The late Gerry Scahill It was with great sadness I learned of the death of my great friend Gerry Scahill, Palmerstown, Dublin and Kilmurray, Castlerea County Roscommon which took place at Lucan Lodge Nursing home on April 9th, 2006. I first got to know Gerry when he came to work in Flynn's, Main St., Castlerea in the early 1950s. He used to cycle into work every morning, along with his great friend James Raftery, Vale View who worked in Martin Foley's Boot Store and the late Tom Kilkenny from Castleeehan who worked in Byron's Drapery. He was an outstanding footballer and gave great service to his club St Mary's Kilmurray from 1953 to 1969. He was very stylish, had a great pair of hands, had great control of the ball when soloing and he could score a point with both feet from any angle. He played in the forwardline and with his great friend James Raftery (they were called the terrible twins at the time) tormented many a defence. I first played against him when St Mary's played Tarmon in the West minor championship in Ballinlough on August 14th, 1953. We became great friends. A friendship that carried on even after he moved to Dublin. He would always keep in contact and would always enquire how the clubs were doing in the west and of course how Roscommon was coming along. He won many honours with St Mary's which included three West Roscommon junior championships medals in 1956/59/62, three West Roscommon league medals in 1957/59/61, a county junior championship medal in 1959 and an Inter Divisional1 Insurance cup medal with West Roscommon in 1957. The last game he played for St Mary's was in the West Roscommon junior championship against old rivals Western Gaels whom they defeated by 2-2 to 1-4 in 1969. While he played for Roscommon senior team against Fermanagh in a tournament game in Castlerea on Easter Sunday 1960, he never became a regular and to those of us who new of his talent we found that hard to understand but in those days it was harder to get on the Roscommon team than get off it. He was a true sportsman both on and of the field and while he took many a hard knock in his time, he never once retaliated. He will be remembered for his class and speed and above all for his sportsman-ship. He will be sadly missed by his many friends who played with and against him. To his wife, Frances; daughters, Miriam, Carmel, Gillian and Lisa; sons-in-law, sisters, brothers, sisters-in-law, grandchildren, nieces and nephews I extend my deepest sympathy. Courtesy of the Roscommon Herald 27 June 2006 Tweet

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