Hearts As Big As Mountains
Gerard Cunningham
Hearts As Big As Mountains By Kieran Cunningham
Donegal club rocked by double blow
From The Star, February 19 1998
Bred to a harder thing than triumph, it’s been a tough couple of years
for the south-west Donegal parish of Glencolmcille.
A remote outpost of God’s country that finds its expression in
football, the local GAA club is Naomh Columba.
One of the strongest clubs in Donegal, they have three players on the
county panel, Noel Hegarty, John Joe Doherty, and Noel McGinley.
Noel (Hegarty) and John Joe played on the Donegal team that made
history by winning Sam Maguire for the first time in 1992.
Naomh Columba lost three senior county finals in a row from 1994-96.
Tragic defeats in the normal cheapened language of sports journalism
but Glencolmcille has learned the true meaning of tragedy over the
past eighteen months.
In October of 1996, Patrick (Danny) Cunningham a senior Donegal
panelist, crashed his car on the way home from the League clash with
Cork. Patrick died a month later. He was 22.
Last week, JP Cunningham , a county minor in 1997, collapsed with a
brain hemorrhage on Wednesday morning in his place of work in Athlone.
He died the next day. JP was 19.
Three other young people have died in the parish since July 1996.
This is in a place with a population of about 1200. It’s hard for any
GAA club to compete with such scarce resources and in the face of such
adversity. But compete they will.
JP’s family are the life & soul of Naomh Columba, his father, Connie
(Beag), and uncles kept the club going when county titles were a dream
and Glen regarded as a county backwater.
Last year, JP and three of his brothers, Dessie, Conal, and Hughie all
played senior football for the club. It’s fair to say that Naomh
Columba wouldn’t be where they are today without the Beags.
I first saw JP play at Under-14. It was hard to miss him. His
distinctive hunched running style, boundless energy and fighting heart
set him apart.
JP inspired Naomh Columba and his school, Carrick VS, to victory in
games they had no right to win. His spirit level would never have run
dry.
Patrick Danny was a different animal. A tenacious scrub bull of a
corner back, he had his jaw broken early on in his first competitive
match with Donegal, against Meath.
Patrick finished the game and didn’t even bother going to the doctor
until the next day.
After his death, Naomh Columba rested his number four jersey. Last
year, the right corner-back wore sixteen on his back.
Anyone who doubts the strength and, more importantly, the decency and
value of the GAA as an organisation should have been in Donegal last
weekend.
From Ballyshannon through to JP’s home village of Carrick, the streets
were lined with people paying silent respect as the hearse returned
with his remains from Ballinasloe Hospital.
Every club in the county was represented at the wake and the funeral,
and many from other counties.
Those who criticise the GAA do not understand that it is more than a
sporting organisation. It caters for the social, cultural and,
sacrilegious as it may sound, even the spiritual needs of its people.
Life without the GAA would be very hollow for people in places like
Glencolmcille.
Last Sunday JP was laid to rest in Carrick. Two hours later, Donegal
played Westmeath in Ballybofey. This should not have happened.
JP, Dessie, Conal and Hughie have all worn the county jersey. Hughie
is a current county minor.
Donegal sought a postponement of the match but were told games can
only be postponed for the death of a senior county player of a County
Board member.
I understand the GAA has to be strict as regards its fixture list, but
this decision infuriated many, many people.
And the GAA is about people, not space-age stadiums.
The decision not to postpone last Sunday’s match showed a worrying
distance between Croke Park and the people on the ground. They need a
serious dose of cop on.
Remember Carlow were allowed a postponement because of a supporters’
club row and, last year, the All-Ireland hurling quarter-final between
Tipperary and Down was shunted to Clones on a Saturday evening because
American ‘football’ was being played at Croke Park on the Sunday.
But such sniping is better left for another day. Last night, Naomh
Columba trained on the sand banks of the beach at Glencolmcille.
Life goes on, football goes on. Naomh Columba will dust themselves
off and try to win their third senior championship.
They might do it this year, they might not. But they will win more
championships.
And that would be the most fitting tribute to two fine footballers and
decent young men.
--
Gerard Cunningham abardubh at wwa dot com
http://www.wwa.com/~abardubh/
"For a guide to what's really going on" -s.c.i. FAQ
Ruaile Buaile
Tragic story and all, but jaysus will you lighten up.
I mean if you translated that into Irish and changed the authors name
to Peig, it would be fit for the Leaving Cert curriculum.
Gerard Cunningham
Ruaile Buaile wrote:
So go ahead then, post an upbeat story..