Brendan Toland

Early memories at Rossa and joining Lámh Dhearg:

“I played for Rossa up until 1986, I played in a Minor Football and Hurling Final in 1979. We won Hurling against Loughgeil and were beaten by St Galls in the Football. I played Senior Football for Rossa and won the Division 1 league in 1983 and won an All-Ireland Football Freshers out in Jordanstown in 1982. In 1986 I decided that I wanted to leave Rossa and senior footballer and club stalwart Sean Kavanagh was a neighbour of mine- I was chatting to him one day in the street- I was actually going out for a run and he asked was I not training with Rossa? I said no I wasn’t because I probably wasn’t going back to play for Rossa. The next thing he got me transfer forms for the club and I signed up for the club in 1986”.

“I played mostly Football for Rossa at Senior and only played a little bit of senior hurling for them. I changed when I joined Lámh Dhearg because in 1986 the Hurling was really taking off under Fr John O’Donovan. I was playing Senior Football as well for Lámh Dhearg but I was probably more Hurling than I had ever anticipated I was going to play. It was quite an easy move to Lámh Dhearg because I had played soccer with the Barn Youth Club in the mid/ late 70s and Jim Herron and Micky Herron [RIP] were the managers of the soccer team. Also in that soccer team was Paul Buchanan, Paddy O’Donnell, Benny Lynch [RIP] and Gerry McConville. They were all there when I was there and made the transition to the club quite easy”.

“I hadn’t joined the club that long and we were away on a trip, I had gone on the trip and had brought a chequebook with me and hadn’t brought any money- the trip was to Cork. I tried to change a cheque in the hotel reception and they wouldn’t take the cheque because it was a sterling cheque. I remember Sean Maguire [who was the club secretary at the time] asking me what was wrong and I told him. He handed me a handful of notes and said- give me that back when we’re back in Belfast. I remember thinking at the time- I’m not sure that would happen at every club. Needless to say, Sean Maguire got his money back as soon as  got back to Belfast and it set the tone that it was like one big family”.

Hurling success in 1986:

“In 1986 when I joined the hurling was really strengthened by the fact that there were four ex-Rossa players that started to play in 86 as well.  Marty Collins, Damien Kane, Noel ‘Nogie’ Quinn and myself- that really strengthened up the team. Paddy Cunningham [snr] started to play that year as well. You’d five hurlers who played at a good standard, coming into a team that were a wee bit raw and inexperienced. Fr John was obviously a good hurler and the rest were converted footballers – the likes of Eamon McGarry, Frank ‘Russ’ Fitzsimons, Eddie Fitzsimons [RIP], Barney Herron and Rab Lappin. They were all very keen but hadn’t hurled much up to then”.

“I arrived up and Fr John knew I’d come from Rossa and asked me to turn out- I hadn’t played Hurling before that for about four or five years. Hurling was almost secondary then really, in that summer of 86 [before I had even joined the club] I had planned to go to America. I flew off to America at the end of June and Fr O’Donovan flew myself, Marty Collins and big Russ home from America to play in the South-Antrim final against McDermott’s. We flew back on the Tuesday before the final and flew back to America on the Monday after the match. It was a great victory over McDermott’s and we went onto play in the all-county”.

“We then played Armoy in the semi-final and the South-west Antrim winners qualified for the final- I think in them days they did it rotationally. A big memory of the semi-final with Armoy was Eddie Fitz playing on the team, it was a beautiful summers day up in Hannahstown- which were few and far between. This ball broke and I remember going in and pulling on it full-tilt and just as I was pulling on it Eddie Fitz decided he was going to go down to lift the ball up. He attempted to lift it and I didn’t see him coming and hit Eddie right up the nose. The blood was running out of him and his nose was obviously broken and big Fitzy came on and cleaned him down, pushed two wads of cotton wool up his nose and pushed him back on again. When I saw him on the Tuesday night at training he was like a panda with two black-eyes but he played on being the character that he was”.

“We beat Armoy and that got us to the all-county final, but I missed out on the all-county final because of a suspension and found it hard sitting in the stand watching the final. We beat Rasharkin in the final and got promoted so that year we won Junior Championship, won all-county Junior Championship and got promoted to Division 2 hurling”.

