The most famous solo run in Westmeath’s history

The man who made the first call to Páidí recounts a remarkable tale

The story of 2004 is forever etched in the annals of Westmeath GAA history and having the late Páidí Ó Sé on board as senior football manager provided the catalyst for such a remarkable season.

Precisely how that happened could be described as unconventional. It was down to a quick piece of thinking from then Football Board Vice-Chairman Des Maguire, who to all intents and purposes took the bull by the horns and contacted the Kerry legend personally to offer him the Westmeath position at a time when Ó Sé was being ostracised in his native county.

It didn’t exactly conform to committee rules - in fact, as it transpires, this is probably the most famous solo run in the history of Westmeath football, but Maguire possesses that kind of maverick persona, someone who just goes with his gut feeling and makes things happen. His successful hair and beauty supply business in Mullingar is proof that he’s a doer, someone with the gumption and impulse to achieve.

Back at the end of 2003, Westmeath football was in limbo - ironic given they were a Division one side. Successive defeats by old nemesis Meath in Leinster meant winds of change were blowing: Luke Dempsey’s term as manager was officially over and he refused to do an interview for the vacancy, leaving Westmeath with a serious decision to make. Maguire met with a core group of players at the time, among them the county’s only football All Star up to that point, Rory O’Connell, and their view was clear - a new manager was needed to take the group to the next level.

“Luke had great success and I was a huge fan of his, but a decision had to be made,” Maguire recalls.

“The players felt they had an extra 10 or 15% in them that would get them over the line and Luke was not going to get it out of the team: a new voice could inspire a renewed effort.”

It was a conundrum for the people in charge and things were just drifting along with no definite word on what direction Westmeath were heading as October dawned. People were becoming a little restless, but Maguire had a brainwave of his own.

“The committee was saying, ‘we just have to bide our time’, but it was coming to the end of our championship and managers should be in place to see what talent is there. That’s normally the way to go about it,” said Maguire.

“I remember looking at the paper and the news was that Páidí was on the way out of Kerry. Later I was at home, after dinner and I was having a glass of wine when I decided I’d call Páidí.”

Ó Sé was in hot water in the Kingdom after his infamous “animals” outburst while on holiday regarding Kerry supporters.

Maguire had never spoken to the eight-time All-Ireland winner, but that didn’t matter. Spontaneity took over and he dialled directory enquiries to get Ó Sé’s home number. Páidí’s wife answered the phone and confirmed he was “still in a bad way” over the prevailing situation in his home county.

“He's not gone yet,” was her assessment before she put Maguire through to the man himself.

“We spoke for about 5-10 minutes, he was really nice. We talked like we knew one another. And I said, ‘I see where you're being thrown out of Kerry; we’re looking for a manager here in Westmeath. I think you'd be ideal for us’. And he said, ‘Jesus, up to Westmeath, how would I get up there?’

“We talked a bit of blabber after that. He was adamant he wasn’t gone from Kerry at that stage, but at least he knew we were interested and he took my number.”

The initial contact was “totally out of blue”, Maguire remembers and within days, Ó Sé’s future in his native county was confirmed, leaving him in limbo too. For his own mental state, Ó Sé felt he needed a new challenge and his wife was keen to get him back doing what he loved. So Ó Sé pretty soon made the decision to pursue Maguire's daring offer.

“I was in Springfield and my mobile phone rang. He said, ‘hello’. I said, ‘yeah’, not realising who it was. ‘Páidí here’. I said, ‘who’? ‘Páidí Ó Sé, for f**k sake’, he replied. 'Is that job still going in Westmeath?’ And I said, ‘yeah’. “Well I f***ing want it.”

“I said, ‘that's great, are you serious? You said you weren't gone from Kerry’. He said, ‘no, things have changed since I was talking to you’.

That was the gist of the conversation, but Maguire knew he had his man; the challenge now was convincing people this wasn’t just something he was dreaming of. The following day Mullingar Shamrocks played in the minor football final ahead of the senior decider and Maguire delivered the news to bemused county board officers.

