Roscommon featured at defining moments of Larry Tompkins’ intercounty journey

Roscommon bookended his intercounty story. Larry Tompkins didn’t come across them often, but Roscommon were there at the beginning and they were there at the end.

They were also there midway through it all for one of his career’s defining chapters, the season he captained Cork to All-Ireland glory. The Rebels beat Roscommon in an All-Ireland semi-final in 1990, the year of the double. Cork’s double. Teddy McCarthy’s double.

Just two weeks ago Tompkins carried the Sam Maguire to the alter during Teddy’s funeral. “We’re still all a bit numb, to be honest,” says Tompkins. “He was a really good friend, there were no airs or graces with Teddy, it’s just hard to believe he is not here.”

The last time they met was at the Cork-Kerry round-robin game at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on June 3rd, just three days before the former dual player passed away.

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Long after their involvement with Cork teams ended both remained keenly invested as supporters. Teddy would have got a kick from the resilient nature of Cork’s comeback win over Mayo last week, and Tompkins has been thinking of his old friend a lot, wondering if the games help or hinder the healing process.

Roscommon come to Leeside on Saturday, with a Kildare man at the helm in Davy Burke. Tompkins made his intercounty senior debut against Roscommon as a prodigious teenager for his native Kildare in October 1980. Some 23 years later his last game as Cork senior football manager was to be a championship loss to Roscommon.

As a kid growing up in Kildare, his dream was to play for the county’s senior footballers and that ambition was fast-tracked to reality because of an ESB strike in late 1980. “The Army had to be called in because of the strike,” recalls Tompkins. “Tommy Shaw, a free-taker, couldn’t make the Roscommon game because he was called out with the Army.”

Tompkins had been kicking frees for the minors and was asked to travel with the team to Dr Hyde Park for that league game. He expected his involvement to stretch not much beyond standing behind the goals during the warm-up and booting footballs back in during the shooting drills. But he was named at corner forward. Tompkins was just 17.

“I never thought for one minute I’d be starting, the Roscommon full-back line at the time included Gerry Connellan, Harry Keegan and Pat Lindsay, they were like three bulldozers. It was a baptism of fire.”

He might not have filled out the baggy jersey that day but it was evident from that first outing that he had the stuff to fulfil his potential. Kildare were well beaten, but Tompkins scored three of their eight points. He had stood his ground against the bulldozers.

After the game Dermot Earley approached. “He praised me for my performance and just said because I was so young to keep working hard but don’t try rush it. He was an absolute gentleman.”

Ultimately Tompkins would go on to build his life and a hugely successful intercounty career on Leeside. Cork and Roscommon have only met on four occasions in the history of the championship – 1990, 2003, 2010 and 2019 – and Tompkins was involved in two of the four, in 1990 as Cork captain and 2003 as manager. He was top scorer in the 1990 All-Ireland semi-final, his five points helping the Rebels to a 0-17 to 0-10 victory over the Connacht champions.

“I remember feeling afterwards that was a really good win for us, a really important one because we hadn’t been good that day,” says Tompkins. “We had beaten Kerry by 15 or 16 points in the Munster final, but that semi-final against Roscommon was tight until the last 10 minutes when we started to pull away a bit. It kept us grounded for the final.”

A month later Tompkins captained Cork to All-Ireland success.

He didn’t see much of Roscommon after that again until he took charge of the Rebels. His boots hadn’t time to attract dust in retirement before he was appointed manager in August 1996. Tompkins led Cork to two Munster titles during his reign and there was also an All-Ireland final appearance in 1999, but it was a transitional period for the team and fate would determine the venue from where his senior intercounty journey started out would also prove to be its final destination.

“We went up to play Roscommon in Hyde Park,” says Tompkins. “No disrespect to Roscommon, but there is a graveyard beside the ground and it was a f**king graveyard venue for me, I never had much luck there in terms of winning games.”

Colin Corkery and Brendan Jer O’Sullivan were sent off late on in that 2003 All-Ireland SFC qualifier, which Roscommon won by a single point. At the final whistle, a Cork supporter hopped the barrier and made a beeline for Tompkins.

“It all ended in a bit of controversy with this fella climbing over the fence to get a belt at me, wanting to make sure I quit my managerial career,” says Tompkins. The aggressor was apprehended before matters escalated. “He was a young fella and he came in after and apologised. There was probably a lot made of it, but look you’ll always have disgruntled supporters. I suppose you take the good with the bad.”

Cork football supporters have endured more of the bad days than the good ones in recent years. However, last week’s win over Mayo felt like a potentially seminal moment in the development of this team under John Cleary.

The current Cork manager also featured in that 1990 All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon. “John would be a good friend of mine and he has always been a very astute reader of the game,” continues Tompkins. “His managerial skills would be excellent and he would be good at establishing a close bond with players.

“Since losing to Clare they are really after picking it up a good bit. I actually gave Cork a serious chance of beating Mayo last week because I just felt a lot of the Mayo players weren’t tested. The group will have gained serious confidence from the win, but in saying that Roscommon will be coming with a lot of disappointment and hurt from their performance against Kildare. They probably didn’t get to the levels they are capable of.

“Usually when a team is hurting like that they tend to come out the following week with a lot of fight. It’s a real test and a real opportunity for both teams.”

Tompkins will be down the Páirc on Saturday. It was there he saw Teddy last. They were both walking to their seats at the Cork-Kerry match when they met. Teddy had a ticket for the Premium Level, and the last person he probably wanted to know that to be the case was his former captain.

“Teddy wasn’t a man for going to what you’d call the Premium or Premier level in Páirc Uí Chaoimh,” smiles Tompkins. “But somebody had given him a ticket to go up there, so I was slagging him, ‘Jesus, you are in with the VIPs now.’ He wouldn’t like that at all, he always went over to the north stand, because he preferred to be over there. But he was in mighty form that day.”

Three players from the team Tompkins captained to All-Ireland glory in 1990 have now died – John Kerins, Mick McCarthy and Teddy McCarthy. Michael Burns, who was a panellist for many years during that period, has also passed away.

Teddy would almost certainly have been back in the north stand this Saturday to see if Cleary, his old Cork teammate, could mastermind a victory over Roscommon and take the Rebels to Croke Park for an All-Ireland quarter-final. Wouldn’t that just be mighty.

A powerful and poignant moment during the funeral was the sight of Tompkins and Tomás Mulcahy, Cork’s respective 1990 football and hurling captains, carrying two of the most iconic trophies in Irish sport through St Joseph’s church in Glanmire.

As they reached the alter, Mulcahy moved to the right of the coffin with the Liam MacCarthy and Tompkins stepped to the left with the Sam Maguire, doing so with the sound of warm applause from the congregation filling the church.

“The way the system is now in hurling and football we’ll probably never see anybody doing the double again,” says Tompkins. “Teddy’s name will ring in the ears forever more.”