Brothers in Sport by Donal Keenan Read Free Book Online Page B

Championships.
    They would do it with panache and style, fierce will and possibly the most famous goal ever scored in the football Championship. ‘An awful lot has happened since that day,’ says Seán. ‘A lot of teams have won the All-Ireland for the first time, there have been great matches and great teams, but hardly a week goes by that someone does not ask me about that final. You could go to a funeral and be in the process of commiserating with someone and they will say “I was looking at the 1982 final on TV the other night”. It’s amazing.’
    Almost thirty years have passed and the Lowry name is back in the sporting headlines, not just in Ireland but around the world. Shane Lowry is making his exciting way in the world of professional golf, an Irish Open title won when he was still in the amateur ranks. As the world gets to know this talented youngster, the media consistently refer to him as the son of ‘the famous Offaly footballer Brendan Lowry’.
    * * *
    Like so many young couples of their generation, Ned and Margaret Lowry left Ireland in the 1950s to find employment abroad. They based themselves in Manchester where the first few of their eleven children, including Seán, were born. They kept in close contact with their families back home, always listening for news of employment opportunities in a homeland that was embracing the modern world. The Electricity Supply Board was expanding and one of its major projects was the opening of the power station in Ferbane. Ned Lowry saw his opportunity to return to Ireland and secured employment at the plant. ‘I always say that only for the power station in Ferbane I would have ended up playing for Manchester United instead of Offaly,’ jokes Seán.
    Ireland was changing rapidly as a country. The ESB and Bord na Móna were among the major employers. ‘Without them a lot of the people in Offaly and other counties would have had to look elsewhere in the country or more likely out of the country for work,’ Seán explains. ‘And it is hard to imagine that Offaly would have been winning football All-Irelands in the 1970s and 1980s if those jobs had not been made available.’
    Back in Ireland and settled in Ferbane, the growing Lowry family was comfortable among family and friends. They worked hard and found respite with football and hurling. Ned Lowry was a passionate football man. His brothers Art and Joe played for Offaly. Art farmed in Clogherinkoe and his son John later played for Kildare against an Offaly team that included cousin Seán. The maternal gene also contained plenty of football DNA. The Horans of Ballycumber were a renowned football family. ‘We were reared on stories of club games, the hitting and the fights. They’d call it dirt now, but then it was regarded as manly stuff,’ explains Seán. ‘My Uncle Johnny always told me to keep my elbows up to protect myself.’
    The swinging 1960s began with Offaly winning its first ever Leinster senior football title. The county became transfixed with the fortunes of a hugely talented group of footballers who would inspire Championship-winning generations to come. They might have won an All-Ireland title themselves had they managed to avoid the crusading Down team that emerged from Ulster to claim Sam Maguire and bring his trophy across the border for the very first time in 1960. The team of Kevin Mussen, Dan and Jim McCarthan, Joe Lennon, Paddy Doherty and Seán O’Neill thwarted Offaly in the 1960 All-Ireland semi-final and the 1961 final after a replay.
    But those Offaly giants awoke a county. Willie Nolan, Paddy McCormack, Greg Hughes, Phil O’Reilly and Mick Casey were just some of the heroes. Ned Lowry went to all the games. Tim Egan in Ferbane owned a car and he had a regular load to travel to Portlaoise, Croke Park or wherever Offaly were playing. Young Seán also secured a ride. ‘It cost my father five shillings for himself and two and six for me.’
    On summer evenings on the green in