Columba McDyer (13 January 1921 – 18 September 2001) was a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er who played for

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

and

Donegal Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...

Playing career

McDyer was from Glenties, and played as a centre half-forward. He played with the Cavan team that won the

1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final The 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the sixtieth All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland. Cav ...

at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. This resulted in him becoming the first Donegal man to win an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship medal. Following his success with Cavan, McDyer returned to Donegal and his native Glenties where he coached the Donegal senior team for a number of years. He also collected a

Railway Cup The GAA Interprovincial Championship ( ga, An Corn Idir-Chúigeach) or Railway Cup (''Corn an Iarnróid'') is the name of two annual Gaelic football and hurling competitions held between the provinces of Ireland. The Connacht, Leinster, Munster ...

medal with Ulster in 1942 and he also played in the same competition with Connacht.

Managerial career

McDyer managed Donegal. He was also an early influence on

Jim McGuinness Jim McGuinness (born 16 November 1972) is an association football coach and former Gaelic footballer, coach and Manager (Gaelic games), manager, who won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as both player and manager with the Donegal ...

, Donegal's future All-Ireland winning manager. McGuinness described him as "an absolute gentleman to the fingertips, very well-educated… a very gentle, bubbly person".

Honours

McDyer was inducted into the Donegal Sports Star Awards' Hall of Fame in 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDyer, Columba 1921 births 2001 deaths Cavan inter-county Gaelic footballers Donegal inter-county Gaelic footballers Irish schoolteachers People from Glenties Ulster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers