Foreword

2020 will be a year that no one will ever forget as Covid19 shut down the world and presented us with very challenging and unprecedented times. As we went into the surreal times of lockdown the committee believed it was important to use our Social Media sites and club app groups to keep connectivity and to touch base with our members.

As club PRO I began to release daily happy flashback pics from a wide array of archive pics as well as coaching or other videos including club members especially our juvenile members. By the end of March I came up with the innovative idea to interview members past and present on their experiences of club life. I decided to call the interviews ‘My Red Hand Journey” and they instantly became very popular and received very positive feedback.

The rationale behind the Journeys was to use the abundance of time generated as a result of lockdown to interview a selection of members to tell and share their experiences of club life. Subsequently their stories would educate our members and especially the many new recent members of our proud and distinguished club history. The Journeys would reinforce their pride in the club and significantly raise their spirits and form during the pandemic.

I drew up carefully a list of members who would represent many different generations and eras and more importantly would focus on many different important events and achievements of the club. The features would also present the participants with a meaningful activity during lockdown as we all struggled to cope with long hours. I decided for variety of interest to divide the interviews into three categories, current members, family connections and members who have retired or no longer hold positions or office in the club for genuine reasons but are still big hearted club gaels.

I couldn’t of achieved the Journeys without the valuable support and time of Kevin Herron. Kevin’s phenomenal commitment and professional journalistic skills resulted in the Journeys being presented very professionally as borne out by the Andersonstown News and Saffron Gael printing a selection of them. I would not like to count the many text messages, app messages, emails and calls between Kevin and I. Kevin’s commitment is personified by him one day walking a round trip of 12 miles to my house on a very hot day to complete Jackie Duffy’s Journey.

The format was well structured and organised. I would call the participants to see would they consent to be interviewed and then I would draw up a template for them and Kevin. Kevin would interview them by phone, record the interview and then write up the interview. We used a Dictaphone to tell Ray Megahey’s Journey, Kevin and I interviewed Paddy Tumelty & Beansy, Damien Kane, Jackie Duffy and Ciaran Flaherty by Zoom.

I would then take time to delve into and browse our extensive array of club archive pics while Kevin along with participants would source pics from other areas. Kevin would then send me the text in a Microsoft Word document for me to study carefully and edit and believe me editing had to be done or we could have been calling on John Finucane to represent us. Kevin then loaded the edited text and pics onto Mail Chimp newspaper template . Kevin would then email the feature on Mail chimp and again some editing particularly around position of pictures took place and maybe 4 or more drafts were changed before being issued. At times Kevin found me particularly strict around aspects of text or pics and actually cited on numerous occasions that I was the hardest ever Editor he has worked with. I make no bones about as I wanted quality features to do justice to the participant and to always enhance the club positively. After intense editing the Journey was released on club social media and app groups.

It was apt and fitting as recognition of his professionalism, dedication and hard work that I turned the tables on our roving reporter Kevin and interviewed him on his journey.

Kevin and I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences of the Journeys and both openly admit they give us structure and purpose to our own lives in extremely difficult times in lockdown. We are of the opinion that all the hard work, countless hours and energy invested in completing the journeys should be harnessed and now compiled into a publication. The publication would become an alternative History of the club and a poignant souvenir of how the club coped with the unprecedented Covid19 pandemic.

Kevin and I would like to acknowledge the professionalism and commitment of John ‘Curly’ McIlwaine and The Saffron Gael for helping us transfer our journeys into an online compilation. Working with Curly was a pleasure and you can appreciate why he is respected throughout the country for his contribution to promoting and developing Gaelic games so effectively.

Finally I hope you will enjoy the publication and it will enrich your knowledge of club history and pride of the club. Many thanks to the participants for their willingness and time sharing your experiences with us and of course my right hand man Kevin Herron.

Bukey

Editor