Paul Fitzsimons was laid ot rest in his native Maghera this morning.

We reprint an interview carried out with the former Cavan great by Breffni Blue Yearbook away back in early 1997.

In the autumn of 1952, Cavan made another trip to Croke Park. It had been three years since they last played in an All-Ireland final, when they lost to Meath, and four years since they were champions. This time they were again to meet the Royal county in the final and a hype unexperienced previously was beginning to surround the occasion. The All-Ireland final of 1952 was building up to be something of a mouthwatering encounter, writes Mark Sheehan.

At Cavan's training camp in Ballyconnell, where the squad had come together two weeks before the big day in Dublin, the players were beginning to anticipate a tough match against the Leinster champions. Both teams knew each other better than most All-Ireland finalists. It was a derby atmosphere, passion, rivalry. Brothers played on opposing sides. The players knew each other nearly too well. On the morning before the game it rained hard and the ground was soft as the Cavan team went onto the field. The minor game had to be abandoned and the conditions didn't make the senior game any easier.

In the end, the conditions added to the contest, allowing few mistakes to be left unpunished. The game ended level, Cavan etching 2-4 onto the scoreboard and Meath 1-7. A meeting two weeks later suffered with similar weather and ended with only four points between the sides, Cavan pointing nine while Meath could only manage to score five points. Cavan secured their fifth and their last All-Ireland title.

Paul Fitzsimons, popular and quiet, was one of Cavan's midfielders on the first day. Had to be taken off after a while and in the replay appeared as a substitute replacing JJ Cassidy.

The championship campaign had not been easy for the Ulstermen, but then what championship campaign ever is. Fitzsimons had fought hard against Cork to fashion a passage through to the final and worked as rigorously as any of the squad in preparation for the All-Ireland final. In his time he had played football across the border in Meath, had trained as an underage player with Meath clubs.

As a result, he knew several of the Meath team who would be part of the opposition. Mattie McDonnell, Meath's corner forward, lived only a short distance down the road from his home, close to the Meath border ,and he had played with Paddy Connell, one of the opposing midfielders, as a minor footballer.

Meath, at the time, were beginning to establish themselves as a footballing power in Leinster. They had only won their first All-Ireland title in 1949 and had lost to Mayo in 1951. Knowing the Meath players so well, nerves didn't figure so much in the pre-match build up even though the Cavan squad afforded the Royal team a lot of respect.

"Meath from 1949 until 1954 was one of the best teams that I ever remember seeing seeing play," Paul Fitzsimons recalls.

"They talk about the great teams from Kerry in the '70s and the great Galway teams, and the great Down teams, but to my mind Meath were as good as any of them. They had some mighty footballers. Even though when you know some of the players well you might tend to take them for granded, they were mighty players."

As it turned out, the situation helped to relax both sides for the final, neither suffering severely from pre-match nerves, neither finding their minds uncontrollably fixed on the imminent game ahead of them. For Cavan there was good craic to be had at training camp.

"At that time all of the teams who were preparing to play in a final used to get together for collective training, so that meant that you didn't think too much of the game at all," explains Paul.

"You were too busy kicking football and training and when you weren't doing that you were playing cards or playing tricks on the boys around you. The game hardly dawned on you at all. There were no nerves, there wasn't the same fuss made over an All-Ireland Final as there is now." Paul already had a medal from '48 and has five Ulster Championships and four McKenna Cup medals under his belt.

Paul Fitzsimons is now retired from the football pitch. He took the decision in the mid-sixties, it was simply time for him to hang up his boots. Today, he is President of Maghera GFC.

Paul chuckles at the thought. "That is the sort of thing that is given to old men," he says, "lads that are too old for anything else. I turned it down before because of that."

Paul in fact has occuppied every position in the administrative side of the club at some stage or another, and also enjoyed some success as a coach at a few clubs in Cavan. He had success training neighbouring clubs like Munterconnaught, Virginia Blues and Ramor United.

The game of football back in the old days, they say, was very much different to the game played today. The style now is different, the pace is different, and some of those who remember the old style claim the game simply isn't as good as it used to be.

Paul who acted as a selector with Cavan during the 1950s and 60s, does not agree wholly with that theory. It has changed, he says, and has become less physical and there is an over-emphasis on running and hand-passing, but the game itself is still a good one.

"One thing that I do regret about the modern game is the rariety nowadays of the catch. There was never anything better to see in a game of football than a man going up and catching a ball. They are taking that out of it now. Players are being advised to punch it and knock it down and pass and pass again so, as a spectacle, football is not as good as it was in my day."

The problem which he sees in the game today is the tendency for players to pass too much. it effects the flow of the game, he says, with opportunities to score often squandered because of one pass too many.

"The only team I think that can master that type of game," he adds "is Meath because when they get the ball within 35 yards or 30 yards from the goal they will always have a man who is fit to kick it over the bar, which other teams haven't.

"Meath play to their own strength. They use the passing when it is really necessary and then they kick it when that is more important. Other teams pass and pass and pass and then end up losing it."

Was that the reason why a Meath team of relative youth and inexperience managed to win the All-Ireland last year? Or was it their physical approach to the game? And Paul Fitzsimons should know a thing or two about physical play. His ability as a referee saw him take charge of many inter county games. On that point Paul disagrees that Meath are too physical a side and dismisses the notion that they are a dirty county. "They are physical and they always were physical, and as far as I remember before I ever started to play, they were a physical team." he says.

"But one thing that I will say about them, and it worked in their favour this year, is that Meath have never changed their style of football. Other counties like Cavan have changed and it hasn't done them any good."

In the last five years Cavan football has begun to make an impact in Ulster. In 1995 they appeared in an Ulster final for the first time in 12 years and last year the county under 21 xv got to the All-Ireland final where they were beaten by Kerry. Players like Dermot McCabe for example, have already had senior championship football experience. The future looks good.

So what does Paul Fitzsimons expect of Cavan in 1997. An Ulster title maybe?

"I hope so," he says, though not totally convinced that they have got everything together. "We have gone into the Donegal style of play where there is too much passing. Cavan were a more direct team years ago and that was when they won a few All-Irelands. They haven't looked like winning anything since the changes in style have come in. But maybe they will soon, I hope so.

"If Cavan can improve a little bit, then I think that they are in with a big chance of winning," he continues. "Ulster teams had a great run in the All-Ireland for about five years but I think that now everyone else has copped onto that and teams have evened up in terms of fitness and preparation, so I think that Cavan could certainly be in with a good chance."

An opinion which many around would agree with. The mentors of Cavan football and the supporters, who have had to deal with disappointments over the last two decades, hope that the Breffni Blues can relive the success of the forties and fifties, when the Sam Maguire was a regular visitor and Ulster Championship titles were plentiful. Has Martin McHugh brought them on the verge of success? Roll on Cham Tweet

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