For reasons almost obscured by history, Dublin were not enthusiastic about the under-21 football championship from the outset. In the first nine years of the competition from 1964, they didn’t even reach a provincial final.
In the 10th, 1973, they simply withdrew and didn’t compete at all – as they would do again at the end of the century, before going on to win five All-Irelands by the time the grade was changed to under-20 in 2018.
In 1974, however, what would be a historic year for the county coincided with a renewed focus on the 21s. Leinster was won for the first time but Mayo beat them by a point at Croke Park in the semi-finals and would go on to win the All-Ireland.
A year on, they again won Leinster and after avenging the Mayo defeat in Castlebar, Dublin reached the final against Kerry, who featured six of the seniors that had unexpectedly won the All-Ireland that September by beating Dublin. Mick O’Dwyer also managed the 21s.
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This Tuesday lunchtime in the Iveagh Garden Hotel, the Dublin team will mark the 50th anniversary of the first time the county reached an under-21 All-Ireland final.
“It took place in October,” recalls full back Liam Egan (Scoil Uí Chonaill), “because Kerry and Dublin had both won their provincial senior titles and there were players overlapping both panels”.
The venue was Tipperary town and the under-21 final drew an estimated crowd of 13,000. It was a bit of a blowout. Dublin had only Brian Mullins of their senior line-up, although panellist Fran Ryder also played as did 1983 All-Ireland-winning captain Tommy Drumm, who is involved with Jonny Cooper’s under-20 management next year, and his future senior team-mates Mick Holden and PJ Buckley. Corner back Gerry McCaul went on to manage Dublin in the late 1980s to both a national league and Leinster title.
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“They had six players from the senior All-Ireland two weeks previously,” says corner back Brian Fitzpatrick (St Vincent’s). “Not alone that but three of them – Pat Spillane, Mikey Sheehy and Jack O’Shea – would be on the Team of the Century in 1984!”
Almost immediately, things went wrong for Dublin.
“I knew Tony Fayne well,” says Egan. “He was a club man of mine and our goalkeeper. I’d say within 20 seconds, a high ball came in and he cleared it while I was holding back Jack O’Shea but then it fell for Mikey Sheehy, who scored a goal. We battled back but were always chasing the game after that.”
He had the idea of staging a reunion for the team when his 1972 schoolboy soccer international group celebrated a 50th anniversary three years ago. He and Brian Fitzpatrick (St Vincent’s, corner back) set about contacting as many of their team-mates as they could.
“We managed to get 80 per cent of everyone we contacted,” says Fitzpatrick. Sadly, some are no longer with us: Brian Mullins, Mick Holden and Mick Martin. The three selectors, Emmet Memery from Vincent’s, Peter Molloy from Ballyboden and Jim Moore who was Synge Street are also gone but we are delighted to have Mick Behan, who was our trainer or manager coming along.”
