One of the longest famines in Irish sport finally ended last July when Westmeath captured the Leinster senior football title for the first time. One of the stars of the success was young full back Donal O'Donoghue who recently spoke Maroon and White. Saturday, July 24 2004 will forever be known as Liberation Day for Westmeath football. One-hundred and twenty years of famine and frustration ended for the Lake County when the bravest and most committed group of players the county has ever produced finally got the better of Laois to become Leinster senior football champions for the first time. Scenes of unbridled joy greeted the final whistle as thousands of maroon and white clad supporters raced onto the Croke Park pitch to greet their history-making heroes. And while the celebrations came to an unexpected halt against Derry three weeks later, the Westmeath players could still hold their heads high after a remarkable summer of achievement. "It was a fantastic year," enthuses Mullingar Shamrocks clubman Donal O'Donoghue who belied his tender years with a series of outstanding displays at full back. "During the league, the results weren't going our way and the signs weren't looking good for the championship. But after we beat Mayo to preserve our Division 1 status, things started to fall into place. We beat Offaly in the first round of the championship and everything seemed to snowball after that." For Westmeath, the success took the best part of a decade to fashion. It all began with the appointment of Meath man Mattie Kerrigan as senior manager in 1993. Kerrigan brought a level of professionalism which hadn't been seen in Westmeath before and it wasn't long before results started to improve. But the first real breakthrough came in 1995 when Luke Dempsey delivered an historic All-Ireland minor title. When Dempsey repeated the feat at under 21 level four years later, supporters sensed that senior success wasn't far away. In 2001, Westmeath reached the All-Ireland quarter-final after a wonderful run in the qualifiers. But it took the arrival of Kerry legend Padi O Se and his able assistant Tomas O Flaharta to provide the final subtle touches which were required to deliver that elusive provincial senior success. O Se arrived in Westmeath in November of last year amid a blaze of publicity and hype. A good run in the O'Byrne Cup culminated in yet another one-point defeat to neighbours Meath in front of 15,000 spectators at Cusack Park in Mullingar. Despite that loss, hopes were high that Westmeath could make an impact in Division 1A of the National League. But after drawing with Cork in their opening game, the midlanders endured a torrid time of it and were facing relegation until they recorded their only win of the campaign against Mayo in their final outing to retain their top flight status. "When Paidi first took over, the hype was unbelievable and the supporters were expecting us to win every game," O'Donoghue recalls. "We were getting phenomenal crowds at our games and you could feel the expectations soaring with each game in the O'Byrne Cup. But after we lost a couple of games, the hype died down fairly quickly. A lot of people were losing faith and by the time we played Offaly in the championship, no one was expecting much from us." As it transpired, the Offaly game marked a major turning point in Westmeath's season. The quiet build-up seemed to suit the Lake County as they came out with all guns blazing to lead by 0-7 to 0-3 at the interval. And despite having All-Star midfielder Rory O'Connell sent off just after the restart, they showed tremendous resilience to hold on for a 0-11 to 0-10 victory, their first over the Faithful County since 1949. Few gave Westmeath much chance of inflicting a first championship defeat on Dublin in 37 years in the Leinster quarter-final, but after a shaky start, they came good in the second half to win by 0-14 to 0-12. That set the scene for a semi-final joust with fellow-minnows Wexford and thanks to second half goals from Shane Colleary and Dessie Dolan, they emerged victorious on a 2-15 to 1-14 scoreline. "The Wexford game was a real worry for us. After beating Offaly and Dublin, the big fear was that we would relax against Wexford and not give them the respect that they deserved. But we came through without playing that well. When questions were asked of us in the second half, we answered them. It was the same against Offaly and Dublin," the 21-year-old says. In the week before their first Leinster final appearance in 55 years, Westmeath received a major boost when Rory O'Connell won a High Court injunction against the three-month ban he had been handed after his dismissal against Offaly. Despite the Athlone man's availability, though, Westmeath entered the final against reigning champions Laois as rank outsiders. In what proved to be a terrific, free-flowing affair, Westmeath recovered from a nervous start to edge in front with time almost up. But a last gasp equalizing point from Chris Conway earned Laois a second bite at the cherry, the final score being 0-13 each. The popular opinion afterwards was that Paidi O Se's charges had left the Delaney Cup behind them, but they proved this wasn't the case by winning the replay on a 0-12 to 0-10 scoreline. The replay was similar to the drawn encounter in that it took Westmeath a long time to settle. They had to wait all of 23 minutes for Alan Mangan to open their account but once that went over, Westmeath took off. Further points from Denis Glennon, Mangan, Dessie Dolan and Michael Ennis in a devastating spell propelled them into a 0-7 to 0-5 lead at half-time. The Westmeath scoring blitz continued after the break with Fergal Wilson, Dolan, Brian Morley and Mangan all finding the target to stretch the lead to 0-12 to 0-5. However, the scores dried up for Westmeath in the final 20 minutes or so, during which Laois reduced the deficit to three points. Then, with the game in injury-time, every Westmeath heart in the 38,500 attendance skipped a beat when Kevin Fitzpatrick's late piledriver flashed across Gary Connaughton's goal. Ross Munnelly pulled back a late point, but it wasn't enough to deny Westmeath a victory the county had waited over a century to see. "We always felt we could beat Laois," notes O'Donoghue who was voted RTE man of the match in the first round win over Offaly and in the drawn Leinster final. "The fact that no one outside Westmeath gave us a chance suited us perfectly. If anything, we were more confident after the drawn match. There was nobody talking about having missed the boat or anything like that. We had the backs to mark their key men and we had the forwards to get the scores. There was a fierce will-to-win in the team,. As Paidi said afterwards, we weren't going to leave Croke Park without the cup," he adds. Donal, whose uncle Paddy was one of Kildare's greatest full backs, admits that he didn't realise how much the Leinster title win meant to Westmeath fans until the next day when over 10,000 people thronged the streets of Mullingar for the homecoming. "I've grown up watching Westmeath winning Leinster and All-Ireland titles at underage level, so it wasn't something entirely new to me. But when you see what it meant to the older supporters, it really brings it home to you. You've got to appreciate a win like this when it comes along." After the Leinster final, Paidi O Se immediately switched his focus to the All-Ireland series. The players were back training on the Monday night after the Leinster final replay. Beating Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-final appeared very achievable but for some reason unknown to O'Donoghue, Westmeath slumped to a shock 0-13 to 2-9 defeat. "It was a disappointing end to the year," says the 2000 Leinster minor medalist, whose own preparations for the game were not helped by the fact that he had to sit an exam in UCD a few hours earlier. "I really don't know what happened to us against Derry. When we went ahead near the end, I thought we would pull away from them. But we weren't able to keep the momentum going and in fairness to Derry, they finished very strongly. "A lot of people have said that the Derry game may have been one game too many for us after the tough games we had beforehand. Others were saying we couldn't come down from the high of the Leinster final, but I don't think that was the case at all. The big problem we had against Derry was that we weren't used to their style of play. It was the first time we came up against a team with big forwards and they proved to be a real handful for us." O'Donoghue welcomes the decision by Paidi O Se to remain on as manager and is looking forward to the prospect of Westmeath making even greater progress in 2005. "We're delighted that Paidi has decided to stay on. He has done it all as a player and manager and you couldn't but have the height of respect for him. "The aim now is to do even better this year. Last year was just a stepping stone as far as I'm concerned. All the other teams in Leinster will be gunning for us but I'm certain we will be ready for them. We have no intention of resting on our laurels," he concludes. Tweet

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