Railway Cup Football Final 1945
Croke Park, March 1945

Leinster  2 – 05            Connaught  0 - 06

Croke Park was well-packed for the Railway Football Cup final, with a record attendance of 31,700 fans, Leinster against Connaught. Leinster came onto the pitch first, togged out in the Carlow colours, due to the war, followed by Connaught in Roscommon yellow.

Connaught played with the breeze in the first half but failed to take the advantage. They were catching high balls and kicking well, but the Leinster backs were steadfast and halted all efforts and 10 minutes had gone before Connaught opened the scoring with a point from J. Murray. Cork scored a second point, this coming from P. Murray, before Leinster opened up their scoring with a point from Byrne. Connaught soon lead by   4 points to 1.

Any attempt at hand-passing by the Leinster was broken down by a powerful Connaught half-back line. Both teams wasted plenty of chances with frees. At half-time the score was five Connaught points to a Leinster one.

A Leinster free on the restart reduced the lead and a Leinster point for Byrne brought the score to 0-5 to 0-3. Both teams scored, having missed frees and 50’s to bring it to 0-6 to 0-4. Meeghan soon scored a goal for Leinster, putting them in the lead for the first time. Another point for Leinster and a last minute goal, again scored by Meeghan, buried the men from the West and clenched the victory for Leinster.

The Leinster Railway Cup Winning Panel of 1945:

Paddy Larkin (Louth), Sean Boyle (Louth), P. McIntyre (Dublin), Peenie Whelan (Carlow & Team Captain), P. O’ Reilly (Dublin), Mick Geraghty (Kildare), Jim Morris (Carlow), Jimmy Haniffy (Longford), Frankie Byrne (Meath), Bill Delaney (Laois), Des O’Neill (Wicklow), Paddy Meegan (Laois), Chris Delaney (Laois), Jimma Rea (Carlow), Eddie Boyle (Louth), Peter McDermott (Meath), Tony Donnelly, Tommy Murphy (Laois) & P. Kelly

Adapted excerpt from “The Nationalist and Leinster Times”, March 24th 1945 and the booklet “Leinster Resurgence” (Carlow County Museum ccm 83-147).

Compiled by Ruarai Doyle, Transition Year Student, Presentation College, Carlow Town