Noel Tierney, who has died at the age of 82, was the dominant full back in an era defined by his Galway team, who won three All-Irelands in a row, starting in 1964.
News of his death came as a particular shock in his home place of Milltown where just a week previously he had been honoured at a special event, written about on these pages by Ciarán Murphy, last Thursday and attended by current Galway footballer Paul Conroy, winner of the 2024 Footballer of the Year award – 60 years after Noel Tierney had been honoured with the Caltex equivalent.
From the borderlands with Mayo, he had nearly gravitated towards the Garrymore club but fortunately for Galway instead threw in his lot with Milltown.
A prominent minor, he starred on the 1960 team who won the All-Ireland, beating Cork in the final, and featuring many names which would become famous in the years ahead, including future All-Ireland winning captain Enda Colleran.
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“Noel made his debut in 1963,” says local historian, journalist and broadcaster Jim Carney, a prime mover in the organisation of the celebratory event the weekend before last. “He played very well in that year’s final against Dublin, as did the team, and people said that it could be the making of the team, which it was. They won the next three.”
His abilities and performances are reflected in contemporary recognition. As well as being named Footballer of the Year in 1964, he won Cúchulainn awards – sponsored by Gaelic Weekly and precursors of the official All Stars scheme – at full back in 1963 and 1964.
[ Milltown and Galway turn out in force to honour Noel TierneyOpens in new window ]
Although he was not especially tall at 5ft 10in, he was able to soar under a dropping ball, as was showcased in an edit of footage from those All-Irelands and presented that night in Milltown.
“He had long hands,” says Jim Carney, “and an unbelievable spring off the ground. He took it out of the clouds. There is a picture somewhere of him going up into the air with Tom Long in the 1964 All-Ireland against Kerry. It shows what he could do – a bit like that photograph of Seán Walsh and Brian Mullins.
“As it happened he and Tom Long married two sisters, the Hughes girls from The Neale in Mayo. It’s amazing how these things happen.
“He was very traditional in his play but in the 1966 final against Meath he took ball after ball and played many passes down the line to the young Jimmy Duggan, who was just three months after his Leaving Cert and who moved out to the wing to pick them up.”
His career slowed down in 1968, largely because he needed more time to give to his farm, but he managed to win a Railway Cup with Connacht a year later and then in 1971 a senior county title with Milltown, the club’s first, to go with five Connacht titles, one national league and three senior All-Irelands.
“Noel Tierney was the nearest thing I met to a modern embodiment of the spirit of Knocknagow, the novel by Charles Kickham – ‘the honour of the little village,’” says Jim Carney.
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