During the course of an astonishing career, Paddy Kerr from Ballybay starred for club, county and province. He won senior championships in two counties (two in Dublin; two in Monaghan) and also captained UCD's 1974 All-Ireland club championship winning side. An integral part of the Oriel County side that made the long-overdue breakthrough with the Ulster championship victory of 1979, he is truly one of Monaghan's all-time greats. Paddy is Deputy Principal at Community College Ballybay. You wouldn't gather it from the modesty with which he goes about his job, but he is a GAA legend in every sense of the term. The former Monaghan and Ulster star has played a big part in the school's emergence as a force to reckon with on the football fields of the county and beyond . . . but first made his own mark on the playing field much, much earlier. He started playing at U14 level with the local Ballybay Pearses in 1962, under the watchful guidance of Francie McAtavey and Malachy Treanor who was the town's postman. Paddy and Ballybay won a minor championship (Maguire Cup) in 1966 (combined with Drumhowan). Paddy played for the Christian Brothers in Monaghan town but spent the last two years of his secondary education at Gormanston where the great Joe Lennon had a big influence on his career. Around about this time, Paddy also did a lot of cross-country running which improved his fitness no end and undoubtedly contributed to his awesome presence on the football field. It was after he went to UCD that his career really began to take off, however. At Belfield the Monaghan man was under the influence of one Eugene McGee and that star-laden UCD side was without doubt the most successful he ever played on (read John O'Keeffe, Ollie Leddy, Kevin Kilmurray et al). On April 28th 1974, Paddy was captain of the team that overcame Clan Na Gael from Roscommon after a replay in the All-Ireland club final at Croke Park. Sigerson Cups were collected back to back in 1973 and '74 at the expense of Maynooth and UCG respectively. It could have been four, as Paddy recalls: "We were beaten by a goal from the last kick of the game by Brendan Lynch in the final one year and we were disqualified another year when Benny Gaughran from Louth was deemed to have been an illegal player." Paddy's medal haul with the college team was nothing short of phenomenal: two Dublin SFCs, three Dublin U21 championships, two All-Ireland club titles (he missed the final in '75) as well as numerous seven-a-sides and other tournaments. Meanwhile, Paddy had begun to play senior with Ballybay Pearses in 1967 and entered the senior intercounty arena with Monaghan during the 1968/69 season. Monaghan were threatening the breakthrough, but time and time again fortune seemed to desert them. Most notably, there was the famous Dr McKenna Cup final when Monaghan succumbed to two last-gasp goals from Derry legend Sean O'Connell at Gavan Duffy Park. "We had won nothing for years and the cup was waiting for us in the Four Seasons Hotel," Paddy recalls ruefully. A McKenna Cup breakthrough did materialise in 1976, though, and the Monaghan team of that era never looked back, adding further McKenna Cups in 1976, '79,'80 and '83 as well as Ulster senior football championships in 1979, '85, and '88. And the national league in 1985 as well. "Monaghan had won absolutely nothing for years beforehand and the first McKenna Cup win in '76 was a massive one - the floodgates more or less opened after that," notes the man who played as great a role as any in putting Monaghan football back on the map. Remember, it was that team that sowed the seeds for the success that was to follow. The real breakthrough came in 1979 when underdogs Monaghan overcame Donegal in the Ulster final. Paddy was half back on the team and still remembers quite vividly the unrestrained celebrations that swept through the border county following the epic win at Clones. He had featured prominently on the Ulster team that reached the Railway Cup final in 1976, only to be beaten by Munster - and a sensational four-goal salvo from Cork maestro Jimmy Barry-Murphy. By the time Monaghan regained the Ulster crown in 1985, Paddy was a substitute. He missed out on the glorious national football league campaign that preceded that championship success due to his increasing involvement at backroom level. "I was a selector but the manager, Sean McCague, asked me to go back onto the playing panel as well. I decided it wouldn't be fair on the other players if I returned in the middle of the league so I came back as a substitute for the championship. We got to the All-Ireland semi-final and took Kerry to a replay." Those were great years for Monaghan GAA - arguably the best ever. Paddy remained on as a selector alongside Sean McCague for a couple of years before succeeding the Scotstown man at the helm for a season. Kerr won county SFCs with Ballybay in 1969 and 1987 (his club playing career spanned 1967-88). He was manager when the Pearses won the county minor title in 1999 and also co-manager along with Gerry Flanagan from Drumhowan when the amalgamation took the MFC a few years earlier. He has extensively managed the team at Community College Ballybay and was joint manager (alongside former county colleague Hugo Clerkin) of the Monaghan VEC side that tasted All-Ireland glory last year. He proudly points to the fact that ten Community College Ballybay players finished that final and that there were a total of 14 on the panel. Furthermore, Community College Ballybay's girls won the Ulster U19 B competition this year - a remarkable feat for a school with a female student population of only 100. Paddy himself played senior for Monaghan from 1968 until 1985. "It was easier to get onto the team in those days than it was to get off it," he quips. Paddy was a decent motivator - although he does admit to having got it badly wrong on one occasion! "I used to tell our lads that the fellas on the other county teams were no better than us, but it was very hard to convince them. I was playing against a lot of these bigger-name players up in Dublin on a regular basis and then I was coming home and playing against lads in Monaghan who I genuinely believe were every bit as good. "But the Kerry team of that era was exceptional and perhaps I wasn't entirely correct when I told the lads they were as good as them! They gave us a real hammering in '79. I marked Pat Spillane that day. He only scored one point but I have to admit he did a lot of damage from play. Kerry were unreal - a playing machine. It was incredible that so many great players came along in one county at the same time. They should have won the five-in-a-row." Not surprisingly, Paddy's family is steeped in GAA tradition. His father Jack played for Dublin and lined out for the famed Sean McDermotts club in the capital (as well as for his native Ballybay). On his mother's side, Johnny and Ownie Marry from Castleblayney both played for Monaghan. Paddy's sons John and Pauric are on the Ballybay senior team (they won the county intermediate championship last year) and both have already been involved with the Monaghan under 21s. His daughter Niamh captained the Monaghan team that won the Ulster U14 ladies championship last year while another daughter, Mairead, has featured for the county at U14 and U16 levels in the past and should be on the minor panel this year. Chips off the not-so-old block, one and all. Reflecting on his playing days and the many great players he had the privilege of lining out alongside, Paddy pays particular tribute to two unsung heroes: "Paul McCarthy from Ballybay, who was a wonderful goalkeeper, and Sean Hughes from Clontibret were two players from within the county who I admired an awful lot. They didn't get the glory of some of the other Monaghan greats, but they were two exceptional footballers in their own right." As indeed was Paddy Kerr. Tweet

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