Damien Kane

Early memories with Rossa and move to Lámh Dhearg:

“A guy that lived in a house backing onto ours in Corrib Ave- the late Danny Murray RIP– came over, I must have been about 12 at the time and he asked me if I wanted to come and played for Rossa? I said yeah no problem at all. His four sons all played for Rossa and I joined on the Tuesday night. We used to go down to the Falls Park, just across from the Rossa club there used to be an old building there and what we used to do was stand-in there and just hit out the pitch to the people playing in. That was really my first involved with them”.

“I played from U-12 right up to senior hurling and I played senior football as well right up until I was 18. When I got the diabetes I couldn’t get on the South Antrim hurling team. They didn’t understand what the condition was and didn’t put me on any of the teams. I remember sitting up at Loughgeil one night as a substitute in the U-21 team. I got on the senior team at 17 and couldn’t make the U-21 team at 19. I couldn’t make the South Antrim team and that’s when I thought there was no point. I’ll just go somewhere else”.

“Buke [Paul Buchanan] had always been on at me about Lámh Dhearg- he was never saying come on you need to join- but he just made it sound like a real, real fun place to be and there was a lot of good guys there. It was really Buke that sold Lámh Dhearg to me. In 1985 when I got the diabetes I didn’t play for the rest of the year. I think Buke brought me up to training a few times for Lámh Dhearg and that’s really when I made the decision in January 1986 to actually join the club. I never regretted the move”.

Influence of Martin Buchanan, Colly Magowan and friends:

“I knew that 1983 Lámh Dhearg had got to the minor football final and senior football final – I know that Bukey was playing on the senior football team and Martin [Buchanan] couldn’t play because of a shoulder injury. Colly [Magowan] was playing at left-half back and that was my first real memories about watching Lámh Dhearg. I went to La Salle  with Marty Buke would have knocked about with Martin and would have been down at his house all the time. There was some stories and we had a great friendship and I decided that I was going to join Lámh Dhearg. I had been introduced to the club in 1985 and was really looking forward to joining”.

“There were quite a few characters- I knew big Russ [Frank Fitzsimons jnr] from primary school. He lived up beside the chapel and always used to walk up from school. I knew big Russ and that was the only person I knew apart from Martin, Paul and Colly. I certainly didn’t regret the move and enjoyed meeting some great people over the course of my time up the hill”.

Hurling for Antrim and marking Niall Quinn v Dublin minors:

“in 1983 what used to happen was that Antrim were put into the Leinster league and would have been playing against the likes of Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin, Laois and counties like that. I went to La Salle and Br. John from La Salle would have been a big Kilkenny hurling man. We went into school the Monday after beating Kilkenny on the Saturday down in Swords and there was every excuse in the book”.

“We played Dublin at Parnell Park in a friendly match and this big fella tiddled on and he was about 6ft 4. I was playing left-full back and he comes on and was leaning on his stick. I didn’t really remember much more than but he just told me his name was Niall Quinn after shaking hands at the end of the game- we were standing having a bit of a chat”.

“That was back in 1983 and I think they got beat in the All-Ireland minor final that year by Galway and he was playing in it. A lot of the guys playing in that team didn’t go on and play senior. It’s just a pity that there is a lot of drop out from 18 all the way to senior. I was invited to play for the U-21s for three years and never did that. I wasn’t that great- I was decent at hurling but that didn’t really have any drive to get on county teams. I just enjoyed the craic of it”.

Hurling under Fr John O’Donavan:

“I remember Fr John and back in 1987 he got a bad knock in the hand one night playing and his hand was put in plaster and I remember him saying that Fr McCorry- who was parish priest in St Oliver Plunkett- was really annoyed at him because he wasn’t able to give out communion. I suggested to him- why don’t you get the alter-boy to hold the chalice for you and you can give out the communion with your good hand? And that’s what he did” .

“His fanaticism was like any of those Cork or Kerry men in football and hurling respectively. He’d have said – ‘right we’re going for a run’. I hate running ! if there’s one thing I won’t do- it’s running and I don’t run anymore. He was absolutely fanatical about hurling and he brought a level of fun and enjoyment. It wasn’t lets charge up the pitch and run around the pitch 30 times. He used to have us lined across the pitch at the bottom end, we would run up the pitch and he would shout dog or cat – if he shouted dog you would turn to the left and cat you would turn to the right”.

