Mattie McDonagh

Mattie McDonagh

Personal information
Native name	Maitiú Mac Donnchadha (Irish)
Nickname	Big Matt
Born	1936 (1936) Ballygar, County Galway
Died	11 April 2005(2005-04-11) (aged 68–69)
Occupation	National school teacher
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Sport
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Centre-forward
Club Years Club 1955–1969 Ballygar Club titles Galway titles 0 Inter-county Years County 1956–1968 Galway Inter-county titles Connacht titles 10 All-Irelands 4 NFL 2 All Stars 2

Matthew "Mattie" McDonagh (1936 – 11 April 2005) was an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for his local club Ballygar and at senior level for the Galway county team from 1956 until 1968. McDonagh later served as manager of the Galway team. He is the only man from Connacht with four All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winner's medals.

Biography

He sprung to sporting prominence as a teenager when he starred with Summerhill College, Sligo, where his colleagues remembered him from his striking stature as a youngster. Before he was 18 he had won the Connacht Colleges title and also won a Roscommon minor hurling medal with Ballygar.

Big Mattie burst on to the national scene in 1956 when forming the midfield partnership with Frank Evers which provided the possession lifeline for the side which powered their way to a 2–13 to 3–7 All-Ireland final victory over Cork on the day that Seán Purcell and Frank Stockwell ran riot, Stockwell setting a scoring record of 2–05 from play.

After the initial flush of success some lean years followed and Mattie had to bear the disappointment of two county final defeats with Ballygar at the hands of Tuam Stars and Dunmore McHales, the later by the narrowest of margins but the best was yet to come.

McDonagh was a member of the Galway senior football team during the 1960s. Following the county's defeat to Dublin in the 1963 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, Galway, managed by John Dunne, won three consecutive All-Ireland titles. The team defeated Kerry in the 1964 and 1965 finals before beating Meath in 1966 to complete the three-in-a-row. McDonagh scored the only goal of the 1996 final with a left-footed strike as Galway won 1-10 to 0-7.

McDonagh is the only Connacht player to have won four senior All-Ireland medals.

He took over as manager of the Galway senior team in 1980, following a period of dispute between players and the county board.

McDonagh, although fiercely competitive in every sport, had an easy temperament which helped him to assuage fears and tensions. One year later he led Galway to what turned out to be their last National League success when routing Roscommon in the Croke Park final although their semi-final victory over Kerry in Ennis was the real highlight of that series.

The same year he and his charges had to endure the shock of a Connacht championship defeat when Willie Nally and Willie Joe Padden of Mayo "caught all around them" but the following year Galway were desperately disappointed to lose out to Offaly in the 1982 semi-final before going all the way to the final in the infamous decider of 1983 when Dublin edged Galway out.

Mattie McDonagh died at the age of 68 on 10 April 2005. Tributes poured in from GAA colleagues and officials including GAA president Seán Kelly, who said that the Association was greatly saddened by his loss. He was buried in his native Ballygar soil.

Honours

Ballygar

• Galway Senior Football Championship:
  • Winner (0):
  • Runner-up (2): 1957, 1958, 1961

Galway

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship:
  • Winner (4): 1956, 1964, 1965, 1966
  • Runner-up (2): 1959, 1963
• Connacht Senior Football Championship:
  • Winner (10): 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968
  • Runner-up (2): 1961, 1962
• National Football League:
  • Winner (2): 1956–57, 1964–65
  • Runner-up (1): 1966-67

Connacht

• Railway Cup:
  • Winner (1): 1958