General
- Thursday October 9th, 2025 @ 23:15
Dinny Lowry RIP
By: Dermot Looney
Everyone at St Patrick's Athletic FC is saddened to hear of the passing of one of our greatest ever players, the legendary Dinny Lowry.
A skilful and brave goalkeeper, Dinny Lowry was the longest-serving player in the history of the club. He was also one of the most decorated players in St Pat's history, with two League of Ireland titles (1954/55 and 1955/56), two FAI Cup wins (1959 and 1961) and a League of Ireland Shield title (1959/60) to his name, along with winners medals in the Dublin City Cup, LFA President's Cup and FAI Intermediate Cup. He was a regular for the League of Ireland representative XI and won one cap for the Republic of Ireland senior team for an appearance against Austria in 1962.
Born in 1935 in Dublin, Dinny lined out with St Pat's nursery club Bulfin United as a young teenager alongside future Saints' team-mates Fergie Crawford and Christy Fitzgerald. He won both schoolboy and youth international honours for Ireland before joining the senior ranks at St Patrick's Athletic.
These were difficult days for goalkeepers. The muddy pitches, unpredictable and often heavy footballs, and charging centre-forwards made life tough for the custodians of the era. But Dinny Lowry quickly won plaudits for his bravery and shot-stopping prowess.
Aged just 17, he was a key part of the hugely successful Saints B team in 1952/53 which won the FAI Intermediate Cup and finished runners-up in the top flight of the Leinster Senior League. But it wasn't long before he was elevated to the first team, vying with his mentor Jimmy Collins for the goalkeeper's jersey for the 1953/54 season.
Interviewed in the 1990s by Tom Hanley for the St Pat's matchday programme, Dinny Lowry spoke of his delight when joining the Saints.
"Joining St Pat's was an honour, but much more exciting for me was the opportunity of working with and being coached by my idol, Jimmy Collins."
"Jimmy immediately saw the tremendous potential the seventeen year old Lowry had," wrote Tom Hanley, "and he took Dinny for intense goalkeeper training twice a week. At a time when floodlighting was non-existent, Jimmy hit ball after ball at his young protégé, lit only by two paraffin lamps behind the goal at Richmond Park."
"Every aspect of goalkeeper play was dealt with over and over again," recalled Lowry, who remembered having to repeatedly rush off his line and throw himself on the ball as Collins rushed through at speed. "Dealing with crosses, getting my angles right, distributing the ball, were all practised, and he never once lost his patience with me." Collins even assisted Lowry with getting a job in Dublin Corporation and would later manage him to even more success.
By 1954/55 season, with Jimmy Collins suffering from injuries, Dinny Lowry was firmly installed as first choice keeper, and helped a young Saints team to the title with a series of brilliant displays in goal in the final few games of the season. The side won the League again in 1955/56 with Lowry now undoubtedly the top goalkeeper in the country.
Aged just 20, he was called up to the Republic of Ireland squad for a match against Spain but was an unused substitute. His appearances for the LOI representative XI won the popular netminder even more fans. There were many famous wins and draws but, ironically, a heavy defeat remains one of Dinny's finest hours.
A match at Goodison Park against the English Football League in December 1955 saw a 5-1 win for the home side, but all the plaudits were for the Irish keeper. The English side included Billy Wright (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Nat Lofthouse (Bolton Wanderers), Tom Finney (Preston North End), Roger Byrne (Manchester United) and John Atyeo (Bristol City). The Irish Press reported that John Atyeo and other English League players stood in front of the LOI goal and clapped Lowry for his many saves. "Lowry's legion of fans are headed by his mother, seven sisters and two brothers, and now include the English forwards to whom he denied scores on December 7th."
Offers were made from Everton and Sheffield United but Dinny remained at his beloved St Pat's, happy to earn the extra fiver or tenner a week to supplement his Dublin Corporation income. He showed perseverance throughout the remainder of the 1950s despite having to drop to the reserves on occasion. He was out of favour for much of the 1958/59 season, replaced by John Heavey, but a bizarre injury to his replacement saw Dinny return at just the right time.
"One Sunday after dinner I got a call to play because Heavey had gone over on his ankle playing on the street," Lowry later recalled. It seems remarkable that Dinny Lowry's subsequent place in Pat's history was all because the first-choice keeper was playing football on the road, but he was to retain his place for the season to come, and several subsequent ones.
Just three months later he would be a key part of the first St Pat's team to lift the FAI Cup, and would repeat the win in 1961, making him the only keeper in Pat's history to win the Cup twice. His performance in the 1961 decider against Drumcondra was particularly memorable, with a famous one-handed save just before the interval keeping the sides at 1-1 before Willie Peyton netted the winner. Perhaps the Cup Final wins were all the sweeter for Dinny Lowry given that his mentor Jimmy Collins was in the dugout as Pat's manager.
1962 saw Dinny recalled to the Republic of Ireland senior squad and this time he was to earn his full international debut. Alan Kelly Snr was injured after 34 minutes with Dinny Lowry tending goal for the remaining hour or so in the 2-3 defeat. In doing so he became only the third St Patrick's Athletic player in history to be capped by Ireland when at the club, after his former team-mates Shay Gibbons and Tommy Dunne. The three other players to later win the same honour - Ronnie Whelan Snr, Jackie Hennessy and Noel Campbell - were also team-mates of Dinny Lowry.
Dinny continued at St Patrick's Athletic for most of the rest of the 1960s. As in the previous decade, when he saw off several contenders to the goalkeeper jersey, he had occasional spells out of the first team side with the likes of Christy O'Callaghan, Jim Farmer and Eddie Connolly coming in to replace him for short spells.
A dispute with the club towards the end of the 1962/63 season saw him frozen out of the first team but all was forgiven when his return was required a couple of months later. Having been part of the squad for the 1954 FAI Cup Final, and played a winning role in 1959 and 1961, he again took to the field for the 1967 decider, a 2-3 loss to Shamrock Rovers. Lowry appeared in both of the club's opening forays in European competition, the 1961/62 Cup Winners' Cup tie versus Dunfermline, and the 1967/68 Inter Cities Fairs' Cup clash with Bordeaux.
His longevity is summed up by the fact that he is the only player in Pat's history to receive two testimonial matches - in 1962 and 1967. In the second of these, a Pat's XI took on a joint Bohemians/Dundalk selection at Richmond Park - and goalkeeper Dinny sealed the win for the Saints with two goals from the penalty spot.
His replacement during the second half of the 1968/69 season by teenager Gerry Chester led to Dinny Lowry leaving the club after almost 20 years in Inchicore between Bulfin and St Pat's. He signed for Bohemians in March 1969, becoming the first ever professional on the books at Dalymount Park. He would go on to lift the FAI Cup with Bohs the following season. Dinny's final LOI club was Sligo Rovers where he finished his senior career in 1973, more than two decades after his first appearance for St Patrick's Athletic.
Dinny remained involved in football as a goalkeeping coach with Shamrock Rovers and was a frequent visitor to St Pat's events. He was regarded as one of the great gentlemen of the game, sharing his wisdom and stories with fans and club officials with great humility and decency. After spending much of his life in Perrystown, and 45 years in ‘the Corpo,' Dinny moved to Co Meath with his beloved wife Dolores.
His family have been great supporters of the History St Pat's project over the years and remain hugely proud of his many achievements in football, just as everyone at St Patrick's Athletic is.
There will never be another like the great Dinny Lowry - and our club would not have had the success or the longevity it has had were it not for him.
Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.
https://rip.ie/death-notice/denis-dinny-lowry-dublin-perrystown-607636