“In 1987 we got a bit of a run in the intermediate Championship and we were in Division 2, we were kind of holding our own and didn’t really progress until some of the minors from the 92 team came into senior. The next big milestone in the hurling was getting to the 1994 intermediate hurling final. we played Armoy and lost to them by a couple of points in a real belter of a match in Corrigan. I would say we were probably the better team, they had Cloot McFetridge playing for them and he scored about 2-07 for them that day”.

“That team was made up of some of the old hands like Marty Collins, Dee Kane,  Rab Lappin, Eamon McGarry  and myself– some of the young lads were starting to come through- Paddy Tumelty, Micky McGuigan, Daryl Fegan, ‘Kipper’ Carmichael, Cuff  and Gary Agnew [RIP]- Frankie Quinn was the manager of that team. Marty Collins  Dee Kane and myself were all coming to the end of the line and it was good to see young boys coming through”.

Football in 1986- 91:

“At that time Sean Kavanagh and Kieran Megraw  were looking after it, we’d a good side that year – Brendan Tully was on the team, Gerry Brammeld, Anthony McCague, Bruner in goals, Frankie and Eddie Fitz, Terry McCrudden, Eamon McGarry and Bukey etc. A lot of that team were runners up the minor Championship in 83 and you’d Ray McCarthy, Gary McCartney and Rab Lappin, Micky Seenan and Kieran Megraw. We got beat by Moneyglass in Championship and it pushed hurling to the fore and all efforts went into the hurling team –  Terry McCrudden, Damien Kane, Anthony McCague, Rab Lappin, Paddy Cunningham [snr], Barney Herron, John O’Donovan  and myself would have played football as well – they were the nucleus”.

“Being a dual club didn’t really interfere and it wasn’t too bad because we went out of the football at such an early stage. In those we probably would have been out of the football championship at the end of June- it was certainly before I went to America. We had a decent team in 1987 and got to the final of the Autumn Cup that year. Bukey was in fine form and was scorer in chief and scored about 7 points in the final at St Pauls. It was a horrible Winter day , it was a real cold, wet and rainy day. Eamon McGarry had an absolute belter of a match and right near the end he got the most horrific arm injury. I was playing beside him- I was corner-back and he was full-back. He had gone down and I went over to see what was wrong with him and he was holding arm and I remember looking at his arm- it should have been straight and instead was in the shape of a V. Eamon’s injury was absolutely horrific and I remember going down and seeing him in hospital that night and he had to go in for emergency surgery on the Monday morning. It took a bit of a shine off the final, but once he got a few pints up in the club it was forgotten about”.

“Jim [Herron] was centre-half back and captain in that team, myself and Eamon were in the full-back line along with Anthony McCague. Paddy Cunningham would have played and Frankie and Eddie were still about, Bukey, Barney Herron and Stephen Lynch, Brendan Tully and Gerry Brammeld. I remember Gerry Brammeld taking any penalty we had, I think we had a penalty against St Pauls in the semi-final and he slotted it in as cool as you like. Tully was hitting 45s over for fun – that was a good side. It was horrible to think we lost to Moneyglass in the Championship that year in Moneyglass”.

“We didn’t envisage that a couple of years later we would be champions, we’d a chequered championship in the late 80s to early 90s. We didn’t win a Championship match from 85 to 89. I played a couple of years of senior championship and we hadn’t won a match, in 1989 we had a bit of a breakthrough. You started to see a couple of minors from 88 – Dodger [Pat McCambridge], Micky Boyle, Frankie Wilson, Colm and Paul McCabe. Paul Lynch came in during 90 or 91. We had lost badly to  Cargin in 91 but you could see that some of the young lads were starting to shape up and fill out”.

92 Championship:

“At the start of 92 again you had the nucleus of a good side, Paul Lynch and Fitzy were in charge and they were a great duo – they were two very contrasting styles. Fitzy was rough and ready and Paul was well organised and very dogmatic in what he wanted. They complimented each other and between the two of them they were able to work the oracle. I remember out first team meeting he set-out to all the players that were there- what he expected of them in terms of training, discipline and adhering to the rules. In that very early stage in January he was laying out that we were going to give the senior Championship a real rattle that year”.