“Before the senior final, I said to Paddy Collins (County Board Secretary), ‘I want to meet you after the match this evening. I think you'll be happy with what I have’.

It didn’t bother Maguire that he was about to be chastised for going solo: “I've been doing it all my life,” he quipped.

“I hate hanging around; we were dragging our heels on the issue.”

He went into the secretary's office to meet Collins, Séamus Ó Faoláin and Denis Coyne. “And I said, well, I've got a manager, and they asked who? I said 'Páidí Ó Sé' and Paddy Collins said, ‘are you serious?’ Denis Coyne’s reaction was one of disbelief. ‘Des, what tablets are you taking?’ he queried, feeling Ó Sé couldn’t be taken serious at the time because of his fragile mental state caused by the revolt in his home county.

Maguire insisted, ‘I'm deadly serious’ and that was the first time Ó Sé’s name officially came into the reckoning. There were obvious concerns about the commute from Kerry, but Maguire was determined to pursue matters further and he and his wife Lil travelled to Kerry the next day to meet Ó Sé for the first time. Maguire returned to Westmeath officers with the news: “he's willing to come. You can do the rest now.”

During the week contact was made; it became clear Ó Sé was keenly interested. What followed was a rollercoaster.

“We didn’t need to do a formal interview; it was Páidí. He said he'd come up and meet us in the Bloomfield. There was only about five or six of us there. And later we unveiled him in the Greville Arms Hotel which was packed. There was great razzmatazz, of course. I said to Páidí, ‘how much is this going to cost us?’ And he said, ‘why did you mention f***ing money?’ I said ‘well we have to have something in place to budget for it’. And he said, ‘I don't want a f***ing penny; I want no money. Don't mention it’.

When the cost was raised again, Ó Sé insisted his only interest was in managing Westmeath.

The rest is history: Ó Sé went on to lead the county to its one and only Leinster title, generating massive excitement in the process, the kind of football fever never experienced before or since.

“In the O’Byrne Cup final against Meath, there were over 10,000 people in Cusack Park, the biggest crowd ever. That was the Páidí factor. But the first game we played was a challenge above in Saint Jude's, Dublin. That was Páidí’s first introduction, really, his first match with them. I remember clearly there was huge interest in it. Supporters travelled in numbers. And people were walking taller because Páidí was in charge,” remarked Maguire.

And the challenge of getting Páidí from Kerry to Westmeath? Well, as it happened, things worked out well in that regard. Ó Sé was initially presented with a car by Hamill's, but after some long, lonely road journeys from Kerry, he decided a better arrangement was needed and it was one that helped him get to and from the county much more efficiently.

“He took flights from Farranfore, Kerry to Dublin and the late Mick Price would pick him up. It worked like a dream and Páidí knew he could trust Mick; he could make phone calls in the car and conduct things from there. They had an amazing relationship and travelled everywhere together. Mick became known as Captain Price,” recalled Maguire.

Ó Sé picked his dream team that included then County Secretary Paddy Collins, future Westmeath manager Jack Cooney and fellow Kerry man Tomás Ó Flatharta, who was the team’s physical trainer and the final piece in the jigsaw. Ó Sé also included Mick Duffy, a member of the supporters group, as his coordinator, another shrewd move by the Kerry man, who knew he had access to the resources required to deliver that historic Leinster title.

As for the well documented OBE (Out By Easter), a term used to describe the unease at Westmeath's poor results in the Division one league campaign that year, Maguire said Ó Sé never panicked despite the unrest. His roguish reply when challenged was, "when does the cuckoo come? I'll have the team ready for that stage of the year." Behind the scenes, the players were enduring gruelling physical training.

Westmeath avoided league relegation by beating Mayo and after that took off on an incredible journey through Leinster, culminating in that historic victory over Laois on July 24 in the final replay at Croke Park.

Maguire got very little credit over the years for his audacious swoop, but it doesn't concern him. A former referee and national Scór chairman, he continues to be prominently involved in fundraising with Club Iarmhí and currently serves as Westmeath GAA Development Officer. He will be actively involved in funding for a centre of excellence, key for the future of the game in the county.