Ferguson remembers the day Heffo called

THE story has become the stuff of legend. The day Kevin Heffernan suddenly appeared in Dessie  Ferguson's garden in Kells and asked him to play for Dublin in a Leinster SFC final, not in a month or in a few week's time, but the next day.

That was back in the summer of 1963. Ferguson had retired from the inter-county scene "a year or two" and he remained out of the loop until Heffernan showed up. "Just happened to be passing," said Heffo and both men had a laugh knowing well there was more to the visit than that.

Heffernan was then a Dublin selector and felt the team could do with a little extra steel and speed, a little more jizz in the forward line. Dessie 'Snitchy' Ferguson, then in his 30s relented. He played against Kildare the next day and helped engineer a win. The Dubs went on to bag the Sam Maguire defeating Galway (1-9 to 0-10) in the final the following September. In another era Ferguson might have been dubbed "the comeback kid."

Five years previously in 1958, Ferguson won the first of his two All-Ireland SFC medals when the Dubs overcame Derry. The Ulster side had shocked everyone to make it to their first senior decider. At full-back Derry had Hugh Cribbin who has lived in Garlow Cross for many years.

Ferguson was more than mildly surprised to be reminded last week that this year marks the 50th anniversary of that All-Ireland victory over the men from the Oak Leaf county. How the years go by. Events that happened 10, 20 years ago seem just like yesterday, he said wistful, as he sat in his conservatory one sunny morning last week reflecting on a colourful, eventful life.

There were the glory days with Dublin to muse over. He recalled the '58 final as a hard-fought affair which Dublin eventually won, 2-12 to 1-9. Then were the times later on when he managed both the Meath hurling and football teams, a unique achievement for a Dublin man!

He also played with the Meath hurlers for a year and was involved in the management side when they won an All-Ireland B title. He was in charge of the county footballers for a brief spell before Sean Boylan took the reins. He also served as a selector for a time under Boylan. It was difficult era, he recalled when the system in place allowed for seven selectors and all of them had to be consulted before a change could be made. Ferguson was also closely involved in the merging of Kells, Kilmainham and Drumbaragh into Gaeil Colmcille in '68. 

"I remember Gaeil Colmcille had some great games with Kilbride," he recalled. "Kilbride had Jack Quinn and Martin Quinn and a few other, very good players. They were only a small club, but they were kingpins of Meath football. The players would go through a brick wall for their club and that's what you have to do.  One year we drew with them three times before finally beating them in a fourth game."

It would be difficult to avoid the conclusion that Ferguson would, without hesitation, swap his two football All-Irelands for a Celtic Cross in hurling - and he came very close to claiming one of those coveted medals. He was on the Dublin team that made it to in the 1961 All-Ireland SHC decider, lining out alongside a few of his old buddies from St Vincent's including the legendary Des and Lar Foley. Also on the team was Dessie Ferguson's brother Liam. 

Getting to the final was quite an achievement for the boys in sky blue and they really put it up to favourites Tipperary before narrowly losing out by a point, 1-12, to 0-16. While he usually played in the forwards as a footballer Des Ferguson lined out at right corner back in the '61 showdown.

After going so close to winning the holy grail, Dublin hurling gradually slipped into the shadows. Ferguson is delighted to see the small ball game in the capital undergo a revival in recent years. When it comes to sheer skill and entertainment it "has the edge" over football.  He has played his part in trying to maintain the tradition in Meath. "For me hurling is THE game and all we can do is try to keep it going. We might not have been going for All-Irelands in Meath, but we enjoyed it, we had the best of crack, the best of crack and isn't that what it's all about. The players of the time did their best, there was no complaining or whinging, they got on with it."

Since the late 1950s Dessie and Máire Ferguson have lived in Meath raising a family of 10 in a house on the edge of Headfort golf club. They were first attracted to the flat plains of Meath by a teaching job that Dessie applied for and got in Oldcastle. He taught woodwork.  In the early years Dessie regularly made the then arduous journey up to Dublin to turn out for St. Vincent's and Dublin, often rising at dawn to make it up to the capital for an 11.30 throw-in. He decided in the early '60s that he had enough and retired from inter-county football until that day when Heffernan called.

"You don't let your friends down, you don't let them down. That's the way it was with St Vincent's and it should be like that with any team, if you can possibly do it you will do it. I said I'd have a shot at it. I was reasonably fit, I smoked, but didn't drink. Heffo told me to stay quiet about it, I couldn't say a word until the throw-in, even the Dublin players didn't know I was playing until just before the start."

Politics and sport have long merged in the Ferguson household with Dessie a strong supporter of the Republican stance. He also paid a price for his principles, spending a year in Portlaoise prison in the 1970s for membership of an illegal organisation

Like his father, son Terry Ferguson won two All-Ireland medals, this time with the Royal County in 1987 and '88 as well as an All Star award in 1990. Another son Conor played many years for Gaeil Colmcille and is the chairman of Kells town council. He was the first Sinn Fein candidate to be elected to the council in 80 years when he won a seat in the last local elections in 2004.

Dessie Ferguson's family had originally come from Co Down, with his father settling in the Donnycarney area, then on the edge of Dublin city where the urban merged with the rural. His childhood memories are filled with days spent playing in the open countryside that surrounded Donnycarney in the 1940s. 

His family had come a long way in more ways than one before finally settling in Dublin. Dessie recounts how his grandfather, John Ferguson, was a Presbyterian married to a Catholic girl. Their son William, Dessie's father, brought his family down south in search of a new life and settled into the north Dublin community of Donnycarney.

Within two generations the family had made the radical switch from one tradition to another.  When the trouble started in Ulster in 1969 Dessie Ferguson found it difficult to just stand and watch what he felt were injustices inflicted on the nationalist population. 

With his sentence to prison he also lost his teaching post and when he was released he turned to the building trade with his experience teaching woodwork proving to be very useful on sites. He did well in the building trade before eventually returning to teach in his mid-50s in Athboy until his retirement.

Sport helped him through the turbulent times. He finds it gratifying to see Croke Park become an ultra modern stadium regularly filled with GAA fans enjoying the games that are an expression of Gaelic culture.

He says that he can recall the days when large crowds went to support the likes of Drumcondra against Shamrock Rovers in Tolka Park while much smaller numbers made their way to sample the fare on offer up the road in Croker. It's not that long ago. Now the wheel has turned full circle.

He is happy to see all the troubles end in the North and a new peace descend and he hopes it stays like that. He is happy with what has been achieved in the Good Friday Agreement and a groundwork has been laid for further progress. He retains no bitterness about past events. 

He doesn't like to see GAA players get any form of monetary reward for their efforts. The strength of the organisation is that everybody is the same, whether you win All-Irelands or line the local pitch. That's the way it should be. It's an organisation that he has derived a lot of pleasure and pride from during his lifetime with countless memories to draw on - including 1963 when Heffo coaxed him out of retirement to help the Dubs win the Sam Maguire.