The late Tony Tighe

The late Tony Tighe

02 August 2005

Following the elephants to New York
Tony Tighe was one of the heroes of Cavan’s All-Ireland SFC success of 1952. Then the trip to the winners’ enclosure in Croke Park was much less circuitous than that of five years earlier when following in the wake of a bunch of elephants and taking in the sights of a cafe in Newfoundland formed part of the package trip to the holy grail.

Like confetti on a rain soaked chapel porch, significant milestones litter the history of Cavan football. Proverbial watersheds have doused the Association in Cavan down the years - the county’s last All-Ireland SFC success in 1952 being a prime example.

Former wing-wizard Tony Tighe played a pivotal role in shaping the Breffni Blues’ last great climb to the summit of Gaelic football. And now that the Golden Jubilee celebrations of that famous victory over Meath are upon us, the erstwhile county attacker is only too glad to re-visit those great times.

Now living in Clones, the Ballyjamesduff native says he can hardly believe that it’s five years since Cavan last lifted the Anglo-Celt Cup, never mind 50 years since the Sam Maguire Cup was hauled across the length and breath of his native Drumlin country.

The former Castlerahan and Mountnugent star remains a mine of information on the inside track regarding everything pertaining to the Cavan senior camp back in ’52.

For instance, Tony maintains that few people in Cavan, himself included, fancied the blues to emerge from Ulster 50 years ago. Chasing Sam was not contemplated at the commencement of the season.

"Most of us reckoned that Antrim and Armagh were the frontrunners for the Ulster championship in ’52. I personally didn’t think the ’52 team was that good, at least compared to the ’47 team. I think we surprised everyone, including ourselves."
So what turned the would-be also-rans into lords of all they surveyed?

"Cootehill’s Hughie Reilly was still with us of course and I think his training made all the difference. We slowly but surely improved as the championship progressed and he had the knack of seeing that we peaked just at the right time.

"There was also a few young fellas from St. Pat’s brought onto the panel which gave us a boost. New fellas like Mullahoran’s Tom Hardy and Edwin Carolan came in and added to the competition for places. It all helped to add to the spirit in the camp."

"Having said that, we were very lucky to get a draw first time out against Meath in the All-Ireland final. I remember reading afterwards that our equaliser came just a minute from the end of the game."

Newspaper accounts of the game report how Cavan’s pacy full-forward gave Meath’s Paddy O’Brien a torrid time of it. With just under five minutes of the game played, Tighe collected the ball from a pass from the inspirational Mick Higgins quickly taken free and promptly slammed the ball into the Meath net.

The ace attacker was unlucky not to find the net again shortly before the interval when he raced in on goal but, with Meath ’keeper Kevin Smith advancing off his line, rifled his shot against the upright from close range.

The three-times All-Ireland SFC medallist (1947,’48, 52) prefers not to wax lyrical about his own contribution. Instead he tells of how he has a vivid memory of Edwin Carolan’s wonder score in the drawn encounter with the Royal County.

"I had a good view of it. Edwin got the ball over on the left wing - just under the Nally Stand - before it went out of play. Some of the Meath players thought it had gone out but the umpire wouldn’t have known if it had gone over the line from the position he was standing.

"Either way, Edwin just kicked it from where he had collected the ball and such was the way the wind was whirling around at the time, he was able to screw the ball around. It hit the far upright and landed over on the right side luckily enough for us," explains Tony, winner also of two Railway Cup and two National League medals also.

Tony remembers also the shocking weather conditions that day. Torrential rain lashed the players and officials. But by the end of the match, he was just glad that Cavan were still in the hunt for Sam. The 2-3 to 1-6 scoreline was all that counted, he contests.

Tony Tighe was again on the scoresheet for the replay as Cavan triumphed by 0-9 to 0-5. Once again newspaper accounts of the day lauded Tighe’s display. Reporters remarked how he gave Paddy O’Brien a hard time for the second game in a row. With his speed and bewildering swerve, Tighe was rated as Cavan’s find of the year.
So what made the difference in the replay?
"We dominated midfield throughout. Victor Sherlock was tremendous for us in the replay and Mick (Higgins) hardly missed a free. I think he must have scored seven points from frees that day."
A better day than ’47?
"Not quite, but memorable all the same. It was a great honour and a matter of great pride to me that I was part of that ’52 winning team. Can’t believe it’s 50 years ago though."
Thankfully Tony’s memory is as sharp as some of his incisive runs at goal all those years ago; incursions into enemy territory imbued with the kind of pace, skill and vision which led to Glasgow Celtic offering him a contract in 1945. Ever the gael, Tony declined the offer. Celtic’s loss would be Cavan’s gain.

