The 50th anniversary of Meath's third All Ireland football final win. Meet the men who made it possible.

At top of the right, in the number 13 jersey, right full forward Paddy Mulvany.

A Meath All Ireland winning team team without a Skryne representative would be a strange commodity. The lightning fast Paddy Mulvany, of the left foot, answered the call in 67.

A goal scorer when coming on as a substitute in the 1964 Leinster final win over Dublin, he was a sub for the 66 all Ireland.

Paddy, equally at home as a half back, was amongst the bravest of the brave, often putting his body on the line for club and county.

To him fell the honour of notching the Royals first score of the 67 final. And what an important, morale boosting point it was to prove.

Picture the scene. As in 66, the Cork final was dominated by strong winds. Meath, by accident or design, played against the elements in the opening half of both finals. It blew from the Hill 16 end in 66 and into the Hill 12 months later.

That first half in 66 was a disastrous one for the warm favourites. On the 26th minute Murty O Sullivan pointed a free as Meath retired, 1-6 to 0-1, in arrears at the interval.

The Skryne team that won the 1965 Meath SFC. Front l-r: Denis Smyth, Dom O'Brien, Davy Carty, Paddy Mulvany, Paddy Cromwell, Frank Carty, Tommy Callaghan, John Curtis, Frank Swan, Aidan Kavanagh. Back l-r: Jim O'Connor, Ray Mooney, Jack O'Connor, Tommy Murphy, Paddy Lynch, Mickey Lynch, Jimmy Lynch, Dinny Donnelly, Sean Smyth, Paddy O'Brien, Stephen Kelly, Packie Mooney

Ironically at almost the same time Mulvany got Meath off the mark for the first score of the 67 decider. This time the wind was even stronger, but Meath had played significantly better and had only a 0-4 to 0-1 margin to overcome. Paddy's score, four minutes from the break, was just the half time tonic Meath required. He went on to add another point in the second half.

A substitute on the All Ireland winning junior team of 1962, Paddy Mulvany first shot to prominence as an under 16 player on the emerging Skryne senior team of 1956.

A county minor in 58 he made the Meath senior squad the following year.

Paddy was a regular as the Blues fought it out with fierce rivals Navan O Mahonys for the kingship of Meath football during the late fifties/early sixties. After many near misses the Keegan Cup eventually climbed the hill to Skryne in 65.

He was also an accomplished hurler and won numerous awards with Kilmessan.

Tweet

Most Read Stories