The late Larry Fagan Hall of Fame 2007 (click here)

Tommy Regan Hall of Fame 2005

Boyle native to be honoured by Killarney Legion GAA Club
BOYLE-BORN Tommy Regan has been chosen as the recipient of a prestigious hall-of-fame award by his club, Killarney Legion.
The award, which is presented each year to a person singled out for lifelong dedication to their club, is recognised as one of the top awards in Kerry. Indeed it is fair to say that Tommy is richly deserving of this honour. He has given over 40 years continuous service to the Killarney club, both as a player and an administrator.
Born in Breandrum just one mile outside Boyle where his mother still lives, he took up the position as restaurant manager in the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney in 1961. He retired from that post four years ago and is now manager of the four-star Fairview Guesthouse in the heart of Killarney town.
He is married to Mary.
They have two sons and three daughters. His father Joseph died in 1971.
Tommy has given magnificent service to his club. He played minor, U-21 and senior in the green and white. He helped the senior team to a much-sought after O’Donoghue Cup victory (East Kerry) in 1967.
Following his playing days he threw himself body and soul into the administrative side of affairs. He occupied numerous positions, and still does, as he toils away behind the scenes.
He has been involved in training/coaching teams in all grades. He served as an exemplary treasurer for a number of years and has backboned many massive fundraising activities. The club has just completed a superb massive new complex at their grounds in Direen.
Tommy was deeply involved in those fundraising drives over the last few years.
He is ever present at all club matches, meetings and many other events. As the official club photographer, his keen eye for a club shot has resulted in literally hundreds of photos.
He is the current Club Registrar, a vital position in the successful running of a GAA club. However, this is one of the many things he does for the club as he continues to devote every minute of his spare time to the GAA.
In a year where his beloved Legion won the Kerry Intermediate Football Championship for the first time in its history, no man deserves the Hall of Fame award more. He joins an illustrious, star-studded galaxy of former Kerry football greats, many of whom played against the great Roscommon team of the 1940s.
The great Jimmy Murray would be familiar with such legends as Jackie and Denny Lyne and Teddy O’Sullivan of New York Polo grounds fame, Johnny Culloty, Donie Murphy, John C. Cooper, Jimmy Redpath, John Joe Sheehan and Lui Nolan.
Tommy Regan’s work for his club has been a lifelong labour of love. It would take many hours to fully document his life’s endeavours. The Vincent Doyle Memorial Cup, so called after one of the club founder members, will be presented to Tommy at the club’s annual social on New Year’s Eve in Killarney.
Roscommon’s loss was Kerry’s gain and no one gained more than the famed Killarney Legion club.

Many thanks to Weeshie Fogarty (Radio Kerry Sport) for compiling this article.

Hall of Fame title went posthumously to the late Larry Fagan. Club president James O Donoghue presented the Vince Doyle Memorial Cup to Larry`s wife Ann.
Master of ceremonies on the night Denny Murphy gave the following account of the life of Larry Fagan:-
  We in the Legion club are very aware and grateful for the work done by those who have gone before us. The respect and admiration that the club holds for tonight's Hall of Fame winner ranks high with all previous winners. Although no longer with us, his memory will never be forgotten within the Legion Club.
Larry Fagan was born in 1942 in Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath. Larry's early association with Gaelic football was in his playing days at St. Finian's College in Mullingar. Reading extracts from the newspapers of 1960 it seems Larry was well able to find the back of the net when it was most needed by his team mates.
In the All-Ireland Colleges semi-final in 1960 against Gormanstown, St. Finian's found themselves two points in arrears with only seconds remaining in the game when they were awarded a 14 yards free. The young Larry Fagan was entrusted with the resulting free kick. The result was the ball crashed to the back of the net, putting St. Finians into the All-Ireland Colleges final. Their opponents in the final were the highly respected St.Jarleths of Tuam. The final resulted in defeat for St. Finians, however, once again Larry was on target hitting the net on two occasions.
Larry's career path saw him take up a position as a psychiatric nurse at St. Loman's hospital in Mullingar. In 1966 Larry travelled across the water to further his career as a general nurse in Manchester. While in Manchester he met his Belfast born wife Ann, whom he later married in 1969. Shortly after Larry entered the building trade, where he remained for many years. Like most of the Irish abroad Larry was anxious to return to his native shore, and returned to Ireland  in 1972 with his wife Ann.
He first went to work with McInerneys in Cork, where his first daughter Kathy was born. He then transferred to Limerick and it was there that his son Tony was born. Due to demands in the building trade, Larry had a choice of moving to either Waterford or Killarney and like all sensible people he chose to move to Killarney.
The Fagan family finally put down roots in Woodlawn in Killarney in 1974. Second next door to Larry in Woodlawn was none other than our own Pat Healy, so Larry's card was marked straight away as to what club he was going to become involved in. Larry's two sons Tony and Sean then joined our underage teams and Larry then began to get the real Legion bug. His involvement grew stronger within the Legion club and peaked when he took over chairmanship in 1985, one year after the purchase of our own grounds in Direen.
For the next six years Direen was to be his new project, a project which he took very seriously indeed. With his vast experience in the building trade it was inevitable that the cement mixer would very quickly be put working in our new grounds. Larry's vision was to have a big clubhouse like we have today, however, unfortunately finances did not allow us to put up such a structure in the mid 80's. This tells us that Larry was about twenty years ahead of his time. Larry worked tirelessly for his beloved Legion club from 1985 until his untimely death at the age of 49 on the 18th of August 1991.
Today Larry's daughter Sinead continues his legacy with her involvement on Saturday mornings with our u.10 girls, his grandson Sam also wore the green and white. Larry was once heard to say on his way to Croke Park, to see Kerry play in an All-Ireland final, that he wished he was a Kerryman!
He may not have been a Kerryman but he certainly was a true Legion man.
So tonight we in the Legion club have great pleasure in posthumously awarding the Legion Hall of Fame to Larry Fagan.

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