The death has taken place of one of Louth's finest footballers, Nicky Roe from the St. Marys Ardee club.

Nicky, at centre half forward, led the Wee County attack in the All-Ireland decider of 1950. Flanked by two other legendary Louth players, Stephen White and Jim McDonnell, the Leinster champions narrowly went under to Mayo on a 2-5 to 1-6 scoreline. An injury to top scorer Roe did not help. Nicky Roe scored all but one point of Louth's 1-6 total. A late scoring burst of 1-1 gave the Westerners victory.

These were great days for Louth football and that fine 1950 selection was moulded from three terrific struggles with future All-Ireland champions Meath the previous summer. Again it took a replay to separate these great neighbours before Louth finally triumphed 3-5 to 0-13 in the Leinster decider of 1950. The Wee County beat Kerry 1-7 to 0-8 in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Louth had earlier won the Leinster championships of 1943 and '48. They repeated the feat in 1953 and overcame Dublin 2-9 to 1-7 in the provincial decider of 1957 before going on to become All-Ireland champions.

Ironically, Nicky started his club career as a defender and wore the number 4 jersey as St. Mary's won their first Louth senior championship title in 1946. Young Irelands were beaten in the final. Irelands were likewise ousted in the final of 1948 and again Nicky Roe found himself at left full back.

Nicky Roe wore the St. Marys jersey with pride and on retiring continued to serve the Ardee club in a number of capacities. He trained the mid-county side to four Minor Championships during the 1960s, was involved with the Marys' seniors, the Louth senior team as a selector and became a well-known referee.

The popularity of Nicky Roe was huge and in 2007 he was inducted into the Louth GAA Supporters Club Hall of Fame.

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