Tommy McGuinness


Tommy "The Boiler" McGuinness is a former inter-county Irish Gaelic footballer for County Meath in Ireland. He enjoyed much success playing inter-county football from around 1929 to the early forties on the Meath team. When he initially broke on to the Meath Team he usually played at midfield or centre forward. He played for a number of clubs, winning county titles with three clubs, but is best remembered playing for Navan Gaels. He is remembered for being a big, strong, robust player, regarded as a tough man, never too far removed from controversy whether on the pitch or in the meeting room. There are one or two gaps in his CV and the men who remember those bygone days recall that there were varying degrees of clashes with officialdom which caused his omission from time to time - most notably the National Football League success of 1933 when he should have been at the height of his career. In the 1930 Leinster Final against Kildare he was played Full Forward, a game which Meath drew. They lost the replay but at the time Kildare were rated highly and it seemed only a matter of time until Meath made the break through. The following year Kildare again got the better of Meath in a replay. In 1934 he was moved to the position he is most famous for playing in, full back. In 1939 Meath finally made the break through in winning the Leinster Championship and reaching the All Ireland Final, the height of the Boilers Career. The following year he played in the League final as Meath lost to Mayo. In 1987 McGuinness died and is buried in Navan.