Kevin Herron

Family connection:

“My sisters [Caitriona, Fiona and Grainne] all got started through the influence of my father Michael [RIP] and mother Cecilia [RIP].  My Granda Herron [RIP] played for Coalisland na Fianna and represented Tyrone and Ulster – winning a Railway Cup medal. Although I don’t think my Granda Baxter played Gaelic he was an avid Kerry fan and enthusiastic about the game. My mother and father would have travelled around Ireland and watched games in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and went to the All-Ireland final of 2002 just before their 25^th wedding anniversary.  He would have brought my oldest sister Caitriona to watch the famous Antrim hurling team of the late 80s. On a Sunday we were often bundled into the car and brought to the club or various clubs around the county to watch Lámh Dhearg – one day my father lined out for the reserves against Cargin in Toome and my mother shouted at him to pull his socks up- I don’t whether she meant it literally or if he wasn’t having a good game. We used to go to the club finals on St Patrick’s Day if an Antrim team were involved”.

“I remember trips to the club with my Dad on a cold evenings and I was that young that I can remember that previously empty milk-cartons would contain water. My father and mother were very passionate and vocal at games- I remember they would have watched U-21 games up the country when Micko, Charlie [McCloskey], Joe [Doone], Dinny [Decky Napier] etc were playing. If there had have been a bit of a row my mother would have lit on the opposition, she once made reference to the size of a player’s ears as she called him ‘Aer Lingus’. Up in Portgleone one night she called the referee Grecian 2000 in reference of his hair. When my father passed recently Decky Napier was down at the wake, Dinny was doing nets one night in Portglenone and conceded an early goal as my dad got out of the car- he called him ‘onion head’- Dinny had a good laugh when I told him. He was a passionate club-man and enjoyed stewarding as well. On one occasion a bit of a row started after a Championship game with Cargin at Casement in 2011- not wanting the club to get in trouble he made his way across the field to try and break things up in the process fell and hurt his knee. He went on holiday the day after with Caitriona down to Westport and arrived back with crutches as a result of his fall a couple of days before. He was stewarding at the replay between ourselves and Portgleone at the club at the Dub and ended up on the line towards the end of the game- I don’t think he was the most impartial of stewards. I enjoyed trips with my father to the Connaught football final in 2009, Clones and Tullamore to watch that great Antrim team that same year, Sligo in 2013 to watch the Antrim footballers in the National League, we went to Limerick in 2014 to watch the footballers in Championship and we went to a couple of Munster hurling finals in Thurles. In recent years when we were both on the South Antrim committee we would have went down to the All-Ireland finals in football and hurling and they’re memories to be treasured”.

“My sisters Grainne and Caitriona played for the senior footballers under Kieran Megraw although injury and age have caught up on both of the girl. Although Fiona didn’t go onto play senior her oldest daughter Niamh attends Fundamentals in football and camogie. My nephews Ciaran, Caoimhin and Charlie are all involved now and in a few years I’m sure Caoimhe and Ronan will join them and begin their journey. I feel privileged to have been able to play with a lot of my cousins – whenever I started training as a 5-year old I would trained alongside Paddy-Joe and Cathal [Hannon]. But I hadn’t a lot of interest in training at the old La Salle school and often went for a wander around to check out the school that I would attend for 3 of my 8 years of post-primary education at La Salle. Whenever I started playing in U-10 teams I would have played with my cousin Eamon and was later coached my cousin Micko. I would have watched a lot of games that involved Micko when I was younger and I quickly began to look up to him and aspire to be like him [it hasn’t worked out needless to say]. Micko was my confirmation sponsor and I always very proud very proud to watch himself, Ciaran and Brendan represent Antrim in both football and hurling. Down the years my involved in helping teams that has involved Conor [Herron], the Larkin’s [Patrick and Daire] and Cormac [Hannon] – it has also been fantastic. I played some senior hurling last year under the watchful eye of Raymie and through school was afforded the opportunity to assist him with one of the school hurling teams at St. Mary’s CBGS. Una-Maebh would also have played on the same teams as Grainne and Catriona and Roisin would have also represented the club and it’s great to see Ciara and Aoibheann having success with the ladies footballers last year”.

“It’s fair to say that my cousins probably wouldn’t be involved without the influence of their own parents – my uncle Jim and Barney have been magnificent servants to the club both on and off the field along with their wives Joan and Collete. I have been fortunate to be able to play under Jim and Smickers in the south-Antrim reserve team last year. My auntie Maura [Larkin] and her husband Paddy have also been involved in coaching at the club and are part of the senior ladies management. Padraigin  would also take interest in the club through Cormac. It’s evident that the influence from my Grandparents has filtered down through the family and I’m sure will continue to for generations to come”.

Playing career:

“It was only when I under-10 that I properly got into Gaelic, I remember playing U-10 friendlies and Paddy-Joe and myself were the same age group and would have played with lads like -Decky Lynch, Mark Lynch, Decky Bunting, Terry McCrudden, Jamie Quinn, Mark McIlvenny, Conor O’Neill, Conor Smyth, Ciaran ‘Butch’ McConville, Conor McVarnock and a lot of others. We were playing at under-10 match against Carryduff in a friendly and my cousin from my mother’s side of the family Conor Lavery [RIP] was playing for them. I was really looking forward to coming up against my cousin in an opposition team”.

