Poc Fada Hall of Famer Gerry Goodwin one of the great underdog stories

By John Harrington

42 years have passed since Gerry Goodwin won the All-Ireland Poc Fada in the Cooley mountains, and he still shakes his head in wonder that it actually happened.

It’s one of the great GAA underdog stories, because no-one really gave Goodwin a chance of winning the Poc Fada back in 1982, not even himself.

The Tyrone native was up against a field of hurling luminaries that included Limerick’s Pat Hartigan and Cork’s Ger Cunningham, two men who would nine All-Ireland Poc Fadas between them as well as national renown on the field of play.

Goodwin was far from a household name himself, but he was a seriously good hurler, winning his first senior Tyrone championship with Eoghan Ruadh, Dungannon at the now unimaginably tender age of 13.

He went on to become a star performer for the Tyrone senior hurlers before a serious knee injury ended his playing career and led him down the route of competing in the Poc Fada.

His striking ability made him a natural at the event, but when he travelled to the Cooley mountains in '82 to take part in the All-Ireland Final it was with no great expectations.

“There were no club representatives with me or anything, I went down with my Brother in Law and two of his school-friends,” says Goodwin, who this year was inducted into the M. Donnelly GAA All-Ireland Poc Fada Hall of Fame.

“All the large hurling counties were represented there which would have been daunting in itself for me. We went up over the mountain, there was an RTE mast at the top, and we just pucked away.

“I can remember coming back down from the top it was more successful than going up!

“I went through the whole thing in I think 64 pucks and whatever length over the finishing line you struck it. And when everything was tallied up and I discovered I had won it was just a huge surprise.

“I just wasn't prepared for it. My wife was expecting our third child and of course there was a big event that evening and I said, 'Well I'm not going anywhere without my wife'.

“So we drove home to Dungannon and on the way we were stopped by the army and I was trying to explain what a Poc Fada was and what the hurls in the car were for. But we got through and picked up my wife and then we were back for the presentation.”

Goodwin’s journey to becoming an All-Ireland champion wasn’t your average one.

There was no tradition of hurling in the family, and it was good fortune more than anything that saw Goodwin fall in love with the sport as a young boy.

“My first venture into hurling was thanks to family lived on the next street to me,” he says.

“They were Cahalanes from Cork and had hurls all about the house. They had a jumble sale on a Saturday morning one year and I went down and got this broken hurl with the grip gone on it but that was my starting point.

“We had a very small yard where we lived in the middle of town on Irish Street. That's where all the pucking took place and there was many a broken window over the years!”

The young Goodwin was also a talented footballer, winning an All-Ireland Minor title with Tyrone in 1973, but hurling was always his first love.

When that knee injury ended his career prematurely in 1979 and someone in the club suggested he try the Poc Fada instead to sate his hurling crave, Goodwin applied himself to the competition with no little zeal.

Few saw him as a likely All-Ireland winner in ’82, but the Tyrone man was well-prepared for the challenge.

He looks back on it all now very fondly, and with no little pride that his achievement has been recognised again with his induction into the Poc Fada Hall of Fame.

“I did quite a bit of training prior to it,” he recalls. “I went on a holiday prior to it and I was on Tramore beach pucking about up and down the beach in the early hours of the morning. It's obviously different pucking on the level, but I just wanted to keep my eye in.

“I often wondered was it my stocky build that gave me a bit of an advantage when I was on the moutain then because I could keep my footing a bit better on that sort of terrain than maybe others could.

"But it was astonishing really to win it in my mind. One of my memories afterwards was that my father died in January of the year after I won it and it was great that he lived to see me win it because it was a massive moment for him.

"It was unbelievable when the word got out in the club that I had won. People would be coming up to you saying, 'My goodness, All-Ireland Poc Fada winner!' I had played senior club hurling from when I was 13 but that got nothing like the recognition the Poc Fada did.

“I'm so honoured to be a Poc Fada Hall of fame recipient, I just cannot put it into words, and I tend to be a quite expressive person! But whatever I could say just couldn't sum up the feelings I have. It's beyond my wildest dreams."

The 2024 M.Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada takes place on Monday, August 5th on Annaverna Mountain in the Cooleys.