When Galway take on Leitrim in Pearse Stadium this Sunday it will be 28 seasons since they were defeated by them in championship football, but the world of 1994 is light years distant from contemporary realities.
That was a time when Leitrim ruled the roost in Connacht, winning the provincial title and losing it a year later despite being favourites to win again and harbouring ambitions to make more of an impact on the All-Ireland series.
The rivalry with Galway is key to that era. John O’Mahony took over as manager of Leitrim in 1992 having led Mayo to a first All-Ireland final in 38 years. He would, of course, take many of the Galway players who had been his mid-decade rivals to All-Ireland success four years later.
When he took over in Leitrim the main objective in building on the work of previous manager PJ Carroll was to take a scalp. They had been paired with Galway – whom they had not beaten in over 40 years of championship – in the 1993 Connacht draw.
“We targeted that game for ages,” recalls O’Mahony. “At the time Leitrim were doing well and played in Division Two of the league, but our focus for that year was on the Galway game. I’d say we analysed them more than any other county. At that stage they had Mannion, de Paor and Fallon, and were a very good team.”
Leitrim corner forward Liam Conlon says that matches against Galway were viewed pessimistically by many.
“We didn’t have a border with them and no history of beating them. My dad and his generation didn’t even bother going to those games because they were regarded as foregone conclusions but at the same time, Mayo and Roscommon struggled to win in Tuam as well.
“When we played them in 1994, my father and his friends definitely didn’t go because after beating them the previous year it was assumed we couldn’t possibly do it again!”
Hardest
The 1994 championship required Leitrim to beat all three of Connacht’s top counties: Roscommon, who had put them out of the previous four championships, Galway and, finally, Mayo.
Galway proved the hardest and it took a replay after the first match in Carrick-on-Shannon ended in a draw. It was a peculiar feature of the time that Leitrim fared better away from home.
“On a personal level,” says Conlon, “I hated Carrick. It didn’t have that quick championship surface. It was quite a dead pitch with a nervous atmosphere all around, and even among those going to games. I loved the Hyde, a terrific, quick pitch. I suppose as well we were always under that bit more pressure in Carrick. It certainly never bothered us going to Salthill or Tuam.
“John O’Mahony did a lot of work with us, particularly on psychology, so that we were mentally prepared. We were a seasoned team, ready to respond if things were going wrong.”
Things were going wrong in the replay in Tuam because after a match they had done more than enough to win, missing a penalty along the way, Leitrim found themselves level after Val Daly had equalised.
Conlon remembers the urgency with which the team reacted to set up Pádraig Kenny for the winning point.
“In that match as soon as they got the equaliser, Martin McHugh, our goalkeeper, was scurrying around the back of the goal, grabbing the ball and getting the kick-out away. We were going after it whereas previously he might have been creeping around to delay the restart because we might have been half pleased with the draw.”
Connacht title
There was no stopping them now and on a hot afternoon in Hyde Park, Leitrim beat Mayo 0-12 to 2-4 to win a first Connacht title since 1927 – which remains their only title since.
There was symmetry to the end of Leitrim’s reign a year later, coming as it did in Carrick against Galway after a match in which they looked to have done enough to win, something ruefully acknowledged by O’Mahony.
"The referee played five minutes of injury time. We were two up and I remember Ciarán McGovern was one on one with the 'keeper and took a point. At the time we all felt he was doing the right thing. But Galway scored three points – Ja Fallon, Seán Óg de Paor and Niall Finnegan. "
Conlon almost reluctantly reflects on it.
“That’s the one we don’t speak about! It really stuck in our craw. There’s no point denying that we’d taken a bit a of a dip and that intense sense of purpose we had in 1994 had slipped even slightly. We had been around the block and knew what was needed, but although the better team we weren’t careful enough.
“There was a swagger about us that probably didn’t suit us that well. We probably needed to be a bit anxious to get the best out of ourselves.”
