Westmeath victories in the Leinster GAA’s O’Byrne Cup are surprisingly scare and to date the competition has only been won on four occasions in 1959, 1964, 1988 and 2019. The competition is not important as it was in the past; in the words of the Westmeath manager Mark McHugh O’Byrne Cup matches are ‘controlled challenge games’.
There is a strong Mullingar Shamrocks association with the four successes. Three of the four wins have been landed when Shamrocks hold the Flanagan Cup. Shamrocks had yet to escape from junior in 1959 when Westmeath first won the cup and the club had no representative on the team.
Westmeathgaaofficial next won the title in 1964 two weeks after Shamrocks won their first senior title with two of the Shamrocks half-back line, Frankie Connaughton and Kevin Higgins playing. Kevin Higgins was goalkeeper on that occasion when Westmeath beat Carlow and Frankie Connaughton was corner-forward.
In 1988, Westmeath beat Laois with Tom Ormsby captain and the only Shamrocks representative on the team. That was it until 2019 when Killian Daly played corner back against Dublin and captained the team to a 1-12 to 0-10 victory. Denis Corroon and Paddy Fagan were also on the panel and Paddy’s crucial equalising score against Offaly in the league section saved the county from elimination. This competition was played using experimental new rules including a sin bin for a black card, the advance mark and a limit on the number of hand passes/ led the way.
A Shamrocks connection is obviously important for teams with designs on winning the O'Byrne Cup as back in 2012 DCU won the title. The DCU captain was Kieran Gavin with brother Davy making a significant impact when introduced to the game. Kiernan Gavin holds a special place in the Mullingar Shamrocks O’Byrne Cup history. The 2012 victory earned Kieran his second O’Byrne Cup medal as DCU also won the title in 2010.
In qualifying for the 2026 final, Brian Guerin has played a central part and we wish Brian and all associated with the campaign the best of luck in the final v Kildare in Cedral, St Conleth’s Park Newbridge tomorrow (Friday) at 7.30.
