Higher Education

Sigerson Cup Runners-Up: The following Longford footballers featured on losing Sigerson Cup final teams & panels: P.M. Farrell (UCD 1933/34), Bernard Burbage (UCD 1940/41 and 1941/42), Gerry Gearty (UCD 1948/49), Padraig Gearty (UCD 1952/53 and 1954/55), Seán Murray, Harry McGann & Jimmy Flynn (UCD 1958/59), Seán Murray & Bobby Burns (UCD 1960/61), Seán Donnelly (UCG 1961/62), Jimmy Hannify (UCG 1966/67 and 1967/68), Frank Murray, Peter Burke & Mick McElvaney (Maynooth 1972/73), Pauric Jones (Garda 1998/99), David Hannify (UCD 1999/00 and 2000/01), Jamsie Martin (Garda 2007/08), Michael Quinn & Rory Connor (DCU 2015/16) and Larry Moran (UCD 2016/17).

Con McGovern from Drumlish won three Sigerson Cup medals with UCG and was Secretary of UCG Gaelic Football Club. Con also played with Galway in 1939 & 1940, winning a NFL medal and Connacht Championship medal with Galway in 1940. He was a sub on the Galway team that lost to Kerry in the 1940 All-Ireland SFC final. He won three Leinster Colleges SFC medals with St. Mels College (1932-33, 1933-34, 1934-35) and also played with his native Drumlish in the mid 1930’s. He went on to work for Pan-Am Airways, becoming their Sales Manager for Ireland.

Gerry Gearty played in the Sigerson Cup final of 1948/49 for UCD and played as a goalkeeper for the Longford county team. He went on to become a distinguished medical professional, playing a leading role in the early development of open cardiac surgery in Ireland and pioneered diagnostic techniques for assessing with the aid of catheters the flow of blood through the heart. He was the first consultant in Ireland to establish a Coronary Care Unit for his patients. He was awarded an honorary DSc by Trinity College Dublin in 1991 and was a founder member and president of the Irish Heart Foundation. In a 2006 article he was described as ‘the greatest Irish contributor to modern cardiology in the past quarter of a century‘. Gerry Gearty died in March 2014.

Padraic Gearty won the Sigerson Cup twice, in 1953/54 and 1955/56. He played Sigerson Cup for UCD for four years and was selected on the Combined Universities team vs Ireland. Padraic holds the unique distinction of being the first person to score in a Gaelic Football match on live TV, in 1962 Railway Cup final. He won five SFC medals with Longford Slashers (1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961) and before that played for Longford Wanderers prior to the formation of the Longford Slashers club in 1954. He also played soccer for Longford Town and won a National Junior Medal in the Polikoff Cup with Longford Athletic. He was voted ‘Longford Person of the Year’ by the Longford-Dublin Association in 2000 and inducted into Longford GAA ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2008. Padraic Gearty died in October 2011.

Seán Murray won two Sigerson Cup titles with UCD in 1959 & 1961, and was the first Longford player to captain a winning Sigerson Cup team (1961/62 UCD). He also played on the Combined Universities teams and won interprovincial recognition with Leinster. He also won Dublin SFC titles with UCD in 1963 & 1965 and joined the Civil Service club after UCD. He won a Minor Championship with Ballymahon in 1952 and with his native Carrickedmond in 1954 as well as briefly playing County U-15 with Westmeath during his time at Multyfarnham. He won an O’Byrne Cup in 1965, National Football League in 1966 and Leinster SFC title in 1968 during the glory days of Longford football. He then managed the Longford Senior team from 1970 to 1973 and was voted ‘Longford Person of the Year’ by the Longford-Dublin Association in 1999. Away from the playing field, Seán formed an accountancy partnership with Monaghan native Hugh Owens in 1967, which later merged with Kinnears to become Grant Thornton. He was managing partner with Grant Thornton and went on to serve on the board of Aer Rianta, Bord Gais and was appointed Director of Tara Mines and Cooley Distilleries and appointed Chairman of the Irish Trade Board in 1995. Seán Murray died in February 2000.

Seán Donnelly played in four Sigerson Cup finals and won three Sigerson Cups with UCG. Seán enjoyed a very successful playing career with Longford which stretched from 1959 to 1973 and which included winning the following titles for County and Club (Longford Slashers): Leinster SFC (1968), National League (1966), NFL Division 2 (1966 & 1972 – Captain in 1972), O’Byrne Cup (1965), Sigerson Cup (UCG 1960, 1962, 1963), Tir Conaill Cup (1965), Gaelic Weekly Cup (1965), 2 Longford Feis Cups (1965, 1967), Longford SFC (1959, 1961, 1971, 1975), Longford SFL (1962, 1963, 1972), Longford JFC (1982), Longford MFC (1958), Longford MFL (1957, 1958), London SFC (St. Vincents 1961), London SFL (St. Vincents) and Galway SFL (UCG 1961). He played in a Railway Cup final for Leinster in 1968 and was selected on the Combined Universities team three times. Seán was nominated for an All-Star in 1972 alongside teammate Jimmy Hannify. He managed the Longford senior team briefly from October 1975 to September 1976 and was County Board Secretary from 1968 to 1977. He won three Senior club titles with three different clubs in 1961 (2 SFC and 1 SFL) and was selected at Left Corner Forward in Longford’s ‘Team of the Millennium’. Seán Donnelly died in January 2024.

Seán Murray for UCD and Seán Donnelly for UCG are (so far) the only Longford footballers to play against each other in a Sigerson Cup final (UCD vs UCG in 1961/62).

Peter Burke was top scorer in the Sigerson Cup final of 1975/76 (scored 0-4). Ordained to the priesthood after his time in Maynooth, Fr. Peter joined the staff of St. Mels College in Longford and became trainer of the St. Mels team in 1979. He trained St. Mels College to five Leinster Colleges SFC titles and one All-Ireland Colleges SFC (Hogan Cup) title before being transferred to Athlone in 1991.

Joe McCabe won Sigerson Cup medals with UCG. He played inter-county football for Longford from 1977 to the early 1990’s, winning NFL Division 3S title in 1988 and NFL Division 3S title in 1990. His club football switched from his native Ballymahon to Mayo in the early 1990’s where he won a Connacht Club SFC title in 1993 and played at full-back for Castlebar Mitchels in the All-Ireland Club SFC final of 1993/94. In 1995 he took over management of St. Gerald’s College in Castlebar and transformed their prospects by managing them to two Connacht Colleges SFC titles in 1996 & 1997 and an All-Ireland Colleges SFC final in 1997. He was joint manager of the Mayo minor team that reached the All-Ireland MFC final in 1999.

Francis McNamee played in Sigerson Cup competition in 1984 & 1985 and was selected for the 1984 Combined Universities panel following his impressive performances for UCD that year. The following year in 1985 he won the Sigerson Cup with UCD, becoming the first Drumlish native to do so since Con McGovern in 1940.

Ronan Carberry was awarded ‘Man of the Match’ in the Trench Cup final of 1999/00.

Gary Kenny was top scorer for St. Pats Drumcondra (0-5) in the Trench Cup final of 2001/02.

Conor Smith was joint captain of DCU when they won the All-Ireland Freshers ‘A’ final in February 2024.

Fiona Blessington from Ballymore was selected for Ulster in the Higher Education Inter-Provincial series in 2001.

Laura & Aoife Doherty from Killoe were selected for Leinster in the Higher Education Inter-Provincial series in 2001.

Geraldine Hanly & Maura Moran from Rathcline club won HEC Division 2 League (Curren Cup) in 1998 with NUI Maynooth.