Century man's medals return home to Skryne

There's a 'golden mile' on the road between Dunshaughlin and Ratoath, or to be hyper-local about it, between 'the fingerpost' and Trevet Grange.
The reason this short stretch of road is called so is because it has produced so many sportsmen who have brought home medals to the parish of Skryne on the GAA playing fields, from the early days of the last century to the final decade of the 1900s. 
Names like Kevin Johnson, Matt O'Toole, the O'Briens (any amount of them!), Packie Mooney right through to his grandson, Trevor Giles, and Andrew Murphy, have all enjoyed championship success, with Micheal and Paddy O'Brien and Giles achieving that ultimate pinnacle, the All Ireland senior football medal.
One of the greatest full backs of all time in the annals of the GAA was Paddy O'Brien from Scalestown, known as Paddy 'Hands' O'Brien, who was named on the team of the century in the GAA's centenary year of 1984.

The late Paddy O'Brien.

He was part of a great Meath full-back line, teaming up with his cousin, Micheal, and Kevin McConnell, to win the first of his All Ireland SFC medals in 1949. 
Paddy O'Brien won two Meath SFC championships with Skryne in 1944 and 45, and a Dublin one with Sean McDermotts when working in the city in 1947. He added another All Ireland to his haul in 1954, adding to his two National League titles of 1946 and '51, five Leinster medals, and three Railway Cup medals.
He was the first man honoured by the Royal Meath Association in 1973 with a hall of fame award, and received the Skryne GFC Hall of Fame Award in 1985, followed by the Meath award in 1990.
Now, following his passing in Dublin two years ago at the age of 90, his family has decided to present his collection of medals and awards to Skryne GFC, where they are on proud display in a newly acquired glass cabinet, along with those of another late club man, Kit Browne.
The cabinet and collection was unveiled last week at a function in the RST centre at the club grounds.
Chairman of the club, Senan McGrath, said he could imagine Paddy and Kit hopping on their bikes in all kinds of weather to ride to Skryne GAA grounds many years ago.
“If they arrived here today, there would be a different scene awaiting them, with so many new facilities, and still the pride and dedication to the blue jersey of Skryne,” he said. 
The event was to showcase the facilities of the GAA club and the community RST centre, and was organised by the club and RST committee, notably Dermot Carty, Oliver Harrington, and Maurice Daly, with help from Gordon Dardis.
Dermot Carty said Kit Browne played in eight senior county finals and won six medals; played in seven Feis Cup finals and won six; and his collection includes an intermediate medal from 1937, the last time Skryne were intermediate. He thanked Cepta Faulkner who presented the medals on behalf of her late husband, Sean.
Other families remembered included the Smyths and Mooneys, and the jersey of Tony Clarke, who played in six finals in the 1940s, was also on display.

Colm O'Brien, brother of Paddy, home from Boston, with Trevor Giles.

Two of Paddy O'Brien's sons, Padraic and Garry, attended the event, as did his grandson, Tomás, from Kilcock. Padraig said that after his father passed away in 2016, the family decided that there would be no better place to leave his medals than back to where he started off his footballing career, in Skryne. 
They had been on display in the family home in Santry, with the medals hanging on a green velvet harp made by his Paddy's wife, Kay. 
In his memoirs, featured in the Irish Press in 1956, Paddy wrote of his love of running through the fields and jumping wide ditches after the day’s work was done. These self-imposed exercises were to prove immensely beneficial to the legendary high catcher on the football field in later years. His repertoire of talents made him the best not only in the green and gold but throughout Ireland. It had to be linked to his miraculous catching of the high ball around the square where no full-forward could compete with him. He could spring for the ball from a standing position without the facility of a short run. Paddy’s kickouts went all of sixty yards every time, and in many a game he sent the fifties over the bar. Although one of the cleanest full-backs ever to play the game, his height and strength were great assets when he brushed through the opposing forwards to clear down field. He started his football career in Skryne National School under the tutelage of schoolmaster Brian Smyth. Paddy perfected his skills at the half-hour lunch breaks each day where some of the matches were more exciting and hard fought than many a county final. Paddy made his debut with the Skryne seniors in 1942. 
He was at corner-forward when Donaghmore defeated Skryne in the county final. Skryne came back to win the title in 1944 after three exciting games with Navan Parnells in the final and Paddy was one of the stars of the three games, scoring a goal and a point in the last match. Skryne retained the title in 1945, beating Oldcastle in the final and once again star of the show at midfield was Paddy O’Brien. He was no mean exponent of the small ball game either, turning out for Oberstown in the senior hurling final of 1945 when Kilmessan won the title.

 

Tomás O'Brien reads of his grandfather's exploits on the playing fields in the Number 3 jersey.

The war years of the early forties when minor competitions were suspended prevented Paddy from proving himself. Th erefore, he made his senior debut on the Meath team at the tender age of eighteen. With the National League in abeyance, Paddy had his fi rst game against Louth in the Leinster League at Dundalk in 1944. The Skryne starlet started at midfield, but the over anxious youngster could do nothing right. Soon, he was on the move to the forty and then to the wing, and fi nally to full-forward with Louth controlling the game and time almost up. Th e big Skryne man scored the equalising goal to secure victory in that section of the league. It encouraged the selectors to give him another chance in the green and gold. 
His nickname came from a visit Stateside in 1951. Meath won the National League home final beating Mayo, thus qualifying for a trip to New York and a meeting in the final proper with the hosts. In a close game, Meath won the title 1–10 to 0–10. The commentator for this match John ‘Lefty’  Devine christened him Paddy ‘Hands’, an appropriate name for the high-catching Skryne man. 

 

Cepta Faulkner, who presented Kit Browne's medals, with Dermot Carty of Skryne GFC.