McDonagh, Matthew ('Mattie')

by Terry Clavin

McDonagh, Matthew ('Mattie') (1937–2005), Gaelic footballer, was born in Ballygar, Co. Galway, on 24 January 1937, youngest son of five sons and three daughters of Matt McDonagh, farmer, of St. Brendan's, Ballygar, and his wife Catherine (née Kelly). He attended the local Ballaghlea national school, and played Gaelic games, mainly hurling, but ultimately was deterred from seriously pursuing the sport by the discrepancy between the fairly clean matches he participated in as a schoolboy and the wildness prevalent at more senior levels.

From 1950 he attended Summerhill College, Sligo town, a boarding school, where he blossomed as a footballer. Naturally athletic, he weighed 14 stone as a 16-year-old and attained his full height of 6 ft early in adolescence. With Summerhill, he won two Connacht schools titles in 1954 and 1955, scoring a goal and lording over midfield in each final, against the province's leading football college, St Jarlath's of Tuam. He also starred for the Connacht inter-provincial colleges team that won the schools inter-provincial All-Irelands in 1954 and 1955, in this case as a centre half-forward.

Selected for the Galway minor footballers in 1953, 1954 and 1955, and for the Galway juniors in 1954 and 1955, he achieved a notable feat in 1955 when he played on consecutive weekends firstly for the Galway minors against Roscommon in the football championship and then for the Roscommon minors against Galway in the hurling championship. (Ballygar participated in the Roscommon hurling championship, making its hurlers eligible for that county's team.) His sporting prowess was matched by academic distinction and he obtained seven honours when he sat the leaving certificate in 1955, gaining entry into St Patrick's teacher training college in Drumcondra, Dublin. He played club football in Dublin for Erin's Hope, which was largely comprised of students of St Patrick's.

McDonagh's hallmark lay in soaring to claim the ball before embarking on a driving solo run, employing an unorthodox and exaggerated ball-hop, something of a stylistic tic. He compensated for a lack of pace with excellent positional sense, which, along with his assured and shrewd ball distribution, reflected an intelligent football brain. Strong and tough, distinguishable by his mop of red hair, he was a clean and even-tempered player; however, he felt that players seeking to progress with the ball should be given the benefit of the doubt, and vigorously swept aside opponents blocking his path. He possessed a powerful right foot, making him a goal threat and taker of long-range free kicks, but he was not a clinical marksman, being more of a creator than a scorer.

In late 1955 he was selected for the Galway senior football team for a league match against Dublin, lining out as left half-forward, and subsequently secured a midfield berth for the 1956 championship. Unburdened by the pressures experienced by his more senior colleagues, he displayed fearlessness and carefree exuberance in producing a series of eye-catching, though uneven, performances as Galway claimed an All-Ireland title in grand style. With Galway clinging to a narrow lead, he came to the fore in the closing stages of the final against Cork, tilting the game back in his team's favour. Capping a glorious year, he inspired Erin's Hope to victory over St Vincent's in the Dublin club final, accounting this the greatest accomplishment of his career given that St Vincent's had thirteen players on the Dublin team and had won the previous seven county championships.

After the successful completion of his final college exams in 1957, he was made principal of Gortnadieve national school, a one-teacher school near Glenamaddy, Co. Galway, and close enough to Ballygar for him to return to his family home and play for his native parish. Ballygar lost county finals in 1957, 1958 and 1961, going closest in the last instance when Dunmore McHales overturned a four-point deficit to win a low-scoring game by two points.

McDonagh endured a frustrating period during 1957–62, as Galway suffered a succession of narrow championship defeats and he struggled to achieve consistency, alternating between spells of dominance and of anonymity, arising from an inability to pace himself. Impetuous and attack-minded, he habitually afforded his opposite number undue leeway. In mitigation, he reserved his best performances for the most crucial games and rallied when his team was in distress.

