Leitrim GAA is mourning arguably its greatest ever footballer following the passing of Packy McGarty.
Remarkably, the Mohill man played for the county senior team across four different decades having made his debut in 1949 at just 16 and he retired in 1971.
Although he didn’t win any major honours with Leitrim, he was the star man on what was probably the county’s best and most consistent side ever as they reached four consecutive Connacht finals from 1957 to 1960, losing each of them to Galway, who were All-Ireland champions in 1956 and added a further three titles in the 60s.
The 1958 Connacht final, which Galway won narrowly, was considered McGarty’s greatest performance and he was carried shoulder high off the field in the aftermath, despite the result.
His prowess was recognised far beyond Leitrim, however, and he was a regular on Connacht Railway Cup teams at a time when the competition carried huge prestige. He was on victorious Connacht teams in 1957 and ‘58 and won a third Railway medal as a sub in 1967.
He also featured three times for the Rest of Ireland team in the games against the Combined Universities, which were a significant representative honour in that era too.
In 1984, he was chosen on a Team of the Century drawn from players who never won an All-Ireland while, later, he was the only Leitrim man selected on the Connacht Team of the Millennium.
McGarty lived in England for a number of years before returning to Ireland in 1964 and ran a grocery shop in Clondalkin in Dublin, though his commitment to Leitrim was undimmed.
A statement on Leitrim GAA’s website said that he was “not only one of the greatest Leitrim footballers to put on a county jersey but one of the greatest footballers of all time”.
It continued: “Not just because he was a great footballer but because he embodied all that is admirable in human nature – pride of place, utter dedication, an almost fanatical devotion to the cause of Leitrim Football and a complete absence of bitterness.
“Above all, despite all the near misses and litany of disappointments, he retained that youthful enthusiasm that sustained him, year after year for all the 22 years he played inter-county football.”
