Tom Galligan is a rare breed. A fine footballer from times past who trades in deprecating humour. For him, football was all about the collective.

A picture of one-time Virginia Blues and Cavan ace Tom Galligan would immediately tell you he's carved from unforgiving times and wistful reflections.
With a pair of shoulders you'd imagine you could land a light aircraft on, Galligan cuts an imposing figure even though he's 70 plus VAT.
Of course, being built like the gable end of a two storey house seemed to be the template for the development of county stars way back yonder.
However, Tom - in contrast to his playing days - is mill-pond calm as he speaks the lanquage of football with a fluidity that belies his mature years.

His reflections are considered though general in nature. His recall isn't quite as good as his reflexes once were for club and county during the sixties.
Truth to tell, his anecdotes from a colourful GAA career are delivered with all the urgency of pall-bearers. But what's the rush?

He became a full-fledged Garda on October 10th, 1958 but exited the rat race back in 1990 when based in Delvin to enjoy life in the slow lane.
Since Tom retired from the force he has lived in Clonmellon, county Westmeath. Is the one-time boy in blue now all maroon and white?
"No, once a Cavanman always a Cavanman. I'm even further away from home than I am from Kells (eight miles) but I'm still a Cavan man.
"Put it this way, there'd be no question in my mind who I'd be supporting if Cavan were to play Westmeath - or Meath for that matter - tomorrow."

His mortar-shell delivery on where his loyalties stand is in stark contrast to the indefatigable nature of his own laid-back attitude to things football.
Fact is, Tom very seldom attends Gaelic football matches these days. The former Cavan star has long since fallen out of love with the native game.
He admits too that he hasn't been clued into Cavan football for years and years even if the county's results are the first he looks out for on the radio.

And the longer the former policeman gets to testify about the modern game the more damning is his evidence about where football has gone.
"The last time I was at a club game must have been at least five or six years ago," Tom explains,"and I'm not sure when I'll be going to another one.
"I'd say it must be about 30 years since I was at a county match. I wouldn't have had a big interest in football since I hung up my own boots.
"I watch some of the matches that are on television but you'd have to be paid to watch the football I saw in the Donegal/Dublin semi-final this year.

"I know if I was a supporter who paid into watch that game, I'd be looking for my money back when the final whistle went. The fans were robbed.
"If they don't do away with that hand pass, it'll kill the game altogether. Sure it's not football anymore, it's a kind of handball mixed up with basketball."
The former Brownstown club secretary isn't that keen on setting off on a safari of commentary on the ills of the modern game. That's for others.
He makes no bones about his discontent about a game which, he illudes to, can sometimes portray all the technical refinement of mud-wrestling.

"Where's the skills of catching and kicking all gone to," he asks. "Skilful players are penalised now instead of being rewarded. That's not any good."
It seems Tom is much more enamoured by the ancient game of Cuchullainn. His three sons were all good duel players but majored in hurling.
Medals pertaining to Brownstown and St. Ultans jostled for position in chez Galligan years ago. Tom's wife Maura (nee Dinkin) had skillful weans.
Being ensconced deep in hurling territory in Westmeath for so long has given him a gra for the small ball that seems to have unwittingly diluted the game that he was born and reared with and which also gave his father the opportunity to play against local legends like Hughie O'Reilly (Cootehill).
His parents hailed from Laragh but it was with Virginia Blues that Galligan jnr first made his mark as a versatile, no-holes barred footballer.

However his only senior football championship medal came during his time with his adopted Ballybay Pearse Brothers.
Contrary to what most pundits may venture to suggest nowadays, commitment was indeed an integral part of a footballer's life in the sixties too.

"It's hard to believe how the players these days get so fit considering they have to hold down a job and look after a family too but in our day you had to sacrifice a lot too. A lot of your time went into training and playing football matches, especially if you were combining club and county football.
"Charlie Gallagher, from Cootehill, might have been a bit of exception to that rule though. He wouldn't kill himself training but he was a class act.

"He was a great man to kick a point and had a knack of being in the right place at the right time. Once he got the ball, it was very hard to get it off him."
Tom knew Charlie well for he played with and against the classy Celt. In 1962 Tom earned a runners-up medal as part of the Cavan squad which lost out to Down in the National Football League final. He remembers the 'do' in Crover House Hotel after the match and how Jim McDonnell broke his collarbone. Cavan, he recalls, had beaten Dublin in their semi-final clash in Navan after coming out of their group with a good win over Mayo in Ballina.

"I started the game against Down but I shouldn't have been playing because I was ill going into the game and didn't really let on about it.
"I played on the 'forty and Dan McCartan marked me. He was a tough player but he was only a young fella at that time but he was still good."
Not one for talking himself up, Tom is wont to wax lyrical about the eloquence, craft and leadership skills of such as Jim McDonnell, Con Smith, James Brady, Tom Maguire and Gabriel Kelly.
At club level, he fondly remembers working cheek to jowel on the field of play with brothers Mickey and Paddy Duffy (Cootehill Celtic) in Ballybay's SFC title winning odyssey.

One senses though that he would have liked to have been part of the senior county scene for longer than the early part of the sixties when he was a sub on the Cavan side that featured in the 1961 Ulster final and was injured for the provincial decider the following year.
He readily admits his career wasn't one that dripped with honours but his priorities lay in family, work when he was at his peak though he gave C van football 100% while he was in his element.
He suffered a long-term hamstring which didn't do much for his intercounty career of course or indeed his appetite for the game.

"I didn't know it was called a hamstring," he explains, "but I know I pulled something in the back of my leg. It was only years after I had quit playing that the importance of stretching came home to me."
Work took him around the country too which couldn't have helped his bid to solidify his position with the blues. Initially based in Blackrock, county Dublin, his Garda duties also took him to Monaghan town and then Ballybay and finally Delvin.
For a period he played football for the Garda club in Dublin where, among others, he teamed up with Paddy Harrington, da of renowned golfer Padraig.

And his thoughts on the future for Cavan football?
"There'll always be a great interest in the game in Cavan and it was great to see the minors and the under 21s do well.
"I'm not so sure though whether I'll still be about by the time they get it right at senior level. I'd love to get my hands on the Sam Maguire Cup though!" Tweet

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