Sometimes Tom Darcy wishes he was 10 years younger. If he was, he would
almost certainly have played a part in Westmeath’s historic Leinster
football championship success in 2004.
It’s widely acknowledged that the seeds for that breakthrough victory
were sown a decade earlier during Mattie Kerrigan’s tenure as Westmeath
manager. In 1992, just a few weeks before Westmeath were due to play in
the first round of the Leinster championship, the Summerhill man agreed
to take on one of the least desirable positions in inter-county football.
Westmeath beat Carlow before going on to give the Mick O’Dwyer-managed Kildare a big fright in the provincial semi-final. Westmeath continued to improve over the next few years with the highpoint of the Kerrigan era being the sensational National Football League quarter-final victory over All-Ireland champions Derry on Easter Sunday 1994. But sadly for Darcy, his Westmeath career was coming to a close around then and he would never know what it was like to experience the thrill of winning a Leinster championship in the maroon jersey.
“I was delighted for the lads involved, especially for the likes
of Paul Conway and Rory O’Connell who were starting out around the
same time as I was finishing up. I would loved to have played in 2004
or even in 2001 when Westmeath reached the All-Ireland quarter-final and
were unlucky to lose to Meath after a replay.
“But that’s the way it goes and you’ve got to accept
the hand you’ve been dealt. There are hundreds of other footballers
who never won anything with Westmeath, but at least now we can all say
that we saw the county winning a Leinster title.”
Widely regarded as one of the most capable defenders the county has ever
produced, Rosemount clubman Darcy’s senior career with Westmeath
spanned from 1983 to ’94. For much of that time, Westmeath languished
in the lower divisions and Tom’s only reward was an O’Byrne
Cup winners’ medal in 1988.
A year after he was overlooked for the Westmeath minor football team,
Darcy made his senior debut away to Donegal in a National League clash
in October 1983. Westmeath lost the game 1-5 to 0-12, but Tom acquitted
himself well by holding Martin McHugh scoreless from play.
The Lake County were managed at the time by Paddy Buckley from Drumraney,
while the training duties were carried out by Joe Mulligan, a brother
of Offaly 1971 and ’72 All-Ireland winner Eugene. “We used
to train in the Carmelite College in Moate. The training was fairly tough
– certainly a lot tougher than what I’d been used to with
the club,” Darcy recalls.
Despite finishing bottom of Division 3 in 1983/84, Westmeath pulled off
a huge shock in the 1984 Centenary Cup when they defeated the All-Ireland
champions Dublin by 0-7 to 0-5 at Cusack Park. Tom missed the game due
to a hand injury he sustained in a work accident but was back for the
next round when Westmeath came a cropper against Wexford in Wexford Park.
The Birr-based butcher points out that Westmeath’s attempts to make
progress during that period were stifled by emigration. “We lost
a lot of good footballers through emigration that time, including Willie
Lowry and Brian McCabe. Having said that, I don’t think we were
as badly hit as the hurlers who lost nearly all of their best players.
It was no coincidence that Westmeath had the best football and hurling
teams in New York at the time.”
The O’Byrne Cup win of 1988 was arguably the highlight of the 1980s
from a Lake County football perspective. Westmeath beat Laois in the final
after extra-time and seemed poised to make a big impact in that year’s
Leinster championship. But as Tom ruefully reflects, it didn’t work
out like that.
“At that time, the O’Byrne Cup was played just before the
championship and we were on a real high after beating a strong Laois team
in the final. But some of us may have lost the run of ourselves and we
got an awful land when Longford beat us in the first round of the championship
in Pearse Park. It was a real pity because we had a nice bit of momentum
behind us going into that game and there was no way of getting it back
once you were beaten in the championship.”
The early 1990s were among the bleakest years in the history of Westmeath
football. In 1990, Westmeath took two unmerciful beatings from Galway
and Offaly in Ballinasloe and Moate respectively.
“It was difficult to see any light at the end of the tunnel,”
Tom remembers.
“Things had got so bad that we were struggling to put a team out
on the field. There was a terrible lack of interest. We had good players,
and had been unlucky to lose to Offaly in the 1989 Leinster championship
in Tullamore, but the interest just wasn’t there.
