Tyrone and chips recalled by Brian Flanagan

On the national scene Meath are very well represented with many high-profile and well-regarded journalists plying their trade in sport, politics and current affairs.

In a series of features over the next few weeks we have asked some of those national journalists to take time out from their hectic schedules to pen a few words recalling their favourite sporting memory.

This week we will feature Irish Daily Star Sports editor Brian Flanagan who will reflect on the 1996 All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Meath and Tyrone, and free-lancer Paul Keane who will recall his encounter with Tyrone's Peter Canavan after the 2005 All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Armargh.

FIRST UP....

BRIAN FLANAGAN (IRISH DAILY STAR)

Originally from Greenogue, a small area just outside Ashbourne steeped in horse racing history as the home of Arkle and the Dreaper stable, Brian played underage and adult football for Donaghmore/Ashbourne and soccer for Ashbourne United before settling on Dublin's southside in 2004 and joining St Jude's GAA club. Brian started his journalism career covering local news and sport with the Drogheda and Fingal Independent before joining the Irish Daily Star in the late 1990s as a sub-editor and horse racing writer. The Ashbourne man was appointed Sports Editor in 2014.

DURING this sustained period of isolation and lockdown it's often nice to transport yourself back to a happy place.

Throughout my teenage years and early adulthood, our 'happy place' was at the bottom of the Clonliffe Road in Drumcondra.

Thankfully in those days, events in Croke Park usually made us very satisfied, but it was in a fast-food joint called Some Like It Hot where the happiness and joy was shared and digested with the same group of pals we travelled to every match with.

Flooding out of Croker after another Meath victory the race was always on to get to Some Like It Hot before the throngs, meet up with the gang, and discuss every Mick Lyons block, John McDermott high catch or Graham Geraghty point.

We would be bloody hungry too. A packet of King crisps wasn't much between breakfast and 5.30pm on a Sunday evening.

A bit like the glory days for Meath football, Some Like It Hot is long gone, but the memories remain and every time I drive down the Drumcondra Road, past the Bishop's Palace on the left, those epic evenings always come flooding back.

There were so many. Between 1986 and 2001, there were 13 Leinster Final appearances, nine All-Ireland Finals, including two replays, and many, many great days following Meath.

Perhaps we took it all for granted back then, but one day more than most really stands out as a day that really took my breath away.

A day when Meath arguably produced their greatest performance of the Sean Boylan era - the 1996 All-Ireland semi-final win over Tyrone - with players we had grown up having starring roles.

1995 had been a disaster. Losing by 10 points to Dublin in a Leinster Final might be considered an achievement these days, but back then it was catastrophic.

Boylan was in big trouble. It was seven years since his last All-Ireland and legends like Colm O'Rourke, Brian Stafford, Bernard Flynn and Mick Lyons were stepping off the stage. It was the end of an era.

The 1996 season stated off with many predicting a defeat to Carlow in the first round with Boylan having given half a dozen teenagers their Championship debut in an era when Alan Hansen’s "You don't win anything with kids," analysis was still en vogue.

But just like Alex Ferguson, that little genius Boylan had tricks up his sleeve with a group of fresh-faced youngsters we were very familiar with.

The likes of Trevor Giles, Darren Fay, Mark O’Reilly, Ollie Murphy, Paddy Reynolds and Graham Geraghty had terrorised us at underage over the years and were acutely aware of their talents.

They ambushed All-Ireland champions Dublin in the Leinster Final but the best was yet to come.

Tyrone arrived in Croke Park red hot favourites, having narrowly lost to Dublin in the 1995 decider and with a golden generation of players including Peter Canavan and Brian Dooher.

But they left a bloodied mess, overpowered and steamrolled by probably the most talented team Boylan ever assembled on a day when they produced their most memorable performance - winning 2-15 to 0-12.

There were some much publicised and questionable early hits but Boylan’s teams played with such a ferocious intensity that they always sailed to close to wind.

It was a truly remarkable team, containing a lethal half-forward line of Giles, Tommy Dowd and Geraghty and a man mountain in John McDermott at midfield. Martin O’Connell and Colm Coyle were the last links to the Season One of the Boylan Years while Brendan Reilly was reinvented as an accurate full-forward.

They simply blitzed Tyrone with pace and power. Geraghty giving one of his finest every displays in a Meath jersey while Giles silenced some critics after a shaky 1995 season – going on to win the Footballer of the Year prize.

Meath would go on to win more enemies and lift Sam Maguire in 1996 after a hugely controversial All-Ireland Final replay with Mayo while another Sam Maguire was lifted in 1999.

There is a sense though that this group of players may have even underachieved despite winning two All-Ireland titles.

1997 was definitely a year where they were the best team in the country but were left depleted after a three-game series with Kildare while in 1998 we were ourselves ambushed by Kildare in the Leinster Final, a fate that also occurred in 2000 when losing to Offaly in the last year before the back door.

But that muggy August afternoon in 1996, when Tyrone were ruthlessly destroyed, will live long in the memory as my favourite moment supporting Meath.

The burgers and chips certainly never tasted better in Some Like It Hot.

Paul Keane's memory will be online tomorrow.