From 1960, Galway experimented with deploying him as centre half-forward. During 1960–62, he flitted between midfield and the 40-yard mark; preferring midfield and the greater freedom it gave him, he struggled in his new role. This transition coincided with the break-up of the 1956 team and the introduction of untested youth, leading him to attempt too much on his own and spoil his fine fielding with profitless solo runs. In time, he accumulated enough experience and confidence in his teammates to play with more restraint and maturity. He provided a glimpse of what was to come in a superlative showing as no. 11 during a keenly contested league encounter with Roscommon late in 1961, in which he kicked seven points, conducted his forward line with metronomic efficiency, and dominated his marker.

Galway was piecing together a promising but youthful side, lacking in heft and height, and vulnerable to being bullied into submission, particularly in the forward line. McDonagh's willingness to bear a continuous pummelling was crucial to the effectiveness of the attack, as was his capacity for fielding the ball and feeding his slighter, swifter colleagues in space. He never captained Galway, but was the team's most experienced player and served for many years as vice-captain, helping to instil a sense of camaraderie among his teammates. Genial and gentlemanly, he revelled in dressing room banter, while studiously avoiding vulgar language, and gained the popularity and respect of younger players. His captain Enda Colleran (qv) observed: 'Mattie is a man among men, a boy among boys and he's not bad among the ladies either' (Connacht Tribune, 30 October 1965). Strikingly handsome, he was the most eligible bachelor in the county prior to his marriage in 1967 to Kathleen Brennan, also of Ballygar; they had two sons and two daughters.

In 1963 Galway reached the All-Ireland final where he gave an accomplished performance against Dublin, repeatedly teeing up his fellow forwards only for their profligacy to forfeit victory. With hindsight, he held that the Galway players had not yet perfected their interplay and mutual understanding, and might have lapsed into mediocrity had they triumphed that year. Instead, Galway won three All-Irelands in succession (1964–6), as well as the home National Football League in 1965 and 1967, and also reached the 1966 home league final. Having failed to appreciate properly his 1956 All-Ireland, he relished this spell of renewed and heightened glory.

During these years, he was repeatedly written off after turning in sluggish, leaden-footed performances on muddy winter fields that highlighted his troubles with the low ball and militated against his solo sallies. Although a lifetime teetotaller and non-smoker, he struggled with fitness and accumulated flab during the off-season. Once training began in earnest around May or June, he shed weight rapidly and was at his best on the hard pitches of high summer. Part battering ram, part orchestrator of intricate passing patterns, he proved a worthy successor to Sean Purcell (qv) as the fulcrum of Galway's attack.

Generally, Galway subjected foes, rapier-like, to death by a thousand cuts, starving them of possession and eschewing goals in favour of patiently working point-scoring opportunities. When required, however, McDonagh permitted them to wield the blunderbuss to devastating effect, notching crucial goals, such as that against Sligo in the first round of the 1964 championship, which saved the three-in-a-row from being strangled at birth; against Meath in the 1964 All-Ireland semi-final, bursting through a ferocious tackle before scoring; and again against Meath in the 1966 final, completing a well-worked move with a thunderous left-foot finish (his weaker foot).

His most contentious contribution occurred in the final minute of the 1965 league final against Kerry when, down on one knee, he gathered the ball as it bobbled past and released Seamus Leydon to score the winning goal. Kerry players and fans vociferously contested this goal's legality, dismissing McDonagh's protestations that he had picked it off the grass rather than the ground. The controversy sparked such heated debate that Telefís Éireann sent the relevant footage to London to be processed into slow motion, which, however, failed to resolve the matter.

Later that year, just prior to half-time in the All-Ireland final against the same opposition, he was stunned by a premeditated head-on challenge and was helped off the pitch for the interval. To widespread amazement, he finished the game even though heavily concussed, and admitted afterwards that he spent most of the second half uncertain as to what match he was playing in. Understandably, it was not a vintage display, but his fortitude demoralised Kerry and inspired his teammates to victory.

