Many Thanks

 

Eight years ago I began writing on here. Little did i know that eight years on I would be still at it and that over three hundred thousand people would have logged on to read part or all of what I had to say.

Writing is something I enjoy. Whether I am any good at it, I am not prepared to say and will leave it up to others to decide.

Apart from watching games it was writing that gave me an extra interest in the G.A.A. Early in 1996 I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s G.A.A. Club. I had not attended too many such meeting’s before this. I attended that year as the then chairman of the Club Micheal Quinlan was standing down and there was to be a contest for the chair between two to replace Micheal. Votes were expected to be very tight and each one cast was going to be very precious.

As happens in such situations some of the other existing officers were standing down as well and both contesting the top position would want to build a new team around them. The election of the main officers and their assistants took place after the position of Chairman had been filled and all had gone well. Then came the lesser positions on the club executive. When it came to the position of Public Relations Officer or the PRO as most know the position I was nominated to fill the position and politely turned it down. I had zero interest to taking up any position. I was not the first person asked to fill it and not the last. In total about a dozen or so people were asked to take the position, all turning it down.

Whether those present had short memories or took me as a soft touch, I don’t know which, but I was nominated for the position again and was seconded before I got a chance to say anything. Something in my mind was saying if someone doesn’t take it soon, we will still be here this time next year. I said to myself give it a go and accepted the position. After the meeting I got talking to Declan Fitzpatrick, a man I had known all my life and admired as a hurler at club and inter county level. He congratulated me on taking the position and said that I would find it harder to get away from holding positions within the G.A.A. than it is to get into one. Little did I know that a quarter of a century later that he would be right.

Twelve months later I was once again asked to fill the position for another year. I had grown to like what I was doing over the past twelve months and gladly accepted. A few weeks later the AGM of the Naomh Brid Juvenile G.A.A. Club came up. I had accepted a place as a committee member the previous year and went to this meeting planning on only been a committee member. The Chairman and Secretary were standing down ahead of the 1997 playing year. Finding a new Chairman proved to be an easy enough task, finding a secretary was tougher.

Fr. Connie Kelleher was appointed as Parish Priest of Touraneena and The Nire the previous summer. He was a man with a deep interest in the G.A.A. and had a great interest in seeing young players develop and go on to play as adults. Fr. Connie became a good friend of mine after he arrived in Touraneena and when he was nominated as Secretary, he accepted on the grounds that I would become the Assistant Secretary.  

Ahead of the 1998 playing year Fr. Connie would stand down as secretary of the Naomh Brid club. I was nominated to replace him and I was also asked to double job and take the position of PRO as well. I wondered at the time if I was taking on too much. I had already taken on the position of PRO of the Sliabh gCua G.A.A. Club for a third year. For my sins I attended the A.G.M. of the Na Déise Ladies Football Club and got landed with the position of Chairman. Something now had to give and I resigned my position of PRO of the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s Club.

The G.A.A. at times is labelled the Grab All Association by those who find fault with how things are done with the money that the association generates and how it generates such money, but in 1998 within Waterford the G.A.A. was given a new meaning, the Gammy Archery Association as a number of the Officers in Bord na nÓg were diagnosed as having heart problems.

I had got to know Eddie O’Shea who was secretary of the Western and County Boards for a number of years. He had decided to give up the position of County Board Secretary in 1999 and would be replaced by Catherine Touhy from Clonea. He also wanted to give up the position of Secretary in the Western Division. He told delegates at the Annual Convention but a replacement could not be found. Over the course of a few weeks Eddie as well as the late Jimmy (Watty) McCarthy who was Treasurer in the Western Board asked me several times if I would be interested. I wasn’t interested but the eventually broke me down when they told me the first delegate meeting of the year was coming up and the position needed to be filled.

Again a call had to be made by me after accepting the position. I had learned quickly that I was not chairman material and so stood down as Chairman of the Na Déise Ladies Football Club before they had a chance to hold its A.G.M.

I also stood down as P.R.O. of the Naomh Brid Club, safe in the knowledge that a new PRO would be found.

Over the following number of years combing the positions of Secretary of Naomh Brid Juvenile G.A.A. Club with that of Secretary and P.R.O of West Waterford Board na nÓg and I also worked closely with the then County Bord na nÓg PRO John O’Leary a man I had known with many years and I have to say that i thoroughly enjoyed myself. After five years secretary of West Waterford Secretary I stood down as I preferred the P.R.O. side of the jobs I held and went on to replace John O’Leary as County Bord na nÓg P.R.O.

In Bord na nÓg I made some good friends. When County Bord na nÓg Treasurer Joe Cleary became the Youth Officer of the Adult Bord he invited me to be part of the committee he was forming and was involved in the organising of a number of youth conventions.