“What that did- you were having to think when you were doing it and you weren’t really thinking about running, you were more listening to the instruction. It’s maybe too early to say professionalism back then but he set some very, very high standards. He would come in and be in your face if you didn’t do something right. I remember I missed a few training sessions and he dropped me for a South-Antrim final against McDermott’s. he dropped me and brought Tote’s [Brendan Toland] back from America- who hadn’t been training in months. It annoyed me and he said – ‘yeah he wasn’t available, you were and you didn’t turn up, he made himself unavailable by going to America’”.

“He brought enjoyment to training and it wasn’t a case of – right we’ll all go out and here’s a hurling ball, you hit it out and someone would hit it back out again. He was way, way ahead of the game, we’d never seen anything like this before with many drills . Normally in training- what you’d do is stand in the goals and somebody was standing about the half-way line or 65’ and you have hit the ball out to them. They would have caught it and you drove it back in again and you’d lift it and hit it back out. That was the level of some of the drills we did”.

“in 1989 Paul Lynch was coaching that year and all I could hear Paul say was – ‘right everybody into the corner’. That phrase will still ring in my head until the day I die. Fr John O’Donavan brought a different level of focus to playing hurling and I really, really enjoyed playing with him. He was such a good player as well; he wasn’t tough or hard- he was a slight but very skilful player. He took the game seriously and used to be subject of close attention from many teams because of his ability.”

Two big hurling games:

“The first medal I won for the club was the Belfast Championship down in Casement against McDermott’s. we got a lovely medal for it and I was walking about ten feet high. In one of the matches I went down to scoop the ball up and Paddy Elliott clipped me with the stick. I hit him back and McGurk came up and said – ‘here take it easy with him, his three sons play for the club’. It was as a tough and bruising encounter I ever played in and some boys ended up with blood stained jerseys “.

“I remember the promotion game against St Enda’s up in the club, we were getting whacked [on the score line] at this time and we got two or three penalties and two or three of 21-yard frees. 3 of my 21-yard frees went into the net and a couple of the penalties went over the bar and I think I ended up scoring 3-03. I think I scored the equaliser from a 65’ that night”.

Bukey recalls – “He was doing centre-half back and casually dandered up like John Wayne to hit the 21-yard frees, penalties and 65’s. I remember Shanty jumping – I remember seeing Shanty jumping  high and rubbing his hand with glee as he was standing beside me on the line as Kaneso lifted the net three times”.

John McKiernan:

“We were playing St John’s one summer in 1987 and the sun was splitting the trees one Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock. We ended up beating them and I was running up the pitch on a solo run and the next minute I got a whack on the eye. My eye was virtually hanging out of me, it was cut just above my eyebrow. Somebody says that someone is going to need to run Dee down to the Royal here”.

“Big John [McKiernan] said ‘I’m going down that way’ – we got into the car and you can appreciate- my eye was hanging out of me and stinging like mad. John asked me at Falls Road shops – ‘how’s your degree going?’ – I told him we were doing stuff called finite element analysis on computers. This was in 1987 and nobody had even seen a computer. John worked up in Gallagher’s – the big cigarette company up in Ballymena. He started talking about how they were using finite element analysis to identify the best materials to use in cigarette butts”.

“he was driving me down the Motorway to go into the Royal and honestly – I couldn’t get out the car quick enough- I was going to sleep. My eye was killing me and John was going on about the stresses and strains and with that you can cause this compression ratio. When I got into the Royal the nurse said she would have to give me a local anaesthetic and I said- oh no, I’ve already had one of them. John McKiernan was as good a hurler as he was a footballer – he never really put that much effort into the hurling but was one of the best people I’ve ever come across”.

“We were playing McDermott’s one night at Casement. There was two Gerry McConville’s playing for Lámh Dhearg – Gerry McConville who was great mates with Barney Herron. There was also a guy that came from McDermott’s and was a really good player and nice big fella. He came to the club but never really got himself involved in the club afterwards. Big McKiernan played for Ulster and was an absolutely brilliant, brilliant footballer. He came down to me halfway through the first half and said – Dee, how am I playing? A guy that’s playing midfield for Ulster is coming down to me and asking me how he was playing. For a joke, I said that Gerry McConville is cleaning you out there and it’s embarrassing”.

“The next kick-out that McDermott’s got – all I could see is John taking the ball with venom and force and Gerry hitting the deck. Big McKiernan was some operator and was as good as hurling as he was in football. He just never put that much focus in”.

Bringing in

“Malcolm Murray was playing South-Antrim against Gort na Mona – I wasn’t there but I was told the story that Gort were given a 65’ and Mal ran in and blocked it. When I tell most people in England what a hurling match was- they would say- no way would I play that. Kieran [Megraw] put an awful lot of effort into hurling as well. the person that really put the hurling into Lámh Dhearg with Kieran was Father John. He really encouraged an awful lot of kids to come and play as well. He was a real personic figure”.

“When people talk about a Priest – they think that they’re stand offish and they don’t really want to get too close. John would endear himself to a lot of people with the way he behaved and what he did and what he taught and trained. The hurling panel was an unique combination, some decent hurlers like Kieran Megraw, Paddy Cunningham sen, Colm McKenna and Barney Herron etc, New players joined like Nogie Quinn, Noel Morgan etc  and raw but keen recruits.  A lot of people got very, very caught up in it and a lot of people hadn’t played hurling from they were 10 or 11. It was John that really encouraged guys like Marty McCartney, Eamon McGarry, Rab Lappin, Carso , Kevin McCambridge  Russ and Eddie [Fitzsimons]. Eddie [RIP] wouldn’t have known what end of the hurl to hold but wasn’t afraid to get in there and you would have turned away and hoped for the best. That was John that encouraged people to do that and he’d have broken up the game and his enthusiasm and focus was unbelievable.  Guys like Marty McCartney, Kevin McCambridge  and Eamon McGarry all became very good hurlers”.

Successes at hurling

“Great credit for introducing hurling to Lámh Dhearg ] must be given to Fr John O’Donovan, Kieran Megraw and others. I won the 1986 Junior Hurling Championship and the Division 3 Hurling League in 1987. I then played with the club, until 1999 – in the Division 2 Hurling league. We won the McMurray Cup in 1994 beating St Galls at Shaws Road. I think in 1996 we got to the Intermediate Hurling Final and lost in a close game to Armoy, at Corrigan Park. One of the best excuses for missing a hurling match I have ever heard was from Kevin Elliott who reported that his earring had caught in his mattress and he couldn’t get out of bed. Some of the guys I played hurling with included: Hugh Moreland, Gary Agnew, The McGuigan Clan (Mikey & Peter Martin), Eamon McGarry, Brendan Toland, Beansy & Kevin Elliot, Paddy Tumelty, Pat Toland, Ambrose O’Neill Anto Finnegan, John McKiernan, Noel Quinn, Marty McCartney and many many more”.

Autumn cup success:

“I really enjoyed when Seamy [Fitzsimons], Sean Kavanagh and Kieran Megraw took the team- they were no mugs and the team we had was brilliant. They were the first to take us to  Barnett’s Park and run up the hill to the White House. We used to do that all the time and there was a lap you could do all around the park and out to the Dub. That’s what we used to do and it felt more like a challenge. There is nothing worse than running around a flat pitch – where you are sprinting around one side and jogging around the other three sides. We really were very fit then and we were going to different places. When you were going to Barnett’s Park, you weren’t running around in your Antrim or Lámh Dhearg”.

“All those All-Ireland winning Down teams would have down in Newcastle and running up the sand banks. We were doing that in 86 but it was the hills in Barnett’s Park. We beat every team in Autumn Cup that year. we beat Cargin, St Pauls and Davitt’s in the final. That was a cracking Lámh Dhearg team. Our semi-final against St Paul’s was played on a frozen pitch at Corrigan. The match shouldn’t have been played and in the last minute Bukey was fouled and Gerry Brammeld – set the ball down and coolly hit the penalty into the top corner and the whistle went. Nobody will ever remember the Autumn Cup but to us it was like Championship. There was a league competition at the start and we beat everybody who was anybody in that. We beat Cargin twice and St Pauls”.

“There was quite a night of celebrating in the club afterwards. Unfortunately, Eamon McGarry –  who had injured his arm during the game celebrated a little too hard and ended up having an operation to have a plate inserted into his arm. When I asked him afterwards why he had celebrated so wildly he told me “Dee – do you not realise this will be the only football medal we will ever win with the club”. Oh, how wrong he was – we ended up getting a winners plaque not a medal.

We won the Championship in 1992 and the Division 1 league in 1993 and 1995. I also won a Beringer Cup medal in 1994”. Big Paul Lynch was a very enthusiastic coach and always had us well prepared and confident going into any game and he could deliver a team talk alrite.

“Other Managers that come to mind include – Seamy Fitzsimmons (A great great fella and an absolute gentleman!), the Dynamic Duo – Fitzy & Shanty (The unprecedented encouragement, positive reinforcement and phycological support they gave to their teams was well ahead its time. A perfect example of this would be the Martin Cup Final at Corrigan Park, in I believe 1985. Gerry McConville gets the ball towards the end of the game, and so it is reliably reported, Shanty remarks to Fitzy “The wrong man has her now Fitzy!”. Gerry launched a rocket into the top corner of the opponent’s net and Shanty turns to Fitzy and says, “Didn’t I tell you he’d score!”. Kieran Megraw also had a go too. I wish he’d have been given a greatest chance – he was very analytical. Bandy had a go to”.

“Footballers I played with, outside the Hurling Team – Eamonn McGarry  personified toughness and was solid as a rock, Paul Buchanan could score from any angle and the ball always went well over the centre of the crossbar , Mickey Boyle (Speedy Gonzalez and he was unstoppable with his pace ) Peter Fox, Gerry McConville (Transferred from McDermott’s – the deadliest drop kick I’ve ever seen), Terry McCrudden a super centre half back, JP O’Kane,  The Lynch brothers (Stephen, Paul and Marty), Bill Molloy, Dodger was a class act & brother Kevin McCambridge, BIG Russ & Eddie Fitzsimmons (RIP) and the Fitzys were tremendous fielders and strong players,  Damien Brown, Totes, Hughesy, Hugh Prior (one of the funniest men I have ever met and tough as nails ), Stevie McFadden, Frankie Wilson, Colm & Paul McCabe.  Gavin Brown and Ciaran O’Neill. The Herron’s [Jim, Barney & Mickey]”etc

Leaving the club and encountering a familiar face:

“One of the greatest mistakes of my life was to leave behind a great club and great friends. Never ever give up your friends. The friends you will meet at Lámh Dhearg are true friends. The club is for more than just playing Gaelic games. The greatest fun, laughter and joy I had in my life is the 16 years I spent with Lámh Dhearg. I huge shout out to Paul Buchanan – a clubman through and through. He encouraged me to join Lámh Dhearg and I’m sorry I left it.

“I’d stopped playing for Lámh Dhearg in 1999 and about 10 years later I went and played a couple of games for Tir na Nog in Randalstown. I just thought I’d keep myself fit and do a bit of training with them and they invited me to come and play. When you play for Lámh Dhearg and a you’re a newcomer – somebody always grabs you and pulls you into the club and makes you feel very, very welcome. I didn’t play long and couldn’t believe they were sticking me on at centre-half back and I was 42-years of age”.

“I remember I moved to Ballymena and somebody came and asked me would I play for Ballymena – All Saints and I said aye I will. I was 44 or 45 and I went along and played two seasons them and enjoyed it. They were a really, really good club and to play games at that time was some achievement. They’d a brilliant set-up and a great group of people and members that made me very, very welcome”.

“The last game I played for them was against St Agnes’ and one of the funny things was that Brendan Toland was refereeing. When I saw Tote’s I started laughing and he jokingly  said to me- Dee I know all the dirty strokes – and I said tell me about it. It was all Lámh Dhearg umpires and linesmen. I thought to myself I might get a free-one that day but Totes totally fairly controlled the game well.

Craic in the social club:

“To see the club now when I drive past on a Sunday night and it’s in darkness- I can tell you back in 86 until the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the club was absolutely bouncing. You’d to queue up to get into it and Easter Sunday in 86- I’d never seen a crowd like it in my life. We managed to get in and when you got into the Hall that night, you couldn’t move- I’m not exaggerating- you couldn’t move in the place”.