He was part of a group of Galway players vocally discontented by the parsimonious services and hospitality provided for them at training sessions and on away trips. Furthermore, in January 1965 he condemned the GAA's ban on members' participation in 'foreign games' and stated that rules against attending dances held by soccer or rugby clubs were farcical. Following Galway's abject loss to Mayo in the first round of the 1967 championship, the selectors moved against the troublemakers, and he was one of five players dropped from the Galway panel. He believed that he and his cohorts should have won another All-Ireland, and blamed the Mayo defeat on the selectors for over-training players already worn out by a frenetic schedule.

In February 1968 he stood against his long-time Galway coach John 'Tull' Dunne (qv) for the position of Galway delegate to the Connacht council of the GAA. Dunne dropped out and McDonagh's ensuing election was identified with a broader trend whereby control of Galway GAA's administrative structures passed to a younger generation more attuned to the players' outlook and aspirations. That May, the Galway selectors grudgingly recalled McDonagh and other dissidents. Although age had rendered him slow and ungainly, he was still effective at full-forward and helped Galway to a Connacht title in his swansong season.

He ended his inter-county career with four All-Ireland medals (1956, 1964–6), a record for a Connachtman, ten Connacht championship medals (1956–60, 1963–6 and 1968), and two National League medals (1957 and 1965), while also winning the home National League in 1967. He was the Texaco Gaelic footballer of the year for 1966. With Connacht, he won two Railway Cup medals (1957–8), but did not have a distinguished Railway Cup career as this competition took place early in the year when he was at his least fit.

Away from the football pitch, he enjoyed shooting, golf and squash. Following the ending of the ban in 1971, he took up rugby, playing for Creggs, and soccer, playing for Creggs United. He remained involved in the GAA, continuing to play football and hurling for Ballygar's successor club, St Brendan's, well into the 1970s. During the 1960s, he served as chairman of Coiste Iomana, contributing towards a revival of hurling in south Galway and Ballygar. He also coached the Caltra Gaelic football team in 1978.

In autumn 1980 he was appointed manager of the Galway football team amid a bitter dispute between the players and the Galway football board. Supporting the players' desire to simplify a politicised system of management by committee, McDonagh helped broker a temporary settlement whereby the existing selectors remained, but he and his assistants had unfettered charge of the team during matches. Galway went on to win the 1981 National League, which persuaded the board to grant him and his two assistants complete authority over the county side.

Under McDonagh, Galway won consecutive Connacht titles in 1982–3, playing fast, direct football that pleased traditionalists, though he was criticised for tactical passivity during matches, and his lenient approach to training. In the 1983 All-Ireland final they encountered a heavily favoured Dublin side. Recalling that Galway had allowed themselves to be intimidated by the Dublin players and fans in losing the 1974 decider, McDonagh primed his team accordingly, and the game degenerated into a running battle in which three Dublin players were sent off to Galway's one. With twenty-five minutes left, Dublin faced into a strong wind with a two-man numerical disadvantage, holding a mere six-point lead. There ensued a colossal failure of nerve and judgement on the part of McDonagh and his team. He failed to push his extra men forward, permitting Dublin to hold out and win. After the game, McDonagh resigned as manager.

Thereafter, he served as a trainer and selector at St Brendan's and was a selector to the Galway minor team that claimed the 1986 All-Ireland. In 1988 he managed the Galway minors, winning a Connacht title. He had continued as principal of Gortnadieve national school until his appointment in 1975 as principal of the nearby Creggs national school for the remainder of his teaching career. A Fianna Fáil activist, he was mooted as a potential candidate for the party in the 1965 East Galway by-election, but ruled himself out, probably because he did not want to run against his Galway teammate John Donnellan who was the Fine Gael nominee. Later he left Fianna Fáil due to his support for Neil Blaney (qv) (1922–95), and even canvassed for Donnellan in the November 1982 general election.

A raconteur of note, he was a popular figure locally and further afield, numbering among his friends the doyen of GAA commentators, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh. In 1998 he was inducted into the GAA Hall of Fame. After a long illness he died in his home at Ballygar on 10 April 2005 and was buried in the local graveyard. A community centre built in Ballygar was named after him.