“The draw was already made and we were due to play St Galls in first round of the Championship that year. From the earliest days we were focused on playing St Galls, our whole focus was on that one match to beat St Galls. The young lads were coming through and John McKiernan came back on board at 38-years of age, Dee Braniff had come from St Johns- he was a great asset and probably played a couple of seasons but was absolutely brilliant that year. the word was that Eddie and Frankie were coming back from America to play championship”.

“from the previous year, players such as Terry McCrudden, Bukey, Bill Molloy and the Fitzy’s  etc, who would have been good players and some were county material and with Frankie Wilson, Dodger, Micky Boyle and Stevie McFadden all coming through. You also had Eamon McGarry, Micky Seenan, Damien Kane, Marty Lynch and myself who had been around the block for a while. We had a great mix of youth and experience and with Fitzy and Paul Lynch there- they brought together a new level of professionalism”.

“Anything that they went to the Committee for in terms of resources or training weekends were all provided for. The training weekend in Donegal was very much a case of work hard-play hard. We trained but went out for a few pints after the match but Paul Lynch had us out running the next morning at 9 o’clock. Hungover as you were- you had to get up and do the work, the club had paid for you to go on a training weekend so it was training you were going to be doing. It gelled the team between the older ones and younger ones and there was no doubt it was beneficial”.

“I remember going through that year in 92 and I don’t recall losing a match, challenge matches, tournament games. in training sessions there was 20 or 25 at each training session and nobody was guaranteed their place. On my proudest moments was the Tuesday night before we played St Galls, Fitzy was doing his usual motivational talks and he said there was only two people guaranteed their place against St Galls and that was myself and Terry McCrudden. The reason that Terry McCrudden and I were guaranteed our place was because we were going to be doing a marking job on their two half-forwards. I was to mark Billy Drake and Terry was marking Lenny Harbinson- after that the other 13 places were up for grabs”.

“The day of the match came round and we had a disaster in the first five or ten minutes. Eddie and John Rafferty were in midfield and were having a serious battle, Paul McCabe and Eddie- a bit like the hurling day were going for the same ball and had a serious clash of heads. They both went down and it looked at one point that both of them wouldn’t be fit to continue but they both carried on and Eddie Fitz was a major difference that day. He was able to dictate the game with John Rafferty rather than John Rafferty dictate the game for St Galls. We were beating them well but I think they scored goal with the last kick of the game from a free from big Sean Conlon to make it look a bit more respectable and we won that match by a point”.

“St Galls had won it in 1990 and again in 93 and were laced with county players- they’d John Rafferty from Armagh, Seamus McGoran, Gerry Higgins, Lenny Harbinson, Billy Drake and they were all playing county football at the time. There was no doubt that St Galls were still the kingpins and we were big underdogs to beat them. The thing that was drummed into us was if you were going to play or beat St Galls- the first round was the best time to get them and that proved to be the case. We beat O’Donnell’s in Corrigan Park on a Friday night, O’Donnell’s in those days were a Division 1 side and a dogged enough team. We didn’t play very well that night and probably thought that because we beat St Galls then O’Donnell’s would be easy – but there was no easy about it. O’Donnell’s were very difficult to beat that evening”.

“That got us into the semi-final against Rossa, they’d won the Championship in 89 and 91. They’d a lot of county players in Donal and Yash Armstrong, Steven Faulkner and Mark Barr. We played them at Casement on the Sunday night and we’d all been in Casement in the afternoon and that’s when the row took place in the other semi-final but we weren’t too focused on that- we were focused on beating Rossa in the evening. It was a close game with Rossa and thankfully we came out on the right side of it and made the final. whenever we heard that both teams were out and we were being awarded the Championship- it was probably one of my most disappointing moments in football. We were deprived of playing in a county final, which is your dream from you are no age. We just felt it would have been better if the county had have dealt with the individuals involved in the other semi rather than a blanket ban on both. I’ve seen worse with less serious sanctions”.

