One of the most poignant aspects of John O’Mahony’s death 13 months ago was the enthusiasm with which he had been preparing for the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival GAA night. It was to be an interview, conducted by O’Mahony’s long-time friend Tommie Gorman with Jim Gavin, about managing Dublin and his then work-in-progress with the Football Review Committee.
“John was doing it on behalf of the club [Ballaghaderreen GAA] and he came up with Jim Gavin, who said he’d be delighted to do it,” recalls his wife, Ger. “Tommie was going to be in France but he said, ‘absolutely I will be coming home to do that’.”
Both men went into hospital around June. Gorman was to have a routine operation as part of his ongoing cancer treatment. His friend, who had also been treated for the disease, had to go in to deal with an associated issue.
They had targeted the GAA night as the date by which they would be recovered and looked forward to welcoming Gavin.
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Tommie Gorman died on June 25th and Ger O’Mahony remembers John, who had been quite unwell at that point, actually rallied.
“John had been very sick for two weeks but after Tommy died, in the next 10 days, he improved greatly and they were talking in the hospital about him coming out. He was on the phone night, noon and morning talking to people and the nurses used to say, ‘oh we knew he had improved because that phone was burning up in the room’.”
Seán O’Rourke was lined up to interview Gavin and everything was set but John O’Mahony suddenly relapsed and died on July 6th.
There was a shocked outpouring from the worlds of the GAA and politics at the death of an All-Ireland winning manager, who had been involved in so many landmark breakthroughs for Connacht counties, and a Fine Gael TD and senator for more than a decade.
Ballaghderreen wanted this year’s GAA night to reflect on his lifelong involvement with the game. The venue is St Nathy’s College, across the road from the O’Mahony’s, where he taught for many years.
John and Ger’s daughter Rhona O’Mahony, whose husband Padraic’s business McKeever Sports is the GAA night sponsor, explains how the event came about.
“The club were running it and wanted to do it in honour of Daddy. They approached us. So, as a family we all got together and we were wondering about the theme, something to honour him but also something that he would enjoy himself: not all about him – he’d have hated that – but the future of football.”
In the eyes of many, his greatest achievement was managing Leitrim to only their second Connacht title in 1994. The least populous county in Ireland went to Croke Park that August to play Dublin in an All-Ireland semi-final. Captaining the team was Declan Darcy, a Dubliner whose father Frank was from Aughawillan.
He would later play for Dublin and went on to become Jim Gavin’s right-hand man as part of the management that guided the county to the historic 2019 five-in-a-row. He is one of the many football personalities who will address the event, including Galway manager Pádraic Joyce, who won two All-Irelands with O’Mahony and Kieran McGeeney, manager of the Armagh team which won last year’s All-Ireland.
“John had an aura,” says Darcy. “When you looked at him, he was tough, he was resilient, he was professional and there was a confidence about him. I’ve said this before – you can do all the coaching courses you want but they won’t confer that aura to come into a room and just convince people that what you say is going to happen today.
“That’s a gift, and John had that gift.”
The thoroughness of his preparations was another calling card, the sense that his players had that everything possible was being done, down to the early adopter move to bring in performance coach Bill Cogan.
After a tournament match, Leitrim players watched as their hosts got fed steaks and just as they were licking their lips in anticipation, trays of chicken came out for them. Regardless of dietary science, John O’Mahony took umbrage at the discrimination against his team.
“He got really annoyed by it,” says Darcy, “simply because we weren’t getting fair treatment and John always stood up for us. He gave us everything that we wanted and needed to be the best, and to confront that inferiority complex thing.”
Creating confidence in teams is not straightforward. Successful counties have that tradition and even those who have known some success have a reassurance that it can be done, but for counties like Leitrim, other methods are needed, according to Darcy.
“What other ways can you give them that belief? Where you can get them collectively strong, and incredibly fit and tough, is from the mental toughness necessary to do the training. It galvanised the group.
“Bringing us to Strand Hill, and running us on the sand dunes – it was horrific stuff! But it galvanised us and developed the mental toughness. You knew there was very few teams doing this, like we were doing it. It was a smart strategy by John to create that confidence.”
Two years ago, Ger O’Mahony remembers travelling with her husband for a round of check-ups in Dublin and Ballinasloe. Once he was finished, John told her he had to drop in somewhere for a couple of minutes for an interview.
“It actually took four hours,” she remembers. The appointment was filming for Hell for Leather, RTÉ’s lavish football documentary that screened in June and July and featured among others, John.
“On the weekend of his anniversary Mass, I was really tired on the Monday night and I said I’m not watching it tonight. I’ll watch it on Tuesday on playback and then I just went in for a minute.
“Oh my God, that was the Galway one and there he was. You know, it was like balm. It didn’t upset me, it was like balm for my soul, it really was. You would be a little bit sad of course yeah, but it was magnificent.”
“A Life Lived on the Line” – reflecting on the legacy of John O’Mahony and the future of Gaelic football, hosted by Marty Morrissey, takes place in St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen on Friday, August 8th.
Speakers include Pádraic Joyce, Kieran McGeeney, Declan Darcy, Martin Carney, Fergal O’Donnell, John Maher, Tommy Rooney and Marc Ó Sé.
All tickets for the event have been sold.
