Gaels throughout Meath have been saddened with the news of the passing of 2 former County footballers, Tom Moriarty of Kilcloon and Dinny McNamara of Ballinabrackey.
A native of Kerry, Tom Moriarty was full-forward on the Meath team that beat Kerry in the 1954 All-Ireland Senior Final. He was also full-forward on the Meath Junior team that won the All-Ireland in 1952. Both successes were the county’s second in the grades.
Tom’s displays with the Junior team earned him promotion to the Senior team for the 1953 Championship but Meath bowed out to Louth in the Leinster semi-final.
He scored 2 goals in the 1954 Leinster final against Offaly and scored Meath’s only goal in the All-Ireland Final against his native county.
Tom was also on the team that was beaten by Dublin in the 1955 Leinster final.
He subsequently moved to Wexford and his funeral will take place in Enniscorthy on Monday.
Dinny McNamara first came to the attention of Meath Gaels when he played a leading role in Ballinabrackey’s march to the 1948 JFC Final in which they were beaten by Ardcath. He made his debut at county level in the following November when lining out at centre-field in the National League against Cavan,
He was considered unlucky not to make the Senior panel for the All-Ireland breakthrough in 1949.
However, he made the panel for the 1950 and 1951 Championships, winning a Leinster medal in the latter year when he was also a member of the panel that won the National League with a victory over New York in the Polo Grounds.
Dinny subsequently emigrated to America where he won a New York Championship with the Offaly team.
Throughout his many decades in the US, he maintained a keen interest in the well being of the Meath and Ballinabrackey teams.
Ar dheis De go raibh a n-anamnacha.
By minormeath Sat 14th Jan