“It was a big anti-climax because the next match we were going to be playing was Burren in Casement. They were a team littered with county players – the McGovern’s, O’Rourke’s McKernan, Shorty Treanor. Eamon McGarry and Paddy O’Rourke had battle royale that day in Casement. Again Fitzy gave me a marking job that day on one of the McGovern’s. It was the role that I played in the team, if there was a man-marking job to do Terry McCrudden or myself were given the job. Eamon McGarry was solid at full-back so didn’t move to far- he’d pick up whoever would come through as the centre full-back forward. On the left of the backline was myself, Micky Seenan and Bill Molloy. The half-back line was Molloy, Terry McCrudden and myself – the full-back line was Eamon McGarry, Paul McCabe and Micky Seenan. That defensive line remained constant pretty much throughout that full season. The Burren game was very flat and I’ve absolutely no doubt that If we’d have got to the Championship final and won it and had the game under our belt – we’d have been in a much better place to win that match. We went down 5 or 6 points in the first 15 minutes and it put us on the back foot- we never really got going”.

Aftermath of 92 and club trips:

“I played in 93 and myself and Micky Seenan packed it in, in 94, in 93 we lost in a semifinal to St Galls in Casement. It was a match we could and should have won but didn’t- we’d a good enough side but it just didn’t happen. I’m not sure if the previous year’s events translated into the years after but there was no doubt the trip to America a few years later was something else. I was in America and part of the fundraising committee for it with Paul Lynch, Harry Fitz and Fra Fox. It was really something else, we played in Toronto and other boys have talked about this as well. My memory of playing in 1995 was marking big Fitzy’s nephew- a fella called Liam McKee. He was 6 ft 5 and was playing in full-forward- I remember thinking that the only way I was going to mark this guy is by getting out in front of him. He was looking for the long ball to be played in but our guys in around defence and midfield put their players under pressure so there was no easy balls in and I was able to get out in front of him. Once I was able to get out in front of him and get possession, he just didn’t get the ball. If there was a big floated over the top- I’d Joe McNeill in nets wired off that he had to make sure to get off his line quick because I was going to be out in front of him. It was a tough, tough match and there was no quarter given or asked in match”.

“Right after there was a few of us that had to line-up and play in a hurling match right after it- which in 90 degrees heat wasn’t easy. I was full-forward and wee Tonto [Martin McCague] was corner-forward and anytime I got the ball I just hand-passed it Tonto and let him take the shots. It was an absolutely brilliant trip and we all had plenty of craic in the few weeks we were away. There was another trip to Sligo that we had, we travelled to play St. Mary’s of Sligo – who were Connaught Champions at the time. We also played Sligo U-21s and it was an Easter trip. We stayed at Rossa’s point and it was another brilliant trip and great for team bonding”.

“After 94 I’d retired from the senior football team and concentrated on the hurling and we got to the Intermediate final that year and lost. I just carried on playing reserve and south-Antrim football in the late 90s and in the early 2000s myself and Eamon McGarry actually managed the reserve team. It was different in that we were still actually playing- Eamon was playing full-forward at that stage and I was doing nets. It was a bit like south-Antrim, you didn’t have to train too much and it was just good entertainment. It was a mixture of young and awl lads playing. In 2002 we got to the intermediate B final and we played Cargin in the final at Corrigan Park. Cargin had a real good side and we struggled. In the end we only lost by a couple of points because Paddy Cunningham [jnr] lined out for us at 17-years old. He lined up top of the right in the usual position and scored about 13-points that match. He kept us in touch and without him we probably would have got tanked. They didn’t know who he was or what he was, he just kept slotting the ball over the bar. I decided I still wanted to stay involved and still involved in different club activities”.

Role in club events:

“I’ve been involved in various fundraisers in the club, I was involved in organising the gala ball for the centenary dinner in the Europa Hotel and a very successful boxing event at the Balmoral. It was myself, John Dunne [RIP] and Martin og Lynch – we organised the event and raised about £20,000 in one night in the Balmoral hotel. Brendan Herron fought Mattie Donnelly and big ‘Russ’ fought Sean Kavanagh – the highlight was Brendan Herron and Mattie Donnelly. I was also involved in organising the event we were to have this year, a gala ball in the Titanic centre. It was due to take place in November this year but we hope run it in June 2021 instead. The centenary dinner at the Europa was being planned for about a year before hand, it was really, really well put together. Barney Herron did MC on it and it worked to perfection, the only bad thing that sticks in my mind in that was the sad demise of Cormac McAnallen [RIP] on the Monday after the event. I was treasurer of the club on the committee’s in the early / mid 90s, I was involved in a bit of an administrative role. Jim Herron was chairman and Sean Maguire was still secretary, Shanty, Fitzy and Paul Lynch were all involved in the committee and I think Colm McKenna as well”.

