Séamus Darby (born 1950,

Rhode, County Offaly Rhode () is a village in County Offaly, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is situated on the R400 road (Ireland), R400 at its junction with the R441 road (Ireland), R441 which leads to Edenderry, 12 km to the east. Rhode village is on an "i ...

) is an Irish former

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er. Darby is best remembered for scoring an unexpected late goal that deprived Kerry of a 5-in-a-row in the 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final. In 2005, it was voted the third greatest moment in GAA history.

Playing career

During his footballing career, Darby won

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Asso ...

titles with Offaly in 1972, 1973 and 1982, playing in various forward positions. He won his second All-Ireland medal in 1972 when Offaly defeated Kerry in the final. He had been an unused substitute in the 1971 final v Galway, Offaly's first-ever win. He was dropped from the county panel after the 1976 season. Darby was recalled to the Offaly team for the 1982 Leinster final, playing full-forward against

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He pulled a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

in that match and missed the All-Ireland semi-final against

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

. His replacement Johnny Mooney played well in that match so Darby was left on the bench for the final. The 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was a repeat of the previous year's encounter and was also significant in that a win for Kerry would give them an unprecedented fifth All-Ireland Final victory in a row. Kerry were winning by two points with two minutes to go when Darby — who had arrived on the field of play as a substitute, with instructions to stay forward and try for a goal — got behind his marker Tommy Doyle, caught a "high, lobbing, dropping ball", and scored one of the most famous goals of all time. It was his only kick of the match. Kerry fumbled the counterattack which allowed Offaly to win by one single point with a score of 1–15 to 0–17. In 2005, Darby's goal against Kerry was voted third in a poll to find the '' Top 20 GAA Moments''. The expression "to do a Séamus Darby" has been used in other fields. Darby's last match for Offaly was the Leinster semi-final against Dublin in 1984. He played club football for Rhode till 1986. He later played for

Edenderry Edenderry (; ) is a town in east County Offaly, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is near the borders with Counties County Kildare, Kildare, County Meath, Meath and County Westmeath, Westmeath. The Grand Canal of Ireland, Grand Canal runs along ...

in 1989, and for

Borrisokane Borrisokane () is a town in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is 15 km north of Nenagh, at the junction of the N52 road (Ireland), N52 and N65 road (Ireland), N65 roads. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a p ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

in 1991.

Later life

The 1982 All-Ireland and Darby's part in it received renewed attention in 2010 when the Kilkenny hurlers were aiming to complete their own five-in-a-row, also never realised. Darby was interviewed for the documentary '' Players of the Faithful''. This aired in 2018 when Dublin's footballers had just won their fourth consecutive All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and would be bidding for their fifth in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. An episode of '' Laochra Gael'' dedicated to his life first aired on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darby, Seamus 1950 births Living people Offaly inter-county Gaelic footballers Rhode Gaelic footballers