‘In the house we were all against him. And that’s...

For a while, the Tavey house in Donaghmoyne was Ground Zero for Monaghan football. Five out of seven brothers would play for the county. One of them, Paddy, played in the 1958 Ulster Championship for Cavan on the same day that his brother John played for Monaghan.

Definitely

“We were all Monaghan,” recalls Eamon, with his thick southern Monaghan accent, the youngest and most menswear store owner in Carrickmacross. “And we all hated Paddy for playing with Cavan. I don’t mean hatred that way. But in the house we were all against him. And that is definitely. ”

Paddy had previously played for Monaghan but married a Cavan woman and moved to Cavan. And in return he swapped white and blue for blue and white.

In 1958 Monaghan and Cavan were drawn against each other in Ulster. Coincidentally, it took them three games at Clones, Breffni, and Casement Park to find a winner. In the middle, John played Monaghan on the full-back and Paddy on Cavan.

When there was no doubt who the Tavey House was crying out for, there was still room for a mother’s worries.

“After a few minutes my mother must have been very nervous because she pulled me out of the ground. And I remember crying because I didn’t want to go. But she thought John was going to be killed. Cavan had brought back Victor Sherlock to play on John, and Sherlock had a great name. My mother thought Sherlock was going to kill John. But John was well placed to take care of himself. ”

As it turned out, it was Paddy who was playing against his former teammates from Monaghan and found himself in hot water. He was deposed as a “fist fight” because of “Anglo Celt”.

Eamon now says that by all, Paddy wasn’t a fighting man. That trait was with another brother. “Peter. You hit a clip on his ear and he threw his hand back, you know what I mean? It was a match that was very easy to light up. That wasn’t Paddy’s way, but he could definitely take care of it. “He’d have your face cut off before you put your hands up.” ”

In a roundabout way, John might have had something to do with Paddy’s release. John was a formidable soccer player, railroad cup winner, and a senior member of the Monaghan lineup. And he gave his teammates his blessing to do what is necessary to keep Paddy out of the game.

“John was full-back and Paddy was a corner,” Eamon recalls. “Paddy played on a guy named Brendan Hamill. Hamill and John were great – Hamill played with Anaghmullen and John played with Donaghmoyne. And that day at Breffni Park, Hamill says to John, ‘What about your guy?’ And John says, “You do whatever you have to.”

“And that’s still in my head. John would have told me everything, even though I was the youngest. ”

The memory makes Eamon laugh. It was 20 years between them, but most of all Eamon wanted to be like John and play for Monaghan.

Eamon remembers his first championship game for the Farney in 1967 and he remembers his last in 1980. The old enemy Cavan wiped them out in its first two seasons, but slowly the worm spun.

Monaghan had a strong club scene and – Tavey was convinced – good footballers. With time running out in his own career, he and another established Monaghan footballer, Paddy Kerr decided they had to find a way to get better.

At the time, the Monaghan team was selected by the committee, but the players felt they needed a manager. Seán McCague, the potential GAA president, was seen as the man who moved them forward. And in an early version of player power, Kerr and Tavey went to the county convention to share the players’ feelings.

“We said we wanted a man for a job. Paddy O’Rourke was district secretary at the time and says to me, ‘Eamon, he’s going to get too much praise’. I say, ‘He’ll get a lot of stick even if he’s wrong. ‚“

It was a bold move, but it would pay off. With the sunset in Eamon’s career, Monaghan reached the Ulster Finals in 1979.

“That day we beat Armagh at Breffni Park in the semi-finals of the Ulster Championship. I remember Seán Hughes, a brilliant footballer. We both rolled together like a barrel, I would say, for 50 meters. He ran down the field and he yelled at me, “Tavey,” he says, “we’re in the Ulster final.”

A few weeks later, Monaghan won her first Ulster in 41 years.

“It was amazing. A week later we were in all the different cities. And we didn’t do anything, just drank, that just tells you the truth. It was powerful. ”

Monaghan emerged as a troupe, winning two more Ulster titles and a league, but Eamon realized that his time was over the following year.

“At Breffni Park in 1980 I was in the middle and (Armaghs Jimmy Smyth) was on 40 and I followed him across the field. It was like hunting horses or cattle. I could not reach him. And after the game I said to myself: “Eamon, that’s enough.”

attitude

He kept playing long enough to handle 10 county titles. There were divisions about this in the family as well. The family was originally from Donaghmoyne but bought a pub in ‘Blayney and moved there. When Eamon came he was playing with the Faughs of Castleblayney rather than the Fontenoys of Donaghmoyne. If Paddy was the black sheep to play with Cavan, then Eamon was the weird one who played with ‘Blayney. Perhaps John best summed up the family’s attitude.

“John said to me back then,” Eamon recalls, “I love seeing you win it, but I hate the f *** s you win it with.” That was how great he and I were. We were more than great, that’s the truth. ”

John and Paddy have since left, but their place in history as brothers on different sides of the centuries-old war is assured. For the rest of the GAA world, Monaghan and Cavan are the same but different. But for those who care, and for those who know, they are much more than that.