There was sad news for followers of Roscommon GAA this week when it emerged that Benny Tansey, a native of Ballyforan and former footballer and hurler, has passed away.
Tansey, though born on the Galway side of the bridge in Ballyforan, played his Gaelic games in Roscommon, lining out for St. Aidan's in football and for Four Roads in the hurling.
In 1974 he won an All-Ireland junior hurling medal with Roscommon and that was followed up with a Railway Cup medal playing for Connacht. In 1977 he won a county senior title with Four Roads and went on to win a Connacht championship with his club in the same year.
In the late seventies, he moved to Navan where he worked in the Gardai. There, he joined Navan O'Mahony's club where he managed to win a lot of county titles. During his playing career in Meath he lined out for the Royals at Inter-county level in both codes usually at midfield or centre-forward.
Tributes were paid to Tansey last Sunday in the shape of a minutes silence before both Roscommon's NFL Division four encounters with Wicklow at Aughrim and the hurler's NHL Division 3B match with Monaghan.
There was also a fitting tribute to the man on RTE radio by commentator Brian Carty.

Courtesy of the Roscommon Herald
29th March 2011 Tweet

Most Read Stories