Royals lose two greats of the game.

Byline: Bernard Flynn

TWO dear friends of mine passed away over the past week, and both were highly respected figures in Meath football circles.

Tony McEntee was one of them, father of my former Meath teammate Gerry.

Tony was larger than life character and a Meath man to his back bone. He was a teak tough, straight talking man who took great pride in watching Gerry play for Meath.

The Meath players from our era held him in high regard and, although he was such a formidable man in ways, he often disappeared in under the stand in the closing stages of some of our big games, too tense to watch the critical final exchanges unfold.

You could see how his character rubbed off on his sons Gerry, Shane and Andy.

Another departed was Ben Tansey, a gentleman to his fingertips who was very welcoming to me when I first came on the Meath panel at a time when there were no shortage of hard men in the dressingroom.

Only in his mid-50s, Ben is the first from our group to pass away.

He was a powerhouse for Navan O'Mahonys, with whom he won a county title in a man of the match display in 1979.

He was also part of the Meath Centenary Cup winning team in 1984, which helped to set us on our way to all the success that followed.

He'll be sadly missed by all around Navan and Meath in general.

CAPTION(S):

BEREAVED Gerry McEntee's dad Tony recently passed away

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Title Annotation:	Features
Publication:	The Mirror (London, England)
Geographic Code:	4EUIR
Date:	Mar 30, 2011
Words:	255
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