Former Dublin skipper Seán Doherty dies aged 78

Seán Doherty, the captain of Dublin’s breakthrough 1974 All-Ireland SFC winning team, has died at the age of 78 following a short illness.

Affectionately known as “The Doc” in a team featuring two medical practitioners, David Hickey and Pat O’Neill, whereas he was a plumber who would go on to become a successful publican, the teak-tough full-back won three All-Ireland medals and five Leinster medals in a sterling career.

Born and having spent his early years in Ashford, Wicklow, Doherty played his club football for a number of clubs in the south-west of Dublin - Ballyboden Wanderers, Ballyboden St Enda’s and St Anne’s. He also won an All Star in 1974.

The 1974 All-Ireland final against Galway, under the management of the great Kevin Heffernan, was Dublin’s first in 11 years and transformed the popularity of Gaelic football in the city and county. Appointed captain by Heffernan, Doherty had been a steward on Hill 16 for the previous year’s final.

In David Walsh’s brilliant Magill piece on Dublin’s pioneering group, Doherty said of the ‘74 final: “I recall running out on the field, leading out the Dublin team and wondering whether I was running fast or slow. I could feel nothing in my legs.

“But Heffernan had told us to expect this feeling, that it would wear off early in the match. He was right. Once you got the feel of the ball, it was gone.”

A youthful Kerry side led by manager Mick O’Dwyer shocked Doherty’s Dublin in the following year’s decider when Doherty’s high tackle on Mickey Ned O’Sullivan concussed and hospitalised the Kerry captain.

The Dublin captain Sean Doherty lifts the Sam Maguire Cup in 1974. Picture: Connolly Collection / SPORTSFILE

Replaced as captain by Tony Hanahoe, Doherty was still the trusted anchor of the defence when Dublin exacted revenge in the 1976 final and again when they beat Kerry in the stunning ‘77 semi-final on their way to achieving back-to-back Sam Maguire Cups and Doherty’s collection of Celtic Crosses grew to three.

Doherty retired from the inter-county game in 1979 at the age of 33. He was a Dublin selector in 1986 after Heffernan’s second spell in charge concluded.

Click here to read article