Killoughey's JOHN JOE HEALION Played His Part In The Revival Of Offaly Hurling The eighties were truly glorious years for Offaly hurling. The Faithful County appeared in every Leinster final between 1980 and 1990 inclusive and, quite astonishingly, also won All-Ireland in '81 and '85. Then there followed a short lull but, apparently not content with their lot, the Offalymen had the sheer audacity to return in 1994 under the guidance of Eamon Cregan and annex yet another title. When one takes into consideration that up until 1980 Offaly had never won a Leinster title, their achievement in winning eight Leinsters and three All-Irelands during the course of the ensuing fifteen years is nothing short of remarkable. One of the GAA's greatest success stories? No doubt about it. Inevitably it is the players from the teams of the eighties and nineties who will get all the credit, but the seeds for this success were being sown much earlier. In the twenties for example when the Faithful County contested three Leinster finals and more recently when the likes of Killoughey clubman John Joe Healion was strutting his stuff in the green, white and gold, and helping put the county back on the map. John Joe Healion - known as John Joe throughout his career - hails originally from Killoughey but has been living in Tullamore since 1967. He first began to hurl with his club in 1952 and won an Under 14 Championship as a twelve year old. Gallantly he worked his way up through the club's underage ranks; both in 1957 and '58 John Joe represented Offaly's Minors. "The best we did was reach the Leinster final in '57 only to lose to Kilkenny by 5-10 to 4-2. The fact that there was no collective training done in Offaly at the time worked against us as a lot of us were almost strangers to each other's game," JJ reflects. Any better luck at club level? "To be honest, medals were scarce. Killoughey was a great club, but never very successful. They won the very first ever Offaly Championship, went out of existence, and were then reformed. I started to hurl at adult level when I was seventeen and played Junior club hurling while I was playing Senior intercounty." John Joe Healion was on the Offaly junior team in 1959 and 1960 and subsequently joined the Faithful County's Senior ranks for a decade which spanned 1962-72. His Senior intercounty debut came against Westmeath at Mullingar in a Leinster Championship first round game; a game, incidentally in which the Offalymen were beaten. John Joe Healion spent the greater part of his career at centre field, but gradually drifted in to full forward coming towards the end. Ironically as is often the case with sportsmen, his greatest achievement coincides with Healion's most bitter disappointment. That came in 1969 when Offaly reached their first Leinster Championship final in 41 long years. The 1969 Leinster Final defeat at the hands of Kilkenny, in which John Joe marked one Paddy Moran, was by far the most memorable game the Killoughey clubman ever played. Offaly's undoing was their inability to find the net, The Cats three goals proving invaluable in their 3-9 (18) to 0-16 victory. Declan Hannify partnered John Joe Healion at centrefeld on that somewhat unfortunate Offaly side, other members of which included Damien Martin in goal, Paddy Spellman, Joe Murphy and Eamon Fox at the back and Paudge Mulhare, Pat Joe Whelehan and 'Speedie' Burke in the half forward line. "The thing about that team was that we were all individuals. We had no real teamwork even though we had a lot of very gifted players. I refer to that as the Era of Forgotten Offaly Hurlers," John Joe notes. So how does John Joe Healion rate the Offaly team of the sixties in comparison to the side which won the All-Ireland last year? "The current team has won an All-Ireland title, we didn't. So you have to class them as a better team than us. But we did play our part. We won Division Two of the National League in 1966 and went up to Division One where we played against teams like Tipperary and Kilkenny. In '67 we had an historic first ever win over Tipperary and that was a stepping stone from which subsequently Offaly teams built." In 1970 John Joe Healion was right half forward on the Leinster team which was defeated by Munster in the Railway Cup final. His marker on that occasion was one Len Gaynor, whom JJ rates alongside Kilkenny's Pat Moran and Tipp's Mick Roche amongst the finest players he played against. He played alongside a lot of great hurlers too in the colours of Offaly and was extremely disappointed in the aftermath of the county's Leinster final defeat of '69. "That was a real hammer blow because a lot of them were coming towards the end of their careers, and it was a real do or die. We were very confident in the build-up to that game. In '68 Kilkenny only beat us by four points in the Leinster semi-final even though we played most of the game with fourteen men. Wexford won that All-Ireland an in '69 were defending both their Leinster and All-Ireland crowns when we beat them in the semi-final. We were very confident going into the Leinster final, but our lack of experience cost us dearly. We just hadn't got the same craftiness as Kilkenny had." The highlight of John Joe Healion's club career was winning a Junior Championship with Killoughey in 1964. He played adult hurling with the club until 1972 but, at the age of 32, gave the game up altogether as he was about to go into business on his own at this stage. These days John Joe Healion runs his own successful business selling tractors and farm machinery. The business he set up in 1971 has expanded rapidly since JJ started off from his own house importing vehicles from the UK, but is now operating from a much larger premises. He has been the main Massey Ferguson dealer in Tullamore since 1983. Despite the fact that business commitments caused a premature ending to his career, John Joe points out that he will never lose his love for hurling. It's by far and away his number one sport and he still pucks around occasionally with his son Michael (16) who plays with Tullamore. In the past John Joe has trained both Tullamore and Drumcullen. Was the former intercounty player surprised with the Faithful County's 1994 All-Ireland heist? "No, from their success at underage level I knew they were good enough. I knew they were being well looked after, and they got the breaks when it mattered. Any team, no matter how good they are, needs that little bit of luck. There's so much emphasis now on fitness and the training is so rigorous that you have to give the players a lot of credit. I'd love to see Offaly now do the two-in-a-row. It's a good team which wins an All-Ireland; it's a great team that puts two back to back. The hunger is still there, the talent is there and they have a very good manager - so who knows?" Of the opinion that Brian Whelehan, John Pilkington and Johnny Dooley are as good as you're likely to get anywhere, John Joe Healion is keen to stress that Offaly have at their disposal a few exceptional hurlers, but "They have to give 101% against any county. If they don't, they will get beaten. There are good hurlers in every county, and money is being put into the game which can only be good. The game is in a very healthy state and I am very hopeful that it will never die out. There's no comparison to hurling. It's a game you have to play to be able to realise the numerous skills involved. A hurler is born, not made." Few would argue with that! John Joe Healion talks as good a game as once he played! Taken from Hogan Stand Magazine 19th May, 1995 Tweet

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