GAA in Belfast City Council:

“I was instrumental in setting up the GAA club in Belfast City Council in 2005, we played in the interfirms competition. There was myself a fella called Pearse McCormick [RIP] from St Agnes. We started up a Gaelic team and it wasn’t a very welcome addition to the sporting activities of Belfast City Council but it was a sign of the times that the GAA was spreading everywhere. We played two or three years in the interfirms and eventually won the Ulster interfirms in 2006. We beat Citibank in the final and I had an accidental clash with Simon Kennedy of St Johns- which absolutely finished my career. I ran into perform a tackle that I could have got away with when I was 25 but not when I was 45. In the celebrations I was carried into the Errigal with the cup and after the festivities where over I was carried out for a different reasons. I arrived in busted and departed airlocked with the Ulster Championship. We were beat by a Meath team in the all-Ireland semi-final. I enjoyed that role of setting up a team in Belfast City Council and I’m still very proud of the fact that there is a Gaelic team in the council”.

Refereeing:

“When I was absolutely finished playing I decided that I wanted to stay involved with the GAA but I had no interest in coaching. I saw how much time that likes of Terry McCrudden, Frankie Fitzsimons and Martin Lynch had to put in and decided it wasn’t for me. After a conversation with Frankie Quinn [county secretary] he said listen you should take up refereeing and took it up in 2006. I wouldn’t have dreamt of it previously; I got a lot of stick- particularly from people within our own club- a bit of poacher turned game keeper. I must admit, I enjoyed it from the start, it kept me involved in the game, kept me fit and you were putting a bit back into the GAA as well”.

“I know referee’s get a hard time and get a lot of abuse but there are far more highs than lows in refereeing. I’ve refereed numerous county finals, refereed three senior finals, four intermediate finals, two U-21s, a minor and various other finals. I’ve also refereed two Ulster club finals in the Minor tournament at St Pauls on New Years Day. I’ve refereed Mageean Cup finals and Rannafast finals, MacRory and McLarnon matches – but I’ve never done those finals. In 2018 I was asked to take over as chair of the referee’s committee and now I’m also a national referee’s tutor. I travel over Ulster conducting refereeing coaching courses”.

“Back when I started the main men in refereeing circles in Antrim would have been John Gough and Gerry McClory. Then it was taken over by Paddy Quinn and Gregory Walsh would have been involved as well. Now it’s Mark O’Neill and myself from Armoy, the two of us look after all things referring in Antrim at the moment and have done these last three years. We’re ably assisted by a club colleague of mine Anthony McCague. Anthony appoints all the senior football referees; I appoint all the senior hurling referees”.

“Whenever I took over refereeing there were some other referees from the club, Eddie Fitz took on refereeing and was doing very well at it and refereeing at senior Championship level. Cocko [Colm Cochrane] has done for a while and Rab Lappin as well. Now Paddy Tumelty and Sean Elliott are the latest recruits coming through -they’re keeping the refeering flame going in the club. Paddy has all the attributes to be a referee, he is still young and fit and keen. I took Paddy and Sean down to Croke Park to finish off their course and the two of them took to it like a duck to water and performed very, very well. Paddy referred last season’s Berringer Cup final and I would expect Paddy, Sean and Rab to step up this year and take matches in Championship this year”.

