Kerry footballer to get All-Ireland winner's medal... 55 years later

It’s better late than never for an All-Ireland footballer who is getting his winner’s medal on Saturday, 55 years after he togged out for the final.

Seán O’Shea, from Caherdaniel, Co Kerry, was a non-playing substitute when his county defeated Meath in the All-Ireland football final in 1970.

At the time, there was a restriction on the number of medals that were handed out to the winning panel, but all of that is about to change for 82-year-old Seáno, as he is known.

Seáno, who captained his club Waterville, was on a team that included legends Mick O’Dwyer and Mick O’Connell.

He will be presented with the medal before Saturday afternoon’s National Football League match in Castlebar between Mayo and his native Kerry, albeit more than half a century after it was due.

Seán O'Shea, front row, centre, with some of his teammates, including Mick O'Dwyer, back row, far left, and Mick O'Connell, back row, far right.

The medal presentation came about as a result of an intercounty campaign conducted by Seáno’s Mayo born son-in-law Noel Kelly and the PRO of the Mayo county board, John Walker.

They were aware former GAA president Mick Loftus, who had been a substitute on the last Mayo team to win an All-Ireland in 1951, had eventually been awarded his medal decades later.

The pair approached Croke Park and managed to also get the Kerry county board to back the efforts.

The result was agreement that Seáno was entitled to his medal as would be the case if he had the same role on the team today.

As it happens, he nearly made it onto the pitch for the final in September 1970, where he would have automatically received a medal.

He was told to get ready and an official was signing off on the piece of paper to be given to the ref.

Seáno during his playing days in the 1970s

“I was due to go on when there wasn’t much time left,” he says.

“DJ Crowley, Lord have mercy on his soul, had gone in at full forward and they were going to take him off and put me in.

"Then he got a goal and that was the end of me.”

He says he is delighted to get the medal but he “doesn’t want anything big made out of it at all”.

He is travelling from his home deep in the Iveragh peninsula to Co Mayo in the company of his wife for the presentation, with members of his family coming from Dublin, London and Kerry for the occasion.

Kerry County board chairman Patrick O’Sullivan will be doing the honours.

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