn’t actually hit it as far into the corner as he’d have wanted, and I’d dived too far but the ball was pushed back, and DJ got a boot in, and the ball went wide.

“It was lovely to have made a contribution. As a goalkeeper, it’s the sort of thing you want to do, and I was lucky to do it. To save a penalty in front of the Hill is unbelievable when you’re playing the Dubs.

“My parentage was questioned for the remaining six or seven minutes of the game – I got a lot of abuse from the Hill but fair enough. I’m big enough and ugly enough to take that. We rode it out and it was amazing.”

Reflecting on that momentous occasion 30 years on, Collins adds, “The medals are great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the memories you create as a group to get to that point, that is what really matters.

“Getting to be with family immediately after the match, with my mother and sisters crying, it was just unbelievable. We had our first child six months before that, so we had pictures with Eimear in the cup.

“Those are all very special memories and that was an unbelievable year for me personally. To have our first child and to run out as an All-Ireland winner in September was unbelievable.”

The Down players of that famous day organised a recent trip away to Tullamore to celebrate the 30-year anniversary. They still keep in close contact all these years later, with a busy WhatsApp group involving both the ’91 and the ’94 All-Ireland winning teams.

“When we get back together, we still harp back and talk nonsense about those days which is great,” said Collins. “We meet up occasionally for a few beers, and we have a very proactive WhatsApp group, which can get a bit abusive at times.

“You don’t need a thin skin to be in that WhatsApp group,” Collins laughed. “We do keep in contact and obviously we would bump into each other at club games and county games. I bumped into a number of lads down at the Tailteann Cup final this year.

“Croke Park laid on a lunch this year with all the teams that had won an All-Ireland in the year ending in four. That was a wonderful day out in Dublin with our lads and we bumped into some of the Kerry guys and the Dublin guys so that was a great day.”

Down wanted vindication that year. McGrath didn’t want just one All-Ireland. That 1991 success came from nowhere but in 1994, the Mourne men assigned themselves to history as a team that won two All-Ireland titles. They needed it more than Dublin.

“1991 took so many people, not only in Down but throughout the country, by surprise,” confirmed McGrath. “Down went into that championship and weren’t rated by anyone as having a chance to win the All-Ireland.

“That particular journey was something that was not anticipated at all. Even for the players and the management, it was like we were on a train journey and the train was out of control, but we were going in the right direction.

“Suddenly then we’d won the All-Ireland the journey was over. But in ’94, as it unfolded, all of us had probably more time and more objectivity about it to actually appreciate it more, to savour it a bit more.”