Joe would go on to become the P.R.O. of the County Adult Board for a number of years and he invited me onto the Committee that he was now putting together with responsibilities for putting together and selling match day programmes, putting together County yearbooks, submitting results of all games played over the course of a week to the local and national papers.

By this time I had started to tire of my involvement in Bord na nÓg. People that I had formed friendships with, the likes of Sean Whelan, Johnny Bucky O’Brien, Joe Cleary, Paddy O’Grady and Jimmy McCarthy all left their positions on the board. Paddy had died at all too young an age after a battle against cancer, one that only Paddy could have fought the way he did. I decided to call it a day myself. While new people were coming in the same banter was not happening before, during and after meetings as what was happening.

Going back a few years a neighbour of mine Siobhan O’Connell was involved in the administration of the local Community Employment Scheme. In the autumn of 1993 after doing nothing on medical advice for twelve months or so after finishing school and missing a few months of the last two years with an illness, I was approached and asked would I like a position on a new scheme. I was told that a position of School Secretary at Saint Mary’s Touraneena National School was mine if I wanted it. No promises were made but I was told I could have it for up to three years if I was interested.

I was only too delighted to get involved. It was a chance to get out of the house for a few hours every day and also the chance to get to know the youth of the area and many of their parents, some of whom I did not know, but knew them to see.

I was to finish in November 1996 after three years. As pointed out already Fr. Connie Kelleher was appointed as Parish Priest of Touraneena and The Nire that summer and the two of us quickly got on well, spending many hours each week talking about a mutual interest, namely Hurling.

Fr. Connie told me not to worry about the scheme finishing up. He told me there was a job there for as long as I wanted it. He told me he knew someone that could get me involved in a different scheme and when that scheme dried up he knew someone else.

I spent 15 years in the position, finishing up in Christmas 2008. Health problems that year had helped me make up my mind to give up. I had wanted to a few years previous but was talked out of it.

In my 15 years as school secretary I got to know some of the children very well and it always gave me great pleasure to see them play hurling and football, Camogie and ladies football, and even for a short few years handball.

Coming up to the West Waterford School Leagues every year I would encourage the children to play hurling and football during the lunch breaks. Some would have little or no interest in playing but after a few weeks they were enjoying playing the games, even if they would never become a Paul Flynn or a Maurice Fitzgerald, an Áine Wall or an Anna Geary.

It gave me great joy to see some of the different teams contest different finals over the 15 years. What couching they got over the years came from within the Local Naomh Brid or Na Déise Clubs as well as from the likes of Peter Power and the different FAS Football Coaches that visited the school at different times.

One team however gave me huge pleasure. That was a Camogie team in the mid 00’s. There was no tradition of Camogie in the school. One spring day two of the girls Niamh Walsh and Maighread Barron came to me in the school yard and told me they were bored. They asked would it be funny if they got two hurleys and a tennis ball and hit it to each other. I told them not at all, but they knew the rules that if they wanted to use hurleys even though it was only the two of them they had to wear a helmet. There biggest fear they told me that people would laugh at them if they could not hit the ball properly. I vividly remember told them not at all. I told them that the right way to hit the ball was the way they felt most comfortable. I told them that there was a player with the Cork Hurlers (Joe Deane) who when he was taking frees looked like he would kill himself but seldom missed and few could hit the ball the same way as he could.

That first year of the girls playing Camogie they reached the final of the West Waterford Mini Sevens and the Final of the West Waterford School’s seven a side League final and while the girls lost both games they really enjoyed themselves in getting to play that year. Starting from two girls taking two hurleys and hitting the ball to each other to seeing ten or eleven do so in a few weeks game me great joy. They received no coaching, but were encouraged to play and to do things as they liked the whole time.

When I left the school in Christmas of 2008 I had no plans to do anything. I had suffered a number of health blows and planned to just relax. However in January 2009 I opened my emails one day and noticed one from Jamie O’Keeffe, the then Sports Editor of the Munster Express.

Jamie was someone I was aware of with a number of years. I could remember him working for the Dungarvan Observer a few year’s previous. In August 2008 Jamie had got onto me asking me to write an article for the Munster Express ahead of the All-Ireland semi final between Waterford and Tipperary.

Jamie in his email was inviting me to become a regular contributor to the news paper. Their G.A.A. reporter the former County G.A.A. Board Secretary Seamus Grant was in hospital and the news was not good on him. Jamie told me that he had a plan. He was also asking Eddie Kirwan who had ended his playing career following a health scare and myself to take over from Seamus. Eddie would look after the eastern half of the county and I the west.

