Seamus Leydon
Seamus Leydon is a Gaelic footballer from County Galway. He was a vital part of Galway's great "Three-in-a-Row" side of the mid-1960s.[1] The "Dunmore Dynamo" was the scourge of all right half backs up and down the county for a decade.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish name | Séamus Ó Loideáin | ||
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Left Half Forward | ||
| Born |
1942 (age 77–78) Galway | ||
| Nickname | The Dunmore Dynamo | ||
| Club(s) | |||
| Years | Club | ||
1960-1972 1972-1975 |
Dunmore McHales Nemo Rangers | ||
| Club titles | |||
| Galway titles | 7 | ||
| Inter-county(ies) | |||
| Years | County | ||
1961-1971 | Galway | ||
| Inter-county titles | |||
| Connacht titles | 7 | ||
| All-Irelands | 3 | ||
| All Stars | 1 | ||
The groundwork for Leydon's outstanding career was laid from an early stage. He attended the great footballing college, St. Jarlath's College of Tuam, the home of so much football tradition. In 1960, the Dunmore man helped St. Jarlath's to an All-Ireland Colleges Championship. That year Leydon was also in the Galway minor team which convincingly won the All-Ireland title, winning the Connacht final against Roscommon by 20 points and then overwhelming Cork in the All-Ireland final, 4-09 to 1-05.
His first Connacht senior medal came in 1963 when Galway hammered Leitrim by 14 points in the final. They then accounted for Kerry by four points in the All-Ireland semi-final. They lost to Dublin in the final but the big breakthrough came the next year when Kerry were toppled by the Connacht champions in the final, with Leydon marking Denis O'Sullivan, one of many formidable wing-backs he came up against in his time. Further success was to follow for the tribesmen when Enda Colleran captained them to another victory over Kerry in the 1965 final and a six-point win in the decider against Meath the following September. That victory ensured a memorable "Three-in-a-Row" for Galway. It would be 32 years before the county would win another one. Leydon featured in the 1971 final when Offaly beat them by three points.
The Dunmore man himself quit the intercounty scene in 1972 when his job with Cantrell and Cochrane forced him to move to Cork to take up a position as regional manager for Munster. After having won six or seven Galway Championships with Dunmore, he started playing for Nemo Rangers in Cork who, at that time, did not enjoy the same reputation nationally as they were later to achieve as one of the best club footballing sides in Ireland. Since that time Nemo Rangers have won several All-Ireland Club Championships but Leydon's only final came in 1975 when they were beaten by two points by a very strong UCD side.
In 1999, Leydon was voted on the Galway "Team Of The Millennium".