Westmeath All-Ireland winnners party like it's 1999!
The miserable weather last Friday evening in and around Tyrrellspass failed to put off any of the invited guests who thronged the resplendent Village Barn for a hugely successful Silver Jubilee reunion of the All-Ireland winning Westmeath U21 football team of 1999.
From the panel, only Dessie Dolan (Croke Park-tied), Cathal Mullin (due to a family bereavement), John Brennan (unavailable), and the late Enda Mulvihill were absent.
A range of memorabilia was on display including the Clarke Cup (kindly loaned for the occasion by reigning U20 champions Tyrone), the match ball (which team captain Aidan Canning has had in his possession since that never-to-be-forgotten victory over a star-studded Kerry team in Limerick on May 15, 1999), a range of still photographs, and match reports from all seven games in the Leinster and All-Ireland campaigns.
MC for the night was broadcaster Will O’Callaghan of Midlands 103. After a sumptuous meal, he called for hush as all assembled watched a splendid 15-minute video, compiled by Olly Gallagher and Tom Browne, recalling highlights of the games and the joyous homecoming. There was a poignant feel to it, however, as it showed interviews from 1999 with squad member Enda Mulvihill, and two of the selectors, Sean Heavin and Paddy McCormack, all of whom have since passed away.
Will spoke to four team members – the aforementioned Canning (a leader on the night as he had been superbly on the pitch 25 years ago), Richie Browne (home from England for the occasion), Kevin Burke (who regaled the crowd with a disclosure that he was unaware of Luke Dempsey’s match-winning tactics until a fortnight after the final!), and Joe Fallon (who modestly wrote off his All-Ireland final haul of six points as “only doing my job, as Roy Keane would say”!).
Next up was special guest Sean Kelly MEP, who had presented Aidan with the Clarke Cup as Munster Council chairman (who confirmed that then-GAA President, the late Joe McDonagh, had given him the task “assuming that my native Kerry would win the match comfortably”).
Luke Dempsey wittily recalled aspects of the bonding weekend in Galway in January 1999 which helped to form the great camaraderie evident in the panel then and now, while freelance journalist Gerry Buckley nostalgically compared the unexpected win in 1999 with his heart being broken as a six-year-old when Westmeath minors lost to an unfancied Kingdom side in the 1963 Tom Markham Cup decider.
Current Westmeath County Board chairman Frank Mescall hoped for “more and more” Lake County successes, to paraphrase Sean’s words in the cup handover speech (borrowed from Joe Dolan) in the Gaelic Grounds.
Presentations were made by the players to Luke himself, selectors Michael Lydon and Eunan McCormack (whose wife Frances spoke briefly on behalf of absent team doctor Antoinette Butler), Mary Heavin and Colm McCormack (representing the late Sean and Paddy respectively). Colm Mulvihill, father of Enda, received a standing ovation when he was called forward for his presentation. Gifts were also presented to guests of honour Sean and Juliette Kelly.
The night fittingly ended with music by Declan Byrne, son of team physio in 1999, Eamonn ‘The Killer’ Byrne, who was unavoidably absent, as a marvellous bunch of young men reminisced with their family and friends about the historic campaign of 1999. Those were the days.
*See more photos in this week's paper.