AS certain as evening follows day, the presentation of silverware comes following the conclusion of a last.
t’s a time-honoured custom within the GAA, however what occurs when there isn’t a cup to be handed out?
It doesn’t appear fathomable that such a scenario might come up in Croke Park with the GAA eyes targeted squarely on Leinster hurling last day, however that’s precisely the situation that performed out in 1964.
Laois captain Billy Phelan and his team-mates had been in jubilant kind as they basked of their four-point defeat of the mighty Kilkenny, 4-9 to 3-8, and waited to get their fingers on the Walter Hanrahan Cup.
To the victor goes the spoils, however not on this event. There are completely different theories as to why the trophy – which Wexford received the yr earlier – was not current, with some saying that it was being changed on the time.
Others imagine the Mannequin males had little curiosity in returning it with Kilkenny anticipated to pounce as soon as once more, however all that issues is that Laois’ fourth Leinster minor success, and their final to this point, resulted in no presentation to the profitable skipper.
With Abbeyleix offering the captain, having landed minor membership honours the earlier yr, it ought to have been a big day for Phelan. As an alternative, they had been shortly ushered off the pitch as the nice Eddie Keher and Kilkenny ready to do battle with Dublin within the senior decider.
Phelan, who lined out within the half-back line and moved between wing and centre-back, had led Laois via a bear pit with victories over Carlow, Offaly, Dublin and Kilkenny, however there could be no day within the solar for the O’Moore males on that July afternoon at GAA HQ.
“We had been ready for one thing to occur and somebody mentioned, ‘Ye could go and head in lads, there’s no cup’,” Phelan remembers 56 years later from his Abbeyleix house. “I had a little bit of a speech made up and all however we went in, we didn’t thoughts on the time.
“We had the ultimate received and we had been proud of ourselves. Once you’re younger, you don’t thoughts. I educated younger lads since and whether or not we received or misplaced, all they’d say was, ‘when are we enjoying once more?’ That’s all they care about and we had been the identical.
“We had been wanting ahead to the subsequent match and that was very new to us. We didn’t pay a lot consideration to it in any respect. It might have been a pleasant one to present a speech in Croke Park within the Laois colors with all of the lads down there, nevertheless it didn’t occur.”
That’s simply one among many tales which Phelan remembers from a unprecedented season which additionally noticed him be taught of his choice for the Laois minor footballers simply days later when a co-worker knowledgeable him that he was “going to be roasted” by subsequent Offaly nice Tony McTague.
Phelan wasn’t even a part of the soccer panel previous to his choice for the Leinster decider towards the Devoted when Laois “kicked it away” in a one-point defeat to a star-studded aspect that includes future icons like Martin Furlong, Willie Bryan, Eugene Mulligan and McTague.
“The one remorse was that we didn’t win the 2 of them,” Phelan says, however at the least consideration within the county might nonetheless be turned to the small ball, the place a wonderful probability had offered itself to characteristic on the sport’s biggest day.
They set off for St Brendan’s Park in Birr on August 16 to face the Connacht champions – Galway had been enjoying in Munster on the time – however obtained a number of impolite awakening upon arrival.
“We went all the way down to Birr to play Roscommon and who turned up solely Mayo. They inform me after that the Connacht last was solely performed on the Tuesday evening earlier than, between Roscommon and Mayo, and Mayo received it. They haven’t received one since,” he says earlier than detailing one other astonishing story.
“I used to be enjoying wing-back and this fella got here again on me and says ‘Howya Billy’. All I might consider was the place was he after getting my identify. He says, ‘Do ya not know me? Certain you do know me. I sat beside you in class’. Pierce Ryan was his identify, his father was the station grasp in Abbeyleix and when the station closed down, the Ryans moved to Mayo,” he added.
Laois had no issues disposing of Mayo to arrange an All-Eire last date with conventional aristocrats Cork, and in a outstanding flip of occasions the Rebels additionally had no cup presentation after their Munster last win as “Tipp forgot the cup”, as recalled by captain Kevin Cummins, brother of the legendary Ray, earlier this yr.
That Cork staff housed numerous future stars with Con Roche, Donal Clifford and Charlie McCarthy including Celtic Crosses when graduating to the senior ranks. They blew Laois away, with Phelan insisting they had been like “lambs to the slaughter”.
In what was the primary televised minor decider – “a number of Laois lads tried to look at it after, whereas some others didn’t need to see any of it” – Cork fired in 10 targets, with Laois’ preparations leaving lots to be desired.
“We had no collective coaching up till the Leinster last, we by no means even obtained collectively as soon as. Even within the All-Eire last, we had been let loose like lambs to the slaughter. Somebody ought to have recognized higher and we had been badly introduced out,” he painfully remembers.
“For the All-Eire last we had been instructed to ‘convey a white togs, a pair of blue-and-white socks and two hurls’ whereas Cork got here dancing throughout the sector of their red-and-white tracksuits.
“We had no ball going out on the sector. We’d to return and attempt to get one. It was surprising. Going again and speaking to the lads about it years later, you realise how unhealthy it was and the way badly we had been handled.”
They departed for Dublin the day of the ultimate through varied hackney cab companies across the county. But somebody, of their knowledge, thought it match that they may return house the next day through bus, regardless of not travelling as much as the capital collectively by meaning.
The lengths which Phelan – who had began working as a psychiatric nurse in St Fintan’s Hospital in Portlaoise that summer season and would stay there for the remainder of his working life – needed to go to make sure that he was off work for the ultimate are additionally a stark reminder of that period.
“On the Friday earlier than the All-Eire last, I nonetheless had nobody set to work my Sunday to go and play the All-Eire. I spent extra power attempting to get individuals to swap and alter. I’d have misplaced my job however I used to be in little doubt that I used to be going to go anyway,” he says. “I had my thoughts made up, if I can’t get off I used to be going anyway.
“A fella got here as much as me and mentioned he’d swap for the next Sunday, I most likely had a match that day as effectively however I took his hand off. I spent extra power getting break day to play matches.”
Phelan, a eager GAA historian, did get some solace when a low-key presentation of the Hanrahan Cup was made to him on the Laois county conference the January after their Leinster triumph, however there was little fanfare and “no footage taken on the evening as I put it underneath my arm and walked off with it”.
The character of his work was “a catastrophe for a sportsman” with common shifts on Saturdays and Sundays, however Phelan would go on to play some senior hurling for Laois across the early Seventies, whereas his membership profession went effectively into his mid-50s with Abbeyleix and noticed him line out in primrose and blue alongside his sons Liam and Cathal.
The 74-year-old appears to be like combating match and is concerned in quite a lot of capacities with the Abbeyleix membership. However he nonetheless thinks of that trophy-less day 56 years in the past and needs that historical past might be rewritten some day.