Matt Goff

Matt Goff (born Matthew Gough in

Leixlip Leixlip ( or ; , IPA: �lʲeːmʲənˠˈwɾˠad̪ˠaːnʲ is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border betwee ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, 5 July 1901, died 19 March 1956) 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 on the

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Tailteann Games teams and one of a group of players who helped establish

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

as a sport in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He played in six

All Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) refers to all of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Ireland" is most frequently used to refer to sporting teams or events for the entire islan ...

finals between 1926 and 1935, won an unprecedented six Leinster titles in succession, and won two All Ireland medals with the Kildare team that was the first to be presented with the

Sam Maguire Cup The Sam Maguire Cup ( ga, Chorn Sam Mhic Uidhir), often referred to as Sam or The Sam , is a trophy awarded annually by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to the team that wins the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the main competiti ...

. He played with

Leixlip GAA Leixlip GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. They were senior football finalists in 1986, club of the year 1979, and home club of Matt Goff who featured on the Kildare millennium football team a ...

in the junior championship teams of 1921 and 1922 and the 1923 league, and came to notice on Tom Farrell’s 1924 Leixlip team that reached the 1924 Kildare junior final. He made his senior debut for Kildare against

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

in the 1926 championship and held his place in four All Ias Kildare went to final only to lose in a dramatic replay against

Kerry Kerry or Kerri may refer to: * Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name) Places * Kerry, Queensland, Australia * County Kerry, Ireland ** Kerry Airport, an international airport in Count ...

. As Kildare went on to play Kerryreland finals over the next six years, interest in football reached new levels. The attendance at the 1929 final, 43,839, broke the record of 41,000 established for the

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

football match in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

in 1925. He was one of four Kildare players selected on the Irish team for the 1928 Tailteann Games and played 13 times for Leinster, winning six

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 ...

medals for inter-provincial competition. He played his last of his 65 competitive appearances for Kildare in the 1936 championship against Meath. He worked as a military police officer, participating in the Stacumny ambush in the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

, and later with

CIÉ Córas Iompair Éireann (''Irish Transport Company''), or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of Ireland, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport within the republic and jointly with its Northern Ireland counter ...

. When he died in 1956 GAA players from all over Ireland formed a

guard of honour A guard of honour ( GB), also honor guard ( US), also ceremonial guard, is a group of people, usually military in nature, appointed to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, ...

for his coffin. The overpass bridge on the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

motorway at Leixlip was named in his honour on 18 March 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goff, Matt 1901 births 1956 deaths Kildare inter-county Gaelic footballers Leixlip Gaelic footballers