Ciarán Murphy: The great Johnny Flaherty earned a permanent place in the nightmares of Galway people

Trudging out of Croke Park after a spirit-crushing defeat is never a barrel of laughs, and all defeats sting obviously. But there are some that linger in the memory, some that time has a much harder job helping to expel from your mind.

At various times as Galway have suffered in HQ, I’ve walked back to my Aunt Mary’s place in Glasnevin, moaning that this one has to be just about as bad as it gets. She’s been in Dublin for quite a while longer even than I at this stage, but she always says the same thing, regardless of the nature of the defeat – “it’s bad ... but it’s still not as bad as 1981, and that fecker Johnny Flaherty”.

His name is forever linked with the All-Ireland hurling final of that year, and the late goal he scored that swung the game Offaly’s way. It’s not often one name becomes synonymous with an entire final, but that can surely be said of Flaherty, who sadly died on Wednesday after what was described as a reasonably short illness by the Offaly Express.

That goal was scored a year before I was born, and so what I knew of the man didn’t stretch much further than that. Reading reminiscences over the last 24 hours, a much broader picture becomes clear. He played for 17 years for his county, was the county’s hurler of the year in 1979 and 1981, and was an All Star in 1981. He was selected on the Offaly hurling team of the millennium in 2000, and was a member of that county’s Hall of Fame.

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More than that, though, he was the key man in the two most groundbreaking days in Offaly’s history. He got two goals in their first ever Leinster final win against Kilkenny in 1980, before his key intervention late on in their first ever All-Ireland final win a year later.

One of those would have established his place in history – to have done both, within 14 months of each other, is the stuff of legend. The historian, author, podcaster and GAA polymath Paul Rouse described him to me yesterday as “one of the greatest human beings I ever met, and a truly wonderful man.”

My aunt has seen Galway lose at least 16 senior finals, between hurling and football, so when the news broke, I went looking to see just how many regrets Galway people should be carrying, 42 years after the fact.

“Yesterday at Croke Park Offaly won their first title in the history of the game in a way which practically beggars description. They were three points clear at the end having overhauled a Galway lead of six points at half-time, but it was a most unlikely result for all but the last five minutes as the holders of the title flung away their chances with all the prodigality of drunken wedding guests getting rid of their confetti,” wrote Seán Kilfeather in the following morning’s Irish Times.

There followed a reasonably lengthy run through of the exact nature of Galway’s prodigality, before this: “Offaly must get their full mead of praise for a remarkable performance. It was all heart and spirit. There was never a hint of surrender or lack of commitment during the entire match” ... and how often would those lines, or lines like them, come to be written about Offaly over the next 20 years. It might even be said that the Offaly penchant for the comeback was patented that day.

Flaherty “the rainmaker” set up the first goal for Pat Carroll in the first half, and then struck with five minutes to go to handpass a goal and put Offaly ahead for the first time since the second minute of the game. That was enough to win the day. Controversy surrounded the score, but the Gaelsport Annual of 1981 printed a photograph which “proved” the ball had not been thrown (or at least that is what Prof Rouse told me.)

Flaherty had nicked a game Offaly scarcely deserved to win, and it earned him a permanent place in the nightmares of Galway people. There are other such characters, of course. The name Colm Coyle still haunts Mayo people of a certain vintage. If you’re a Kerry person over 50 it’s Séamus Darby ... and if you’re under 50, it’s probably Kevin McManamon.

A straw poll in The Irish Times sports department brings up Larry Tompkins from the Meath man in our midst ... Seánie O’Leary and his goal to help bring Cork back from the dead in the 1984 Munster final, thereby prolonging their famine, got the vote of the Tipperary jury.

These are players who took games going one way, and turned it back their way – not necessarily solely through prolonged excellence, but also through moments of inspiration that upended games, and eventually history, in the narrow sporting sense.

One last line from Seán Kilfeather on the 1981 final: “If Galway had a hero in defence it was Jimmy Cooney, who made several interceptions and clearances when most needed”. That’s a reminder that losses throughout the year are always felt most keenly at this time. In clubs far and very near, that’s a tragic reality. To the Flaherty family, and to all those mourning loved ones, we send you the best of good wishes this Christmas.