Five star Donnelly inspired Ratoath to SHC glory
Winning a SHC title is not easy. Pat Donnelly knows that better than most and in the October week leading up to the postponed 2020 final he spoke to the Meath Chronicle about that memorable success.
During the 1960s Donnelly played in four SHC deciders for Ratoath, but ended up winning just one.
That was in 1963 when Ratoath defeated Dunboyne in a showdown that was remarkable in a number of ways.
For starters it was Ratoath’s first – and so far only senior crown – and it turned out to be a score-fest with Ratoath winning by, wait for it, 9-3 to 6-11 at St Loman’s Park, Trim.
It was particularly memorable for Donnelly as he scored an astonishing five goals in the final in a tour de force performance that went a long way to ensure the blue and golds picked up the trophy.
The 1963 showdown was, Donnelly recalls, played in what was a different world.
“At that time there was about 500 or 600 people living in Ratoath, now there are 10,000 so I would say just about every adult and child who lived in Ratoath was at that final,” he said.
“It was only a little sleepy village, we used to say you couldn’t buy a bag of nails in Ratoath, you could lie down on the middle of the road, there was no traffic.
“We trained and played games in a field that was given to us by a local farmer, we togged out at the side of the field. We didn’t have anything like the facilities there is there now.”
Donnelly was employed in the building sector (he was later involved in the opening up Donnelly’s Hardware in Ratoath in 1975) and he was working in Trim at the time of the ’63 final.
“We played all our games in Pairc Tailteann except the final, we beat Trim and Boardsmill before we played Athboy in the semi-final,” he recalled.
Throughout the campaign Donnelly was posted in at full-forward and in the four games he helped himself to 10-2, surely something of a record.
A highly talented sprinter Donnelly used his pace and his hurling skills to ransack opposition defences that summer – and Dunboyne suffered the most in the final with captain Mattie McCabe and Kilbride legend, the recently departed Tommy Mahon each contributing 2-1 to the huge scoreline.
The Ratoath goalkeeper was another legend, Tony Darby, the local butcher who is known far and wide.
Donnelly points out the vast majority of the team was made up of players from a few families – the Donnellys, the Eiffes, the McCabes and the Everards.
This Pat Donnelly believes Ratoath have a wonderful chance of ending their long famine this time around.
“I would love to be playing on the current Ratoath team because they are fabulous hurlers," he said.
"There are plenty of big strong men, but they can also hurl. For that reason and others as well, I think they can win against Trim.”
The Ratoath team that won the 1963 SHC was: T Darby; J Everard, Peter Donnelly, T Troy; S Wheeler (0-1), B Eiffe, P Martin; P Toole, P McCabe; M McCabe, F Gorman, T Mahon; D Ryan, Pat Donnelly, M Flood.