“it’s like looking back with 2020 vision- back then nobody was going into the town after 5.30 at night. Basically all the people from the west stayed in the west- you’d have went to clubs, cinema’s and everywhere in the west- nobody went anywhere else. The GAA kept a lot of people together throughout the troubles and kept a lot of people sane. Lámh Dhearg was unbelievable in terms of the comradeship, stories and craic. You’d go into the club on a Sunday night and you couldn’t move. Everybody would have their wives with them and it was fantastic. It was an extended family. The bigger the headcase you were when you came into the club to join it- the more you were accepted”.

Ray and Marty Megahey:

“Marty Mc Cartney  kept himself very much to himself on the stage – he’d have been doing his dancing. Ray would have been the front man; he was an entertainer and ahead of his time and could have made it anywhere he wanted to. You see guys that go on these cruises and do shows. He could have done that and had that way about him, it was great craic. There was nothing worse than standing by the bar during take your pick – if you were and they saw you- all of a sudden the mic would have come and lights were on you. Those two were brilliant- Marty more with the records and he knew what to play and Ray with the vocal point of view- shouting and getting craic going. The atmosphere was unreal and incredible. It was only a pound in”.

Coming back to events:

“It reinforced how much I missed out through leaving; it wasn’t a case of me leaving- it more a case of just drifting away. When you got back to those events you just realise what you’ve given up. I could have went up and down in the car from where I was living in Randalstown to play for the club. The lads that played for Lámh Dhearg were top class”.

“You’d gentlemen like Micky Herron [RIP] – I got on the very best with him. When I saw him referee one of our friendlies I said I’m not playing. Every time I played with Micky refereeing- I ended up breaking ribs or getting some sort of injury. We were playing a match one night and the referee gave this awful decision – I think Micky had given a point and it was at least 10 feet wide. The next minute the referee said something and I saw the glasses coming off and he wasn’t happy with the referee”.

“Those stories and the people with Lámh Dhearg are top, top people. You’d have had guys who had left the club and if they were in a sticky situation- they would have rang and asked for help and people would have been happy to help. There are top, top people in Lámh Dhearg and I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed every day I played for them. I didn’t enjoy the training by a longshot”.

“I don’t go into the club anymore, I’m too embarrassed to go into it. I look at it every Sunday when I’m driving by when I’m home for London. It’s been such a long time but I enjoyed coming back for events in the centenary year with the match against Carey, Centenary Reunion  and the Spirit of 92 when I travelled back from London and really enjoyed catching up with the guys and as usual the craic was 90 and some stories retold.

“One of the funniest things ever- whenever I became diabetic and Rossa didn’t understand what it meant and neither did I because it wasn’t properly understood playing sport and being diabetic back then. Doctors would have told me 10 years later that they’d discovered things but it was 10 years too late for me. When I came to the club and spoke to Fitzy and Shanty and they said – no problem at all- they knew how to handle it”.

“In 1985 I was diagnosed with Diabetes. I hadn’t a clue what this would mean for me and 35 years later I still don’t. However, Shanty and Fitzy upon me joining the club reliably informed me that they knew how to handle any situation I may find myself in whilst playing for the club. That was the sort of reassurance I needed to start playing Gaelic games again, in 1986”.

“In a match against Dunloy, I approached Shanty & Fitzy at half time and asked for my carbohydrate reserves – I was feeling hypoglycaemic. They looked at each other shamefully and reported to me that they had eaten the digestive biscuits and Mars bars that I had given to them before the game. To address my condition, they sent into the clubhouse for a bottle of brown lemonade. They then sent me out after the break and I did nothing but burp and belch constantly for the whole of the second half”.

“We were playing a Tournament match and I was kicked in the leg and fell to the ground in real pain. Fitzy runs onto the pitch and asks, “Are you in pain”? When I said “Yes” he immediately shoved a Mars Bar into my mouth and forced my chin up and head down to make me digest the bar. I suddenly realised that definitely Fitzy and potentially Shanty hadn’t a clue about medical conditions certainly not Diabetes. I could just imagine Shanty and Fizty doing the Covid-19 briefings as chief medical officer and chief scientific officer. They told me back in the day that they knew about diabetes and I believed them and I’m really glad that I did otherwise I mightn’t have played”.

“More times than enough, I remember going into the club and Barney [Herron] would have been waving the stick around and roaring and screaming like a Champion. The next minute he would have snuck up the side of me and diving on me and he held me down and Gerry McConville poured a bottle of brown lemonade into me”.