Galway GAA loses another iconic figure The passing of Jack Mahon has removed from the local and national GAA scene one of the seminal voices of the Association. A GAA soul true and true - he was also a great lover of hurling - Jack's birthplace in the North Galway footballing heartland of Dunmore ensured that he was never far from a football, or a footballing conversation. His father Sean Mahon was Principal of the local Fleaskagh national school and an 'out and out' GAA fanatic as well, who 'broke the radio' back in 1947, in a fit of pique, when Kilkenny's Jimmy Langton landed the winning score for the Leinster side after Galway at last looked to have put to rest their hurling hoodoo. Sean brought Jack and the rest of the family to many's the match through the 1940s and early 1950s until his untimely passing in 1955. After completing his national school education in Dunmore in 1945, he then made the nine mile journey to Tuam where he began a five year term as a boarder. Here academia, football and the traumas of boarding became part of life for Jack Mahon in the diocesan college which was to eventually lead him to Maynooth and on the path to the priesthood ... or so he thought at the time. St. Jarlath's left him with some great footballing memories, but as he recalls in his last book 'Memories', they were very tough at times too with corporal punishment rife, herrings on Fridays (he never ate them since) in addition to a dreadful winter and flu of 1947. The flu ravaged the college and claimed the lives of a number of students. But St. Jarlath's had a great football team and Jack, as a first and second year, idolised the likes of Peter Solon and Mick Greaney, but most of all, one Sean Purcell from Tuam. Jarlath's were beaten in the first Hogan Cup final of '46 by St. Pat's of Armagh but came back the following year to defeat the same opposition in the final. According to Jack, those matches were considered to be the greatest colleges games ever played and were live on Radio Eireann through the voice of Micheal O Hehir. Jack later lined out at midfield for the college and helped them to a Connacht final victory over old rivals St. Nathy's College, Ballaghderreen, where Jack kicked the winning point from a 35 yard free. In that era, the team's manager, selector, physio and everything else was the late Dr. Michael Mooney from Dunmore, affectionately to everyone as 'The Doc'. In September 1950, Jack seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his brother the late Fr. Paddy Mahon, when he joined a class of 70 clerical students at St. Patrick College, Maynooth, in era where 'every mother in Ireland wanted their son to be a priest'. Initially he blended in well but as the years passed through to 1954, he was hit with gnawing doubts about the vocation before on the Holy Saturday evening of that year he left Maynooth after taking part in ceremonies earlier that day. In the Ireland of the 1950s it was a momentous decision which, as he recalls in his book, left him close to a nervous breakdown but his parents supported him lovingly ... he went to the bog and spread turf ... and he 'got back to himself'. Football though continued to 'go strong' and he lined out at centre half back on the Dunmore MacHales team which bridged a 41 year gap in 1953 when defeating Oughterard in the county senior final at Tuam Stadium. Further county final victories followed in 1961 and 1963 while the '50s also brought a rich harvest at inter-county level with Galway beating Cork in the 1956 final, remembered for the scoring exploits of Frank Stockwell, while Jack captained the team which beat Kerry in the '57 league final, described by many observers as his greatest ever game in a Galway jersey. There were three Railway Cup medals, Connacht championship medals and representative games involving the Combined Universities and he continued playing with Dunmore through the mid-sixties before retiring from the game. He later though became heavily involved in the administration of Gaelic football in Galway and realised his ambition of becoming Chairman of the Football Board from the end of '85 to 1992, where he was shrewd but very fair too, and always willing to give the delegate at the back of the hall the chance to say hi piece. Colleagues remarked that he was at pains to ensure that the more distant teacher/pupil relationship didn't spill over from his classroom into the delegate hall. He desperately wanted the county to land an All-Ireland during his stewardship of the Board but alas that wasn't to happen. However in his later years at Football Board PRO, one of the greatest days of his life was on the September Sunday of 1998 when Galway bridged a 32-year-gap by beating Kildare in the final. He also rejoiced in the 2001 victory over Meath but typical of his competitive spirit greatly regretted not beating Kerry in the draw final of 2000, when many Galway people thought that the county had done well to earn the draw after taking a first half hammering. Not Jack though. Immediately after the game he said that this was Galway's opportunity to win the title - on the day, they did have a late point chance - and how right he was, with Kerry winning the subsequent Saturday replay. Sown through the years Jack was a prolific producer of programmes, books and quiz books and for years wrote the Sam Maguire column in the Galway Advertiser and also penned a weekly column for the Western People newspaper. His last work 'Memories' was his 19the book, most of it written while he was being treated in the onclology ward of University College Hospital for leukemia. He chronicled Galway's great success of the '50s and '60s as well as dipping into the world of horse racing, teaching, and life on the Aran Islands. Some of his works include: 'A History of Gaelic Football', 'Action Replay', 'The Bobbyjo Story', 'Galway GAA Photographs', 'For the Love if Town and Village', 'Only Teachers Grow Old', 'Three-in-a-row' and 'A Woman of Aran'. His teaching career spanned five decades from the 1950s to 1993 when he retired as Principle at Moneenagheisha College, after a 24 year stint in the job. Previously he had taught at Enniskillen Technical College and Fr. Griffin Road (Galway City). He was always regarded as a very fair teacher and as a principal who faced up to his responsibilites in terms of taking a 'hands on' approach when parents had to be met, sometimes in difficult situations. In terms of sport he was always a child at heart, full of enthusiasm, sentiment and an endearing innocent wonder at great deeds on the field of play. He loved keeping fit by taking part in road races and prom' swims, played golf for a number of years as well, and was a great fan of racing in general but Cheltenham and Ballybrit especially. Jack though was always true to his roots and never lost his 'gra' for Dunmore as his great friend, former playing colleague and team mentor Bertie Coleman recalls. "I would have to say from start to finish, Jack was a great Dunmore man. He was loyal to the club from the first day he put on the jersey to the day he died. He was also a great help to a lot of people from the parish starting out on their teaching careers,' said Coleman. Football Board Chairman Pat Egan said that if there was one quality that 'said it all' about Jack Mahon it was his spirit. "Even in this last game Jack was involved in - and one he wasn't going to win - he never gave up and wrote his last book during that period. "He was a great friend to me and to Galway football. Jack always had that quiet word of advice in your ear, before or after a meeting, and no matter how low we might have been at times, maybe after a disappointing defeat, Jack was there to support us. He was always very fair, loyal and full of spirit. Galway football was his life," added Egan. 73 next December, Jack Mahon is survived by his greatest friend - his wife Eileen whom he married in 1960 and in his own words 'his pride an joy' - sons John, Pearse, Karl and Branwell; daughters Lisa and Genevieve; grandchildren; brothers Tom, Brian and Brendan; sisters Eithne, Peggy and Louie; extended family, relatives and a wide circle of friends both locally and nationally. There was a large turnout for the funeral from the O'Flaherty Funeral Home and for the Requiem Mass at Salthill Church where the chief celebrant was former classmate Msgr. Tommy Shannon. Cremation took place in Dublin. Courtesy of the Connacht Tribune 28 October 2005 Tweet

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