{"id":413132,"date":"2026-04-23T08:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413132\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:25:10","slug":"pain-of-connacht-final-loss-never-quite-left-hollywood-actor-chris-odowd-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413132\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain of Connacht final loss never quite left Hollywood actor Chris O\u2019Dowd \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris O\u2019Dowd<\/a> is talking Roscommon<\/a> football. Bridesmaids of the Connacht championship? Okay, not an entirely fair casting. The plucky underdog primed to tear up the script in Mayo<\/a> on Sunday? Perhaps. Lights, camera, throw the ball in.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd has skin in the game ahead of this weekend\u2019s senior provincial semi-final between the counties. He was the Roscommon goalkeeper in the 1997 Connacht minor final when Mayo edged a 0-13 to 0-9 result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were gutted,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI thought we were stronger than them and I was feeling invincible. I remember just thinking, \u2018they\u2019re not going to score a goal, so we\u2019re going to win\u2019. But I was wrong. They did not score a goal, but we did not win.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was listed in the match programme for that minor decider as Christopher O\u2019Dowd. But growing up in Boyle, they called him Chrissie. These days he\u2019s better known far beyond the parish as Chris O\u2019Dowd \u2013 actor and comedian.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris O’Dowd was the Roscommon goalkeeper in the 1997 Connacht minor final against Mayo. <\/p>\n

The IT Crowd\u2019s Roy Trenneman, the narrator of Puffin Rock, General Edward Edwardian in Gulliver\u2019s Travels, Kwan the Macaque in My Father\u2019s Dragon. That guy. Thespian. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s not quite sure when Christopher became Chris, nonetheless in football terms his teammates used to call him Pelican. O\u2019Dowd likes to believe it was an acknowledgment of his agility in the air, but his former comrades insist it was because he had long legs and a big mouth.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd played under-14, under-16 and minor for Roscommon. His dad helped design elements of the old Roscommon GAA crest. He\u2019s Roscommon to the core. Don\u2019t believe it, cut him open and find out \u2013 because if a boy from Boyle can pass for a Wisconsin state patrol officer on the big screen, he can sure as hell bleed primrose and blue for a size five. <\/p>\n

Ahead of Sunday\u2019s senior contest between Roscommon and Mayo at MacHale Park, O\u2019Dowd visited a training session of his county\u2019s under-20 footballers as they prepared for their Dalata Connacht semi-final against Galway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t attended as many Roscommon games in recent years as he would have liked, but his hankering for the familiar remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to be at a game in the Hyde, standing in the graveyard end and watching the new lads,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n

His Roscommon career effectively ended after that Connacht minor final defeat 29 years ago. Within weeks, he was studying in UCD<\/a>, developed a gr\u00e1 for drama and his life went in a different direction.<\/p>\n

Still, getting asked to play county was a thrill. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like Judi Dench says about acting work \u2013 the best part of any job is the offer, it\u2019s all downhill from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

His minor boss was Kevin McStay, who has since managed both the Roscommon and Mayo senior teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Kevin. He was a military man, so you wouldn\u2019t necessarily say we would have been kindred spirits, but we really enjoyed each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my appendix out a couple of weeks before the Connacht final and so he would have had to deal with my parents a lot at that time and they always were fond of him. A really good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

McStay once recalled a story about his speech for that minor final. After delivering a passionate, take-the-door-off-its-hinges rallying call, the manager watched the Roscommon players burst out of the dressingroom until the team\u2019s goalkeeper calmly approached, rested his hand on the manager\u2019s shoulder and told him he really ought to calm down.<\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin McStay was manager of the Roscommon minor footballers in 1997, a team that included Chris O’Dowd in goal. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d forgotten about that until he brought it up, but it would have been very much in my character at that time to be that type of person,\u201d smiles O\u2019Dowd.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a Roscommon thing or a goalkeeping thing, the position has attracted its share of colourful players over the years. When O\u2019Dowd was the county\u2019s minor \u2018keeper, Shane \u2018Cake\u2019 Curran was the senior custodian. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd says: \u201cShane was a lovely goalkeeper and because he was a bit mad in the head, it\u2019s maybe overlooked how good he was. He was the kind of Bruce Grobbelaar of the GAA at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d be quite technically profound, one of those guys that plays mad but is actually really good at his craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

At under-16 level, O\u2019Dowd had actually played in the middle of the field \u2013 a tall, rangy player. He was team captain as well. By minor, he was between the sticks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround that time, I think I found girls and drink. Then I started the Leaving Cert, so I suppose things had to take their place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d slowly moved back towards the goal. My gait was getting longer, but my lungs were not increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he would have fancied himself as a roaming goalkeeper and has watched with interest at the evolution of the position.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris O’Dowd believes former Roscommon goalkeeper Shane Curran didn’t quite get the credit he deserved. Photograph: Andrew Paton\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI never felt like we were allowed to go wandering,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI would have been delighted to take the odd free, push out the field. But I reckon if I started to stray, I would have had Kevin McStay himself tackling me. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the one thing I really would have loved is the f***ing cone that a goalkeeper can use to tee up the ball now. We weren\u2019t allowed to have that s**t. I would have never scuffed anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Roscommon\u2019s key players in recent years has been Boyle\u2019s Enda Smith. In the most Irish way imaginable, O\u2019Dowd knows his people and the stock from which he comes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI played with Enda\u2019s dad briefly. I would have been just about to break into the Boyle team and he probably would have been coming near finishing up. Yeah, I\u2019d know Enda\u2019s dad quite well, an estate agent in town, lovely man.\u201d <\/p>\n

Based in London now \u2013 and with two young boys \u2013 O\u2019Dowd plans to bring them along to the local GAA club, St Brendan\u2019s, soon. <\/p>\n

And when he can\u2019t get to watch Roscommon in person, the digital age of the wireless comes in handy \u2013 namely Shannonside FM.<\/p>\n

\u201cWillie Hegarty must be my favourite commentator in the world. God, he brings those Roscommon games to life,\u201d smiles O\u2019Dowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard him once giving out about a corner back. Willie was going, \u2018it\u2019s like he\u2019s gone off for a holiday and left the back window open so somebody could come in and rob half the place\u2019. Brilliant.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd recently found his old Roscommon gear bag in the family home. The colours have faded somewhat, there are a few loose fibres and a small tear but the bag possesses magical movie-like powers capable of transporting him back to 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a transitionary time in your life,\u201d he says. \u201cYou are training and playing with lads from other parts of Roscommon who you don\u2019t know day-to-day, but you all come together for this one cause for a momentous few months. Then you might never see some of them again, but you have created memories that last the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris O\u2019Dowd loves his county. To the Moone, Boy.<\/p>\n

Dalata sponsors the GAA\u2019s Under-20 Football Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris O\u2019Dowd is talking Roscommon football. Bridesmaids of the Connacht championship? Okay, not an entirely fair casting. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[181245,110979,61,60,90225,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-413132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-chris-o-dowd","9":"tag-football-championship","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-roscommon-gaa","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}