“I’m a Man Utd supporter and Peter Schmeichel would have been an idol of mine so I thought I’d like to be a goalkeeper. Paddy-Joe would have also did nets as well and one day in Bryansford we both donned the gloves for a half-each. I remember the U-10 tournaments [Jack McCartan tournament and St Brigid’s tournament at Shane Park]. We had a couple of successful tournaments back then. We won the Shane Park’s tournament in the second year with lads like Decky Bunting, Decky Lynch, Aaron McAufield etc”.

“In U-12 football we lost back to back O’Donnell cup finals, we got beat by St Galls at Gort na Mona the first year and the next year we played Gort na Mona in Casement and Diesel [Darren Boyd] destroyed us that night. Smickers [Brian Smyth] took the team the first year and in the second year my Daddy would have gave a hand for a while but Bukey was also involved. We lost the play-off league final against Gort na Mona so it was disappointing to have to anything to show for two brilliant years at U-12”.

“We lost a Nipper Quinn final against St Teresa’s when Peter Kane was taking the team and in my second year Barry Armstrong was in charge. We’d a game against Sarsfield’s one evening and my dad dropped me up after leaving dinner to my Granda’s in Kerrykeel. I was late and subsequently dropped to the bench. When I did come on I landed a goal to equalise in the game. That started a good run against the Paddies at the Bearpit and I landed a winning goal in a closely fought game the following year. Sarsfield’s had a quality side including Kevin McKernan and Pearse Cusack and I lauded scoring that goal”.

“We won the U-14 Ulster hurling Feile, Dinny, Charlie, Joe, Terry O’Hara and Vinty McAufield took the team. We were without Decky Bunting as Celtic were playing Rangers that day but we still had a strong squad including Mark and Declan Lynch, Eamon Herron, Sean Braniff, Neily Cunningham, Paddy-Joe, Seamus and Aaron McAufield etc. we won our three group games in Portglenone and Ahoghill and qualified for the finals against Na Magha. Somebody wrote a report for the club website at the time and noted me singing we’re all going to Loughgiel – I’m sure I was nearly getting turfed off the bus. We won the final against Na Magha and it was an enjoyable day”.

“In U-16 we won an U-16 B double in my first year, we beat St Brigid’s in the final and Deaglan Bunting hit a hat-trick that day- he was different gravy. Smickers and Bukey took that team and the final was a few weeks after Bukey’s father had sadly passed. The following week we beat St Enda’s in the hurling final- the lads had won it the year previously under Dee McConville, Vinty and Micky McGuigan and winning it back to back was special. I really enjoyed U-16 hurling, although our squad wasn’t as strong the following year under Micky and Vinty and we often struggled to field 15-players; I had a knack for scoring goals that year against Rossa, St Galls and Sarsfield’s again. My final year of U-16 football saw Terry McCrudden snr and Frank Fitzsimons jnr [Russ] take our team and we were beaten in the Championship quarter-final by Sarsfield’s but it was an enjoyable season and you could see that success was imminent under the duo”.

“I really loved my two years of minor hurling- the first was under Dee McConville, Micko, Charlie and Micky McGuigan. I have to Charlie to thank for enabling me to play that year as on our first game out in a friendly in Dublin I was about to come onto the field but Charlie had noticed I was nearly turning purple as my helmet was on too tight due to the straps. Charlie adjusted it and I scored goal to repay him. That season we played St Galls in Miltown in the league and only had 13-players, St Galls were asked to also play with 13 but politely declined and as a result we politely beat them with 2 less players. I scored one of the goals that evening [to this day I’m not sure whose hurl I scored with]. The man I was marking dropped his hurl and I decided to pick it up, the ball landed in my path and I swept the loose ball to the net. Dropped the spare hurl and threw mine in the air as part of celebrating- Micko took objection and although pleased I scored wasn’t too happy I had to go and retrieve my stick instead of heading straight to position for the resulting puck-out. We were narrowly beaten by a much fancied Gort na Mona in the Championship that season”.

“The following year I scored a rare headed goal in St Pauls one evening, we were a few points down before the break and Micky McGuigan floated a hopeful ball into the square and my marker and I weren’t sure where it was- I soon found out as it bounced off my helmet and went over the keeper and in- not too many people can say they’ve scored a header in hurling- whether they meant it or not. I was also part of a minor football winning league side in my second time of playing under Terry and Russ and we were pipped to the post by Gort na Mona in the semi-final of the all-county Championship. It was gutting as I felt Championship success was on the cards. Most of those lads went onto win the Ulster Minor the following year and what a team it was”.

