Carolan, Mick
June 15, 1996
MICK CAROLAN LOOKS BACK ON A BRILLIANT CAREER
Thank God for level playing pitches, for a wee bit of equilibrium about the place. Lets rejoice in the new order of things on the gaelic football scene where anyone of possibility ten counties now have the wherewithal to rise to the heady heights of All-Ireland champions.
The days of the Kerry-Dublin domination and their annual coveting of the Sam Maguire Cup have long since past. Brilliance was the order of the day but the All-Ireland competition back then too often smacked of a closed shop. Too often the green and gold and the splash of blue were left adorning the Holy Grail from one year to another. All has changed, changed utterly, a less than terrible scenario is born.
As the 1996 football championship campaigns gather pace a type of exciting and refreshing vista is already making an appearance.
Up north Cavan are shaping up like a team that could rock a few boats while west of the Shannon Roscommon have the look of the veritable bete noirs. Can Kerry return from down south? Meanwhile Kildare are keeping an unusually low profile. They're not without hope and the Dermot Earley - led troupe has it fans. Mick Carolan is one such fan.
A former star footballer with his native Kildare in times past, the bould Mick is these days much better recognised as one of the boys in the blue rather than as one of the boys in white as Kildare and not the Garda Siochana are best recognised. Over the years he has become equally as comfortable in uniform as he was in a football jersey.
Attached tot the Force's Dublin Metropolitan north division, Mick is based at Santry Garda station where he is Chief Superintendent with responsibility for all Garda operations extending to Cabra, Blanchardstown, Finglas, Coolock, Swords, Malahide, Raheny, Clontarf, Howth, Santry, Ballymun and Whitehall.
Chief Superintendent Mick Carolan is kept very busy, as busy as he ever was on the field of play way back when he was on inspirational, towering colossus with his home club Athy or his beloved Kildare, pretenders to the Leinster title on so often.
A native of Levitstown (pitched half way between Athy and Carlow town), Mick was born and reared on a diet of gaelic football but he wasn't complaining. He was as a gasun to the manor born, so to speak.
Raised in what was football-country only, the young Carolan may have looked south towards the Castledermott hurling heartland with curious eyes but he never did actually strike a sliothar in anger though given his natural athleticism and balance and aptitude for sport one hazards a guess that he could have also made a name for himself in the way the likes of Tommy Carew did. Who knows?
As it was, Mick Carolan was almost fated to fulfil his innate football potential. He was naturally good at the big ball game and in the county of his birth he was treated to his fill of it.
Mick played at all grades of football for his county, right from juvenile, minor and up to senior inter-county standard, a level of football which really produced the best from the would-be garda.
His first game for the Kildare senior county team was in 1957 when Wicklow provided the opposition in an ordinary O'Byrne Cup tie. Another game in the same competition followed, again as a tireless half-back.
Sport was in Carolan's blood, things sporting were coming out of his ears as a youngster. His father was a very good cyclist for instance and would often head off to Dublin on training spins and come back with a trophy or two from some competition or other at the end of the week. Mick confesses, modestly one assumes, that his father was a lot better at the cycling then he himself was at gaelic football but retrospectively he would have to be said that the jury is still out on that one.
A graduate of Levitstown National School where the hugely influential Father Brady was superb football coach and mentor, Mick Carolan was an instant hit in the school and street leagues, his boundless energy and will to win making a big impression among his peers and his supervisors.
"I remember Father Brady used to make a big deal of us. He really introduced football to us and whenever we played in the leagues he'd have us parading ip the streets of Castledermott behind a band. That kind of thing made a huge impression on all us young fellas then", remembers Mick some forty-odd years later.
A natural born Gaelic footballer with stars in his eyes from the time he was old enough to accompany his father to major matches, young Carolan was eager to perfect his sport and in truth he made a good fist of just that.and in double quick time too.
He starred with the Athy juveniles and thereafter at minor and at intermediate level. He helped himself to county championship medals in all three grades into the bargain but even greater honours were to come.
Mick Carolan enjoyed a lengthy, if oftimes frustrating career with the Kildare senior teams. All told he wore the jersey with pride and distinguished himself in a variety of positions on successive teams between 1957 and 1975, an amazing eighteen year stretch.
Over the course of his career, he won two Railway Cup medals with Leinster and on the county front helped himself to four O'Byrne Cup medals. They were the highs. But what was the nadir?
"That must have been losing four Leinster senior championship finals, one of which to Meath in 1966 was especially disappointing", he reflected with no little nostalgia but with minimum of grief.
In addition, he appeared for Kildare in the National League final of 1958 but lost out to the Kevin Heffernan/Ollie Freaney - powered Dublin side. Another league final ten years later ended in similar heartbreaking fashion when Louth, this time spoiled the party for Carolan and Co.
Playing devils advocate, one is curious as to know what was missing on those Kildare teams. The infamous 'bottle'?
"In 1968 we had the benefit of under 21 All-Ireland medalists like Tommy Carew, Pat Mangan, Jack Donnelly, Joe McTeague, Kevin Kelly, Olly Crinnigan, Pat Malley, Pa Connolly and Pat Dunny coming on board the senior team and I fancied us to do something around that period and then again we had quite a good team previous to that in '58 but we lost out to Offaly.
They were good times and Mick remembers in particular when Pa Connolly, Des Marron and Toss McCarthy and Danny Flood travelled up O'Connell street en route to Croke Park in an open topped Morris Minor car a 'la President Kennedy.
"Sometimes I felt as a team we just weren't committed enough but perhaps I'm wrong on that score. At other times I didn't think we were as finely tuned or as adequately prepared for those championship matches as other teams such as Dublin for instance. They seemed to be more professional".
Reflecting back on the singular highlight from what was still an incredible inter-county career, Mick reckons that the National League semi-final tussle with Tyrone in 1958 just about shades it. He recalls how he was pitted against the likes of the Devlins and Iggy Jones of Tyrone and yet he managed to come through the test with reputation enhanced.
"That match probably gave me the most satisfaction of all. It was my first time in Croke Park, I was only seventeen and there I was playing centre-back in such an important and high profile match".
And the most singularly, lowest point of his esteemed career?
"That would have to be the time we lost to Meath in the 1966 Leinster Championship final. There was only a point in it at the end and it was a very big disappointment for us all. I felt very disappointed also for our supporters because they spent so long waiting for success".
Looking back over his time with Kildare, Mick is anxious not to point fingers or try to make lame excuses. He does, however, believe that on the occasions Kildare came close to making the breakthrough at provincial or national (league) level, lady luck just wasn't on their side. Nothing more, nothing less. That's the way he perceived it.
Saddened by the apparent demise of the art of high-fielding yet still very much a fan of modern game, Mick believes that Kildare have now a good chance making that long awaited breakthrough so yearned for provided the confidence, commitment, attitude and professional approach is right, they could well make a breakthrough this year.
He doesn't have any truck for the invented hype about Kildare not having the 'bottle' for the battle in the white heat of championship time. They need a bit of luck a win, a trophy of sorts, a breakthrough though, he warns. I believe that the Laois match on Sunday will be a hard championship game. Laois have always provided formidable opposition for Kildare teams over the years and Sunday's encounter will be no different. Over the years Mick has obviously retained his passion and enthusiasm for gaelic football, but would this gra for the game every prompt him to apply for the hottest job in Kildare football, assuming Dermot Earley was no longer in place?
"I would have a deep interest provided that everything could be arranged around professional lines with harmony and co-operation existing between all personnel associated with the management group. There would have to be total and absolute commitment. I wish Kildare well in 1996. They are as good as the rest."
Taken from Hogan Stand magazine
15th June 1996
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