When someone who has played a significant role in your life dies, it naturally heralds a time for some reflection and their death also holds a mirror up to our own mortality.
The older you are.
The closer that mirror seems to be.
Since hearing of John O’ Mahony’s premature passing earlier this week, at only seventy-one years of age it has evoked and stoked up many memories for his former players, county board people and football supporters in the counties of Mayo, Leitrim and Galway where Johno won a combined eight senior provincial titles from 1987 to 2004.
(Four with Galway, three with Mayo and the most famous one with Leitrim in 1994 – beating the three big guns in Connacht, Roscommon, Galway and Mayo in that campaign ).
John took over as Galway football manager from Val Daly in August 1997 and stayed until the mid-noughties, famously annexing All-Ireland titles in 1998 and 2001 and losing a final to Kerry in 2000 after a replay.
Most of the memories I have of my time as team captain in ’98 and ’99, a player and a panellist with Johno from 1997 to January 2002 are of good days, most of them are, however, not all are, which is totally normal as a player on any county panel.
Indeed one of the most popular and regular questions that I have been asked over the past twenty five years and repeatedly over the past few days is - “Would Galway have won the All-Ireland in 1998 if Johno had not been appointed manager?”
There is not a definitive answer to that question, however, from my examination of the facts the answer is NO.
We would not have won the 1998 final, without the Ballaghdereen man’s arrival across the border.
It was a very bold move by Pat Egan (RIP ) who was county Chairman at the time to go out of the county and down to Mayo to bring Johno in.
However, without a doubt it was a decision that worked.
When Mayo beat Galway in May 1997 in Tuam Stadium, for a myriad of reasons, neither Ja Fallon nor Kevin Walsh were on the Galway squad.
Twelve months later, not only had O’ Mahony the two bucks back on the panel, he had Kevin at midfield and Ja in at centre forward.
Both deservedly won All-Stars in 1998 and it is my opinion that we would not have won the All-Ireland without their massive contributions.
Just think of Fallon’s three stunning points in the second half against Kildare.
Those soaring scores of genuine beauty and class from Ja lifted our team, the Galway crowd and gave us all huge certainty that the monkey on Galway backs since 1966 was about to be flung out over the Canal End and into the bloody canal.
Ja’s display in that final came back to me when I watched Cillian McDaid hammer over his three missiles in the recent victory over Dublin.
Sometimes a point is worth more than just one score and Ja’s points and Cillian’s scores just lifted their teams from possibilities to certainties.
Hopefully McDaid and his teammates can go on and beat Donegal this Sunday and get back to the 2024 final and perhaps break the twenty-three year duck since 2001.
Now that would be fantastic and would surely make Johno smile wryly from the footballing balcony of heaven where he could have a bit of banter about his time with Galway with board officials Pat Egan, Miko Kelly, John Power, Tommy Kelly, Brendan Coffey who have all passed on in the past few years, along with lifelong supporter Dympna Burke who coordinated the pop-up shop in the city in 1998.
Johno was the final piece of the Galway jigsaw
Nobody knows for sure how Johno got Ja (who was involved with rugby at the time ) and Kevin (who had been injured ) back into our squad for the 1998 championship.
However, to be truthful, nobody madly cared, we were just delighted to have them back.
We knew their worth and that our chances of success were lifted enormously by their return. Johno knew that too.
The dogs in the street knew what brilliant footballers and leaders the two lads were and I don’t believe that they would have come back to the Galway football squad unless Johno used his excellent communication and persuasive skills, his managerial experience, not to mention doggedness and persistence to get them back.
Johno was not an easy man to say no to.
If you gave him one reason why you needed to miss training, he gave you five why you shouldn’t.
Johno provided the extra magic sauce to get us from just looking good in the parade ring to romping into the winner’s enclosure.
John readily admitted that he knew when he was approached by the Galway county board in 1997 and accepted their offer – that there was a fantastic collection of footballers in Galway.
He had come across the older lads in the squad with Leitrim in 1993 and 1994 (when Leitrim defeated Galway twice ) and observed the Galway team that won the Connacht title in 1995 and were not too far off Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final that year under Bosco McDermott.
As a teacher in St. Nathy’s College, Johno also knew about the up and coming young guns like the two Joyces, Deccie and Tom Meehan, Michael Donnellan, Michael Cloherty and Divo (John Divilly ) from the St. Jarlaths Hogan Cup win of 1994 who were coached to that success by Joe Long. He would have heard of Savo (Derek Savage ) too from St. Pat’s CBS.
Johno was a very strategic planner and thinker and he knew and believed that if he got his hands on the talent in Galway that he had the managerial experience and expertise to guide the county to All-Ireland success.
And he was correct.
First time I met Johno was a frosty encounter
My first meeting with John O’ Mahony was a very frosty and rather uncomfortable encounter.
I had missed a few of John’s first sessions with the squad in August 1997, as I was preparing diligently as club captain with Corofin for the county final against Dunmore McHales in the first week in September.
