Death of Mattie McDonagh: The passing of Mattie McDonagh on Sunday after a long illness means that another link with the great Galway three-in-a-row side from the 1960s has been lost.
On the very day of the first annual memorial Mass for Enda Colleran, who captained the 1965 and '66 teams, another remarkable figure in the county's football history followed into eternity.
Mattie McDonagh holds the historic achievement of being the only Connacht man to have won four All-Irelands, which he did in 1956 as well as during the 1964-66 run, in a career that also included 10 provincial titles and two Football League medals (1957 and '65).
In 1966 he was named Texaco Football of the Year and 32 years later in 1998 was inducted into the GAA Writers Association Hall of Fame.
GAA president Seán Kelly said: "All in the GAA are saddened at the untimely death of a great GAA man and the massive and grievous loss to his family."
Physically strong but with exceptional footballing talent he was a schoolboy star at Summerhill College in Sligo and at the age of 17 was playing with the Galway juniors before winning his first senior All-Ireland two years later, playing at centrefield with Frank Evers, against Cork in one of the game's most entertaining finals.
From Ballygar on the border with Roscommon, he played with the local club, which was a leading force in Galway football during the 1950s but played its hurling in Roscommon for whom he was selected as a minor.
It was Ballygar's misfortune to be up against Seán Purcell's Tuam Stars in that decade and so Mattie McDonagh was particularly pleased to win a county championship medal with Erin's Hope, the club side of St Patrick's Drumcondra, while in Dublin as a student - the achievement disrupting another legendary club of the decade, Kevin Heffernan's St Vincent's.
Strangely he was the only member of Galway's 1956 team to feature in the three-in-a-row. Playing by now at centre forward, he had a knack of scoring important goals, including the ones that saved the treble from being still-born in the Connacht first round with Sligo in 1964, won that year's All-Ireland semi-final against Meath and two years later the only one scored by Galway in the three All-Ireland finals from 1964 to '66.
Mattie McDonagh turned his attention to coaching with Galway after his playing career and managed the side that won the league in 1981 as well as the team that lost the controversial All-Ireland of 1983 to Dublin.
He was also happy to join John Tobin's management as a selector for the minor team that won Galway's last All-Ireland in 1986 and produced such influential players as Kevin Walsh and Tomás Mannion. "He was a hugely popular character," according to Tuam-based journalist Jim Carney. "Mattie was very modest about his footballing talents but he had charisma. You could see that as soon as he walked into the room."
A retired NS teacher, he is survived by his wife Kathleen and four children. Today he will be lying in repose at Moran's Funeral Home in Ballygar. Requiem Mass will be tomorrow at 12pm.
* GAA president Seán Kelly also expressed his sympathies to the family of Waterford County Board treasurer Tony Morrissey from the Geraldines club who also passed away at the weekend.
