All stations go for Westmeath GAA presentation night this Friday

With close to a confirmed attendance of 600 guests, the stage is set for what promises to be the greatest social event in the history of Westmeath GAA which takes place in the Mullingar Park Hotel on Friday evening next, December 2, beginning at 7pm.

Seven sets of football medals and an incredible ten sets of hurling medals are due to be presented on the night dating back to 2008 in football and 2013 in hurling.

Pride of place on the night will be shared by the champion McDonagh Cup team of 2021 and the Tailteann Cup champions of 2022. In the season of the Covid-19 pandemic, the six McDonagh Cup entrants were divided into two groups of three. Westmeath travelled to Netwatch Cullen Park on 3 July and were comfortable 0-23 to 0-18 winners over Carlow.

A week later in TEG Cusack Park Kildare threatened to terminate the county’s interest in the competition but a one-point (2-19 to 1-21) victory sealed a place in the McDonagh Cup final for the third time in four years. Derek McNicholas’ long-distance point from close to the sideline proved to be the match winner.

Kerry provided the opposition in the final played, in sweltering conditions in Croke Park, on 17 July. Westmeath were convincing winners and led by 2-16 to 0-14 at the interval. Niall Mitchell’s spectacular goal in the first minute set the trend and Ciaran Doyle’s goal in the 35th minute complicated the challenge for Kerry. The gap remained at eight points (2-22 to 0-20) at the second water break (remember those?).

Mikey Boyle’s goal after 60 minutes did little to disturb the trend and at the final whistle Westmeath held a 2-28 to 1-24 lead and Cormac Boyle was the one presented with the Joe McDonagh Cup, but only for a short time as the restrictions associated with Covid prevented the cup from leaving the stadium. Promotion to the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship was the bigger prize.

Every cloud has a silver lining and the cloud that enveloped the Westmeath football community after narrowly missing out on promotion to the Allianz NFL Division 2 and losing to Kildare in the Leinster Championship proved to have the glitziest lining of the lot.

Failure to make progress provided the entry to the GAA’s newly introduced and heavily promoted Tailteann Cup for counties classified as second tier. Westmeath players and management treated the competition with the respect that it deserved and Laois (1-13 to 0-13), Carlow (1-21 to 2-13) and Offaly (3-22 to 2-16) were eliminated on the journey to Croke Park for the final against Cavan, the 2020 Ulster champions and competition favourites, on July 9, 2022.

Memories were made and layers of history created as Westmeath outscored Cavan 2-14 to 1-13 and became the first winners of the Tailteann Cup. Kevin Maguire had the distinction of captaining the first winners; Lorcan Dolan scored the first goal in a Tailteann final; Ronan O’Toole kicked five points from play and was named the RTÉ Man of the Match; Kieran Martin’s spectacular match winning goal was the most important score of the competition; John Heslin’s three points brought his tally to 1-25 and made him the leading Tailteann Cup scorer overall, and brought his championship career total for Westmeath to 5-162 and he became the leading all-time championship scorer for the county, overtaking Dessie Dolan’s total of 4-163. And all this was followed by the never-to-be-forgotten homecoming.

No doubt the winning of these two titles will dominate discussions on Friday night but the joy and heartbreak of Westmeath GAA is wrapped up in the decade or so covered by Friday night’s medal presentation: the heartbreak of losing successive McDonagh Cup finals, relegation from Division 1 to Division 4 in football and bouncing back to Division 2. It will be a night for reminiscing and memory recall.

Ruaile Buaile will supply the music and Will O’Callaghan from Midland 103 and Newstalk, as master of ceremonies, will ensure that it all runs smoothly on the night.