He remembers his first match for Cavan. It was in 1944, an Ulster JFC semi-final tussle with neighbours Monaghan at Celtic Park in Cootehill. Tighe and Cavan were later to go the distance in the competition in Ulster. However the repercussions of the Emergency Years regulations meant that the junior competition started and finished in the provincial arena.

Either way, a year earlier he had posted notice of his intention to make his mark in the world of Gaelic football by starring in college football circles.

A student at St. Mary’s College, Dundalk, he teamed up with Ulster’s provincial colleges side in 1943. At that time the colleges in Dundalk were affiliated to Ulster for matters football. Accordingly Tony was able to combine with another burgeoning star from the north of the country, Iggy Jones of Tyrone, to great effect. Incidentally, he remembers that there were only a couple of St. Pat’s, Cavan players on that panel.

There was to be no success at minor level on the inter-county front for the young Tighe - "there wasn’t much of a structure in place at minor club level in Cavan back then and there wasn’t a great panel of players around either."
Two years later, the strapping attacker made his debut in extraordinary circumstances for the Breffni Blues’ senior team at the tender age of 17.

Again the opposition at minor level was local rivals Monaghan. This time around though, Tony was to play two matches, back to back.

"I played in the minor match against Monaghan and then immediately afterwards in the senior championship game with Fermanagh. We lost the minor game to a Monaghan team that included the likes of the Moyna twins, Tommy and Mackie, from Scotstown and Hughie McKearney.

"We had better luck in the senior game though. We gave Fermanagh a bit of a hiding," the Tony recalls.

Winner of a couple of junior championship titles with Castlerahan and later a senior championship medal with Mountnugent (1946), Tony had a fine football pedigree and was almost destined to figure at the highest level of football with his native Cavan.

Tony’s father Louis was a selector with the senior county team in his younger days and he used to bring his football-mad son to the county’s training camps back in the thirties. In addition, Tony’s brother Frank was good enough to make it onto the Cavan senior panel in the early ’fifties.

Of course, Tony’s part in Cavan’s great run in 1947 remains his stand-out season for most people. Perhaps given the extraordinary circumstances of Cavan’s All-Ireland triumph that year and his fine personal form too, the ageless Tighe also fingers the run to the Polo Grounds and the whole campaign itself as the highlights of his career.

Beating the Donal Keenan-inspired match favourites Roscommon in the semi-final ranks up there with the best of the games in Tony’s eyes.

"The Kerry versus Roscommon game in 1946 was probably the best game I’ve ever seen. And so it was a great privilege to come up against both of those two sides in our 1947 championship run!"
Many seasoned Cavan fans point to his own display at midfield with the ’Gunner’ Brady against catch and kick specialists Roscommon as a huge contributory factor in shaping Cavan’s progression through to the historic final. He doesn’t mind rewinding the tape for that one either.

"I remember getting a ball on the left wing about 45 yards out early in the second half. There was little or no movement up ahead of me so I carried the ball a bit and then hit it as hard as I could from about 35 yards. It went sailing through the air and eventually hit the stansion at the back of the Roscommon net and back out into play. Luckily, the umpires spotted what happened and the goal stood."
And so to the final in the Polo Grounds, New York and a meeting with Kerry.

"Most of us went by plane from Shannon Airport although some of the group went by boat. It was one hell of a trip. It was a 27 hour trip, one-way, and you can imagine the planes in those days weren’t exactly luxurious.

"I remember T.P (O’Reilly) saying a few rosaries on the trip. Hughie O’Reilly, our trainer, was a rough diamond but he was a decent man and he was a great man for discipline but that trip wasn’t the best for our nerves and stopping off for breakfast at a half-deserted airport in Newfoundland was some experience, I can tell you.

"The flight was fairly rough but it was just as well we didn’t know at the time what the plane was usually used for. After we landed we were informed by custom officials in New York that the same plane that had gotten us there was usually used to carry elephants!"

Tony Tighe’s interest in Gaelic football hasn’t waned over the years although he hasn’t been directly involved in football since assisting Fr. Benny Maguire as a selector of the Cavan senior team in the seventies.

Nowadays, Tighe contents himself with watching as much football as he can, normally down at his own backyard at St. Tighernach’s Park. Pity there ain’t more of his ilk to be seen there though.