Seamus Grant sadly died a few weeks later. I felt that was it for me. I felt that the Jamie and Kieran Walsh the owner of the paper would be advertising for someone to take over permanently. I asked Jamie what the story was. He told me to continue for as long as I like. 11 and a half years later I am still filling reports to the paper on a regular basis, but this year because of Covid-19 and health issues I have over the years I am not attending games. Instead I am relying on live streaming of games.

After I started to write for the Munster Express, editors with all newspapers because of the recession that we found ourselves in, they were forced to cut the amount of pages in their papers each week.

I found that there was so much I would love to see in print but it was not always possible. I began to surfing the net to see what I could do about maximising the amount of space that could be devoted to the G.A.A. locally and to issues that I have an interest in. I came across a .blogspot website that was free to use and huge amount of space could be given to whatever was on my mind. I opened an account and began to tweet and mention on a Facebook page links to that I had on my mind. Within a short while it began to take off.

Some of the numbers that logged into what I was writing amazed me. I honestly could not envisage some of the numbers that were popping up in front of me, especially when it came to Ladies Football and Camogie.

Both games at the time were finding it hard to get coverage in any newspaper. I hate admitting this but I found myself giving the two games an outlet. Those that were involved in the games were clearly interested in what I was at. They liked and shared and re-tweeted what I was saying. Suddenly the number that were seeing and reading what I had to say was not seen just by those that followed me, but friends and followers of those playing inter county ladies football and Camogie. I cannot thank enough those that shared and re-tweeted what I had to say.

This is my one thousand posting on my thomaskeane1973 blog. When I started I did not know if I would reach ten without giving up. When I did I aimed to write fifty and then one hundred pieces.

A Million thanks to each and every one of you that have read any of the one thousand articles I have on here. Hopefully I will be at it a while longer. I know that I can never get everyone to agree with everything I have to say. But that is half the fun in writing. Each and every one of us has our own opinion on a subject. There will come times when people will view things totally differently. We all know that debate is healthy and through it we might see a point someone makes that we might not have seen ourselves beforehand.

All my life I have been interested in the G.A.A. Unfortunately I was born with Spina Bifida which meant that I could never play the games I love at a competitive level but have made my present felt with a hurley in my hand or when a football came my way while games were played at home at home or at school, firstly at St. Mary’s Touraneena National School and later at the former Saint Annes Port Primary School in Cappoquin.

But not been able to play has not stopped my interest in the games I love. From a very young age many Sunday’s during the glory years of the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s G.A.A. Club in the late 70’s and early 80’s were spent going to games in Dungarvan, Cappoquin, Portlaw or Walsh Park or venues in between with my late Father and his sister Joan and my oldest brother Pat.

Down the years I have many memories of games played. I remember listening to a Waterford match on RTE Radio One in the hospital in Crumlin in the early 80’s. I remember John Dalton and Declan Fitzpatrick get a mention and telling the nurses that I knew them.

Sadly I can say I have memories of Waterford suffering heavy defeats to Cork in two Munster Finals. I have memories of the Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s G.A.A. Club winning an Intermediate Football and Junior Hurling County Final double in 1989.

I have memories of the great Waterford Ladies Football teams of the 1990’s, travelling to venues like Croke Park to roar them on. I have memories travelling with a limited number of supporters to games on the team bus in their glory years.

In more recent times reporting on games I have some great memories. I reported on Waterford Intermediate Ladies Footballers and Camogie teams All-Ireland wins in 2015 from Croke Park. I reported on the Camogie and Ladies Football teams winning National League titles. Hopefully I will be reporting on more titles for these sides in the years to come. Personally I think the Camogie team are not too far from winning an All-Ireland. It might be a little harder for the Ladies Footballers because of the resources and numbers that Dublin and Cork have, but hay, we can hope.

I have reported on Sliabh gCua winning two Junior Football County Finals. I have reported on Saint Mary’s in three County Junior Hurling Finals, one of which was a win. I have reported on them in possibly one of their most exciting wins when they beat Carrick Swans at Clonmel last year and on another great day when they played in a Munster Final, even if defeat was their lot.

Hopefully I will get to report on games for some time to come. It is something that I enjoy. I have been asked in recent times to put together a book. It is something that I agreed to, but doing so is proving to be somewhat difficult. Maybe the one that I was asked to put together might not happen, but maybe a different one will happen.

Can I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you that have taken the time to read some of what I have to say over the past eight years or in any of the local and national papers that I have been asked to write for. As I say I don’t expect people to agree with all that I have to say, but maybe I might get some people to challenge their thinking.

With the help of God I will be writing for some time to come and if you continue to read what I have to say.

Thanks again. You taking the chance to read what I have to say is much appreciated.