Hero of the

Half the tales about Willie Doonan are barely believable. It’s no wonder that playwright and director Padraic McIntyre compares the Cavan footballer to Forrest Gump. In fact, Padraic suspects that a cinematic biopic on Willie would do greater justice than any stage production he could muster.
“I’ve mentioned in a recent meeting, jokingly with [film director] Jim Sheridan, that it’s a movie - without a doubt, which would probably be the best medium to tell a life-long story but we’ll see how it works theatrically first.”
That Willie togged out for Cavan teams, which four times lifted The Anglo-Celt Cup and twice the Sam Maguire, is why he’s known; everything else about this crazy diamond is why he’s loved.
Among the most famous anecdotes of Willie was when he went AWOL whilst serving in the British Army. It was this story that Padraic heard through an actor-pal, and his interest was piqued.
“His company was sent out to look for him in Italy and they found Willie with a radio up a mountain, up a tree listening to an All-Ireland final that Cavan were playing Roscommon in. I just went, 'Who is this guy?’”
When Paul Fitzpatrick of this parish penned 'The Fairytale in New York’ charting Cavan’s landmark win over Kerry in the Polo Grounds, writing the play became an imperative for Padraic.
“The chapter on Willie Doonan was just so alive with this real character - nearly like the Forrest Gump of Cavan - things just happened to Willie.”
For example, after Willie alighted from the tree in Italy, even more dramatic twists followed:
“He wasn’t court martialed for going AWOL to listen to the match because he was so important to the company that he was with in the battle of Monte Cassino,” explains Padraic. “He was actually shot there and got an honourable discharge then. He came back and played all his big Cavan matches and won his two All-Ireland medals with an injury from the war in his leg!”
Just because Willie was so admired by the British ranks didn’t mean that all was forgiven for his desertion from the Irish Army. The Irish authorities caught up with him when a period of leave coincided with the 1942 All-Ireland semi-final, enabling Willie to face the Dubs in Croke Park. When Doonan’s name made the team line-up in the morning paper the military police were alerted.
Padraic takes up the story: “John Joe [O’Reilly] was a captain in the Curragh Camp and he pulled rank on the two young military police who came to arrest him in Croke Park, and said they’d hand him over in Barry’s Hotel after the game. When they got back to Barry’s Hotel, the players got together and got him out the toilet window, and he got a lift back on Elliot’s lorry to Cavan, stayed the night - into Fermanagh and went back and joined his British Army.”
The Celt wonders if there wasn’t animosity between him and his teammates for joining the British Army during WWII.
“From my research John Joe had the height of respect for him, I don’t know what he thought of him professionally, but it was sort of taken that that was just something that Willie would do,” he says matter of factly.
There were also some things that Willie just wouldn’t do.
“In 1947 he was the only player to play in New York that day who didn’t fly out with the team; he went with the officials and the subs on the boat because there was a story of a plane he was in coming down over Africa, so he hated flying and said he wasn’t going.
“All the players got around Hughie Reilly, the manager at the time and said to let him go on the boat - that they certainly wouldn’t win the All-Ireland against Kerry without Doonan. So the respect he had among the other players was amazing.”
That respect wasn’t a given - reared in 'The Halfacre’, he had to earn it from the outset. The area overlooking Breffni Park gives the play its title, but in those days it was perceived as the wrong side of town. A snobbery when it came to selections meant it was unheard of for a working class lad to join the Cavan set-up populated by doctors, gardaí and lawyers.
“He was a maverick in a way because he was from 'The Terraces’ as they called them in Cavan; he was the first man to break that glass ceiling to get on the Cavan team. Not only did players from that end of Cavan Town at the time not make the county team, they probably didn’t even make the Cavan Slashers team of the time.”
How did he get in?
“They couldn’t ignore him. He won a Junior Final with Cavan Slashers at the time and got picked up by the Cavan Minors - actually to play in goals in the beginning, and then he was moved to corner back.
“He had quite a different style from other players - a lot of it was soccer clearances - he did his job at fullback and cleared anything that came near him and got a reputation for that.”

The character that keeps on giving
He’s the character that keeps on giving, only he’s not a character at all, but a real person who walked the streets of Cavan and is still fondly recalled by many. That posed some problems for Padraic for whom it’s his first time to write a factually-based play. Originally he wrote a piece for a giant cast of 22 but felt, theatrically, it left him cold.
“I went back and rewrote it and brought the cast down to seven with Willie at the centre and six other actors playing all the other roles that brings up the theatricality of it - well I hope it does, you never know these things until it goes in front of an audience. But I have found the whole thing difficult because I am tied to the facts in a way.”
Although there’s no plans as yet to tour 'Hero of the Halfacre’, he’s not ruling it out.
“You never know - even Joe Dolan - when I started the dress rehearsal I wasn’t convinced it was working at all, so you never know until it goes in front of an audience - so I’m long enough in the tooth to wait to see this week how it comes together.”