“Because Dublin and Meath were untouchable in Leinster at the time, I think a lot of the other teams in the province lost hope, including Westmeath. It took Kildare to break that monopoly and by doing so, they opened the door for the likes of Laois and Westmeath to come through and win Leinster titles.”
Of course, the arrival of Mattie Kerrigan changed attitudes in Westmeath
football forever. The team’s glorious run to the 1994 National League
semi-final captured the imagination of the entire county and was the catalyst
for the All-Ireland minor and under 21 successes in 1995 and ’99,
as well as for the Leinster senior triumph in 2004.
“Mattie united the whole county. He got the players, supporters
and the county board behind him. I’d say the ’94 league was
the first year we started to get a bit of luck. John Murray scored a last-minute
goal to beat Wicklow, and then Dermot Ryan saved a penalty in the last-minute
against Longford to hand us the Division 4 title and send us through to
the quarter-final.
“We then went on to shock Derry before losing narrowly to Meath
in the league semi-final. I missed a lot of that campaign through suspension,
but I can still remember the huge reception we got in Kinnegad on our
return from Croke Park. It was as if we had just won a Leinster or All-Ireland
title.”
“I think that was the turning point for Westmeath football. It
created a feel good factor and helped to get the youngsters interested.”
Tom’s last appearance for Westmeath was in the 1994 Leinster championship
when Westmeath suffered a surprise 1-9 to 0-13 loss to a Stefan White-inspired
Louth at Pairc Chiarain in Athlone. It was one of several setbacks Westmeath
would suffer before the Delaney Cup was finally captured three years ago.
“The defeat to Louth was a big disappointment because we genuinely
felt we could do well in the championship that year. It reminded me a
bit of 1988 when we lost to Longford after winning the O’Byrne Cup.
But at least the 1994 league wasn’t a false dawn.
“After missing a good part of the league, I was recalled at full
back for the Louth game. It wasn’t a nice way to bow out, but we
had good young defenders like John O’Brien and Michael Broder coming
through and they deserved to play.”
Tom’s club career proved to be much more successful. He won championships
at under 16 and minor level and played in three under 21 finals before
captaining Rosemount to a famous senior football championship triumph
in 1989. A 1-9 to 0-5 victory over Athlone in the final ended a 36-year
wait for Flanagan Cup honours for the black and ambers.
Rosemount went on to contest two more finals in 1993 and ’95, losing
both of them to Mullingar Shamrocks. “Mullingar had a super team
at the time and were very hard to beat once they got into a final. We
would have had a far better chance of beating them if we had met them
in a quarter-final or semi-final,” Tom says.
Darcy also played in the 2001 intermediate final which the Roses lost to St. Malachy’s. He continued to line out for the club at junior ’B’ level until 2004, but came out of retirement to help Longford win an All-Ireland Masters (Over 40s) title the following year. He was joined on that team by fellow county men John ’Jockey’ Healy, Willie Finerty, Ollie Rogers and Padraig ’Amby’ Fogarty.
“I was working in Longford at the time and was asked if I’d
be interested in playing for them. There was no rule preventing players
from other counties playing with them, so I said I’d give it a go.
“I must say I was surprised by how seriously teams take Masters
football and it was obviously a big thrill to beat a very strong Down
team in the final. It was a great way to finish my playing career.”
Married to Catherine, Tom has two children, Stephen and Sinead. Stephen has followed in his father’s footsteps by donning the famed black and amber jersey and was a key member of the under 21 team that upset the odds to reach last year’s under 21 final.
Like all Rosemount supporters, Tom has been greatly saddened by the club’s
recent demise which culminated in relegation to the junior ranks for the
first time since 1928 last year.
“It was a huge disappointment for everyone associated with the club
and I’d say there are some supporters who still can’t quite
believe it. But it has happened and the players have got to forget about
last year and concentrate on winning this year’s junior championship.
Rosemount reached last year’s under 21 final so there is obviously
young talent in the club,” concludes Tom who, as he embarks on a
new management career with Ballymore, will always be remembered as one
of Rosemount and Westmeath’s finest players.