It is 20 years since Alan Mangan delivered a tour de force on what remains the greatest day in Westmeath football history.
Mangan was Westmeath’s top scorer with four points in the 2004 Leinster final replay as the Páidí Ó Sé-managed team secured the county’s maiden provincial title.
All of two decades on, Mangan is currently preparing for yet another Leinster campaign – only this time in hurling.
One of Westmeath’s best-known footballers, Mangan has been managing the Castletown Geoghegan senior hurlers for the last three years. On Sunday they face new Kilkenny champions Thomastown in a provincial club quarter-final at Cusack Park.
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‘Budda’, as he is better known, was a key player during a golden period for Westmeath’s footballers – he also won an All-Ireland under-21 football winner’s medal in 1999.
But his hurling pedigree is solid. In fact, Mangan was a Westmeath senior hurler before he graduated to the senior football set-up, even featuring in the 2001 Division Two National Hurling League final against Kerry.
As a player he won three county senior hurling titles with Castletown Geoghegan – 2004, 2013, and 2017. He has now added two more as their manager. Mangan was also a selector with the Westmeath hurlers during Michael Ryan’s tenure.
But his commitment to the locality remains unquenched. St Malachy’s are the Gaelic football team in the parish and Mangan lined out in goal for them in this year’s senior football championship, having filled the position in 2023 too when they won the intermediate title.
The 45-year-old even ventured up the field to nail two frees in a victory over Shandonagh in late August, a result that secured their senior status for next season.
“Our numbers were very low and we didn’t have a goalie,” says Mangan. “We were missing three or four of our best players too. I don’t know how we stayed up but thankfully we did, it was good.”
But it has been all about the small ball since then.
It has been a pretty special three seasons for Castletown Geoghegan. In Mangan’s inaugural campaign they won the Westmeath SHC for the first time in five years. They lost at the semi-final stage in 2023 but a seven-point victory over Lough Lene Gaels in this year’s final saw Castletown Geoghegan return to the top of the pile.
“They really are an unbelievable bunch of lads; not once have I had to make a phone call wondering where somebody is. They have given huge commitment, I couldn’t speak highly enough of them,” says Mangan.
“The backbone of the team is full of good characters and great lads. I was listening to Jody Gormley on The GAA Social podcast, he made a comment that if your best players have great character then you have a chance. And that’s one thing about our club, the best players are all the driving force behind it.”
They will need all of that drive plus a large dollop of good fortune on Sunday if they are to beat Thomastown. Toss it up whatever way you like, but Kilkenny senior hurling champions just do not lose to Westmeath champions.
Thomastown are 1-7 favourites and Castletown Geoghegan have to go back to 1990 for their last victory in the competition. But while Mangan is realistic about the scale of the challenge, the Westmeath outfit aregoing to try overcome it in Mullingar on Sunday.
“For some of our players this will be their fourth go in the Leinster championship; you want to improve as a club all the time by getting very competitive in these games,” he says.
“At the same time, we know how good Thomastown are, they are a savage team. In John Donnelly they probably have the form hurler in the country, obviously we are going to be up against it but there is a first time for everything. At some stage in the history of the GAA, a Westmeath club will beat a Kilkenny club in the Leinster senior club championship.”