Antrim vice-chair:

“Ciaran McCavana had approached me towards the end of last year, it might have been the night that we played Portglenone in Queens and we were talking about things in general afterwards. He asked me if I would be interested in coming along as vice-chair to help him out and I told him I’d think about it. a day or two later I rang him and said that I would-providing it didn’t interfere because I still thought I’d unfinished business with referring and as long as I could keep on both roles- I would be happy enough to do it. He was happy enough for me to keep a bit of continuity going with referring as well and I became county vice-chair in December 2019. It’s got off to a bit of a slow start in that by march the whole GAA world had closed down. But the past few weeks it has taken off again and the amount of work that has gone on behind the scenes in order to organise competitions and fixtures in a very condensed season has been phenomenal”.

“I know that the county board gets a bit of stick, the amount of work that Ciaran McCavana, Donal Murphy [treasurer, Portglenone] and Raymond Compston as chair of CCC. Unless you actually see the work they do, you wouldn’t believe the time and effort that those guys have to put into do it. Frankie Quinn gets a lot of stick but the amount of work that he does behind the scenes beggars belief”.

Friendships:

“Some of the boys that I’ve been associated with at the club – Eamon McGarry, Terry McCrudden, Bill Molloy, Micky Seenan, Marty McCague, Hugh Prior, Dodger, Gerard Fitzsimons, Paddy Cunningham [snr], Anto Mc Cague, Rab Lappin all boys I played with throughout the 80s and 90s. I remain as friendly with them today as I did when I was playing and training with them. Bill Molloy moved to Canada in mid-90s but we both remained very close. I have met him in America and Canada many times, usually going to many sporting activities. We were at the Ryder Cup in Madinah in 2012, we were in the Montreal grandprix in 2016 and we were at the masters in 2017. It’s our big ambition to go to the Super-Bowl one of these years”.

“I’ve met Bill in various parts of the world from Hong-Kong to Chicago to Las Vegas and still remain very friendly with him. Terry [McCrudden] was the best man at my wedding and I have a particular affinity with the defenders in that 92 team. Micky Seenan, Bill Molloy, Eamon McGarry, Terry McCrudden and Bruner- I met him a couple of times in Chicago. It’s like a band of brothers. Terry, Bugsy [Hugh Prior jnr], Bill and Russ went to Vegas about 10 years ago for my stag-do and if you’ve seen the hangover you’ll understand what it’s all about”.

“The whole ethos of the GAA is based on the friendships you make and you make them for life. In saying that, I’ve been a member of Lámh Dhearg for 34-years and I still get the odd dig about being a Rossa man. It’s a kind of joke with a jag that I was only a Rossa man, even though for the past 34-years I’ve been a Lámh Dhearg man. I might have been a Rossa man for 10-years but that’s the just the Hannahstown humour”.

Stories:

“Dodger alluded to a story in his journey but his version to it is slightly different to mine. We were playing backs and forwards a couple of weeks before Championship, he was doing corner-forward and I was doing corner-back. He talked about us having a bit of a disagreement and got a big hot and heavy- which is true. What really happened was, he was trying to make wee crafty runs as a corner-forward. For some silly reason he turned up that night in a Liverpool jersey and when I was marking him he tried to make one of those runs and I gripped him back by the Liverpool jersey. The Liverpool jersey was never made for Gaelic football and the whole jersey just came off in my hand and that’s why he cried – cause his Liverpool jersey had been ripped off. Fitzy came in and was saying take it easy, particularly on me- I was getting the blame for injuring his primadonna. At the start of training Fitzy said everyone has to fight for their place and I said right back to him – didn’t you say you had to fight for your place? He just shrugged his big finger at me”.

“Then the Tuesday night before the Burren match, I accidently hit Buke as we both went for a high ball under the lights and broke his nose. He was unable to start the Burren Game.

“I’m absolutely steeped in GAA in Lámh Dhearg, Antrim and all things GAA. One of the proudest moments I’ve had was being given my medal for 92. Some people say we didn’t deserve it but I have it- when I look at the record books it says Lámh Dhearg won the Championship. The two Championship medals I won for Lámh Dhearg was the Junior hurling Championship in 1986 and senior football in 92 and I still have them in by beside locker. Winning the 92 Championship medal and Lámh Dhearg being named club of the year, being a Lámh Dhearg man when we won the 2010 Ulster minor Championship against Magherafelt and in 2017 in Glenavy when we won the senior football championship after all those defeats. Those are the proudest moments I have in my Lámh Dhearg days”.