We won the final on the Sunday and after county training the following Tuesday I waited back to let Johno know that my girlfriend (now wife ) and I were heading to Houston in Texas and on down to New Orleans in Louisiana for two weeks to see her brother (Shane ) who worked in the oil business at the time and have a holiday.
Johno was not at all impressed with our holiday plans and I clearly remember him giving me a right roasting in a one-on-one outside the dressing rooms in Monivea well after training had finished.
The rather cold conversation ran along these lines;
“It is not a great start for us Ray, is it? – You have missed five or six sessions already with your club commitments and now you are going to miss another five or six training sessions with your holidays and probably more if Corofin go well. I am trying to pick a panel of committed men here to have a tilt at winning an All-Ireland and this is not a good start. Unless you are committed to this panel……”
The rest did not need to be articulated.
I was really angry at that moment with him and responded by pointing out that when I had a booked the trip John was not even Galway manager (that quip landed well ), and that I had meticulously booked the dates to fit in with the Galway county championship and that Corofin were going to go all the way to the All-Ireland final and win it too.
We ended our conversation with Johno telling me in very simple and cold terms that if there was any lack of commitment on my side – that our relationship would be a short one.
And me telling him that he had no worries on that score, and that he did not need to question my commitment to Galway.
On reflection I believe that Johno was just laying down the law.
He wanted to start with a firm hand and leave no player in any doubt of what he expected of them.
Another example was a few weeks later when Kevin Walsh our all-star midfielder could not make our 8pm training as he was on Garda duty.
Johno told Kevin – “No problem. What time are you finished at? And I will meet you in Monivea. So Johno met Kevin about 11pm and trained him in a one-on-one session until well after midnight under lights.
It was very rare that someone missed training after that episode.
Take the opportunities that are presented to you
Johno won an All-Ireland U21 medal with Mayo at corner back in 1974 and as a school teacher at St. Nathy’s College he was introduced to team management from a young age.
He took up the reins of senior intercounty management very young and replaced Liam O’ Neill as Mayo senior manager in 1987, when he was only thirty-four, and led them to their first All-Ireland final in 1989 since 1951.
Billy Morgan and Dinny Allen put a halt to Mayo’s gallop in that final and it was a definite regret for John that he did not get to lead Mayo to an All-Ireland senior success.
I joked with him once or twice on holidays whether he would swap our two All-Ireland successes in ’98 and ’01 for one victory with Mayo?
He never gave a concrete answer, however, winning the Sam Maguire with Mayo was something that he would dearly have loved to have achieved.
Johno was a meticulous planner and he believed that the small things were the big things.
If I was meeting Johno for a chat as team captain – and he said 6.30pm, he would be there twenty minutes early.
For training at 7pm in Tuam or Monivea, John would be on site by 6.15pm and this was in the 1997 – 2002 era when the manager arrived at training with a boot full of O’ Neills footballs, cones, bibs, tape, stopwatches, flip charts, writing pads and twenty water bottles.
And of-course a measuring wheel to clock our distance runs.
Johno had the immediate respect of every Galway player on our squad when he strode into our lives in 1997 especially in light of his managerial brilliance in taking Leitrim from the doldrums of Connacht to provincial champions in 1994.
If he could lead Leitrim to only their second Connacht title ever, what could he do with us?
Johno was a believer
Johno believed in the players at his disposal, regardless of what county they were from.
We were having some banter on our team holiday in Cape Town after the 2000 All-Ireland final and John got very serious and told a few of us that if Leitrim had beaten Galway in 1995 (we fell over the line with a last minute point ) – that they would have won the 1995 All-Ireland.
I asked him was he being serious?
And he looked me straight in the eye and told me that was their plan.
“We intended on winning Connacht and going all the whole way.”
I remember thinking he was delusional – however he was correct to have that conviction.
If there are not believers at the top table, if the leaders of the tribe don’t believe, then how can the followers be expected to believe?
Johno’s mantra for us in the 1998 season – was to “Take the opportunity of a lifetime, in the lifetime of the opportunity.”
He used to drive that point home consistently and John also harnessed his very close friendship with Tommie Gorman (RIP ) to ensure that we had some terrific video footage of family and friends and clips from games to keep us on the right track.
When I think about the passing of John O’ Mahony, I am sad that he is gone.
However, I am proud to have known him and worked with him. When I think of his football legacy, it is a splendid one.
Rather than mourn John’s death – football people in Mayo, Leitrim and Galway should rejoice in a life lived to the full.
Eight senior provincial titles (4 with Galway, 3 with Mayo and Leitrim in 1994 ).
All-Ireland finals with Mayo in 1989, Galway ’98, ’00 and ’01
How many footballing lives, and footballer’s family lives has John influenced in a genuinely positive way over the past thirty-five years.
If John O’ Mahony had not arrived in Galway in August 1997, we would not have been All-Ireland champions twelve months later.
That is a fact.
Wherever Johno was as a football manager or coach – he strived to help that team to take the opportunity of its’ lifetime, in the lifetime of their opportunity.
To Gerardine who was John’s closest confidante and best friend and a powerhouse in the background, and his five daughters we offer our sincere sympathy on your huge loss.
As you know better than anyone, your husband and dad was one of the very best.