“The following year I began to play south-Antrim hurling under the guidance of Colm McKenna and Sean Braniff. I would go onto represent the south-Antrim hurling team for a number of years under a few different regimes. Charlie McCloskey and Gerard-Francis Lynch were charge for a number of those years and later on Silo [Ronan McHugh] looked after the team. They were great times. Being a dual club is difficult and hurling was struggled at points over the last 10-years. I made a couple of appearances back in 2013 under the guidance of Dinny, Micky McGuigan and Sootie [Patrick McCague jnr]. Last season was very difficult for hurling in the club as we often struggled to field under two great lads – Joe Doone and Raymie Herron. I decided to play myself, even though I knew deep done that I wasn’t fit or good enough I wanted to see hurling survive in the club and didn’t want to let Joe or Raymie down. I started Championship v Glenarm at the end of August and I’m grateful for the confidence that both of them showed in me. I have no doubter that brighter days will be ahead for hurling in the club and when success arrives Joe and Raymie will be remembered for keeping a senior hurling team going in the club”. 

“I hadn’t played football from I was minor until a few years back when I played under Smickers and Micky Boyle. After quite a few years out of south-Antrim football we joined the south-Antrim football league last year. On one game against St Malachy’s we only had 14-players and the full-forward line was Declan Dunne and myself. Being an avid Cliftonville fan and reporter it was a privilege to play alongside Declan. He set me up for a goal in the first-half and I returned the favour in the second. We appeared to be in control of the game and were awarded a penalty, Declan was about to step up until I asked for the responsibility and Declan somehow agreed. I soon regretted the decision as I skewed the resulting penalty wide and if looks could kill I’m sure Smickers and Jim would be in jail and I’d be 6 foot under as a result. I also got to play with Paul McVeigh last year and I relish the opportunity to pull on the jersey and play south-Antrim football. It’s sometimes joked about and perhaps frowned upon but south-Antrim is great craic and for some -a stepping stone into senior football. Declan Dunne being the prime example- he started the season in South-Antrim and ended it as a starter in the senior football final against Cargin”.

Juvenile Presentations:

“The Juvenile presentations at the club were always fantastic occasions and brought players, coaches and parents together again – usually in the off season. There would have been big personalities that would have came up to present the awards such as Stephen O’Neill and Sean Cavanagh from Tyrone, Kieran McGeeney from Armagh and our own county lads as well would have presented awards so it was probably full circle for them as they would have experienced it whenever they were younger. In 2001 I was awarded most improved player at U-10 football and was so proud and confidence boost it gave me was fantastic”.

Helping out and doing stats:

“I was training with hurling team back in 2011 but was probably more of a hindrance and getting in the way at training. Dee McConville and Micko had asked me if I would help the team out at games doing water and putting out jerseys etc. That year we won the Intermediate hurling Championship and it was fantastic to play a small part. It was a memorable season- I remember our Championship games at Casement Park on many a Sunday night and narrow victories against Tir na Nog and Clooney Gaels. We beat Cloughmills in the final and it was fantastic to celebrate on the pitch at Casement. Unfortunately a few days later we were beaten by St Pauls in the Ulster League final and went onto lose out in Ulster to a strong Middeltown team. A few years later I was assisting Paddy Tumelty when he took charge of the senior hurling team. Paddy had a strong stats squad and issued many spectators with clickers to look out for certain variations during games. Paddy was really enthusiastic and it was brilliant to help him out in whatever way I could”.

“Through my job as an AEN Classroom Assistant in St. Mary’s CBGS I work with a few clubmen in Raymie, Reg [Brendan McComb] and Paddy [Cunningham jnr]. I had just returned to the school in August 2016 and I remember getting a call from Paddy one night and asking me if I would be interested in doing some stats for his Mageean Cup hurling team that he was taking along with Chris [Rocky] McDonnell and Ciaran Johnston. They were a class team that had won every competition from Year 8 and it was an honour to be able to work with that team. They won the Mageean Cup in October a few days before our hurlers won the Ulster Junior Championship. Towards the end of the Junior run I began doing some stats and giving them to Simon [Wilson] and Dee McConville- who was back in and helping Simon”.

“Paddy spoke to Donagh Finnegan and the school decided to buy Performa-Sports [a stats software package], I had to attend a training day one Saturday and began using the software with the MacRory Cup squad that year and the Mageean team for their all-Ireland campaign. I was also able to use it for the club benefit and began to do stats for our senior footballers in 2017 under Martin Lynch, Terry McCrudden, Deaglan Bunting and Stevie Lynch. It was fantastic to have been around that season that the club finally won the Senior Football Championship. I continue to do stats for the senior football team and various teams in school and really enjoy it and have both Paddy Tumelty and Paddy Cunningham to thank for inadvertently opening my eyes to a hobby – which is increasingly an important process in modern day GAA. It’s also hard to detach, you don’t want to miss anything because it could be crucial and you don’t want to be giving out the wrong information – so it’s important to remain focused. I was really scundered a few weeks back when interviewing Fla [Ciaran Flaherty] over a zoom conversation with Bukey. Buke asked Fla about ‘Stato’ and I was ever-so slightly embarrassed but Fla was so complimentary and felt I did a good job”

Clubman of the Year:

“In 2016 I was named as Clubman of the Year and it was a proud moment and one I didn’t expect. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it up to the club presentation just after Christmas but was led up under false pretences by my sister Grainne. She told me that my Daddy was being inducted into the Club Hall of Fame and he’d want us to be there. The Hall of Fame award was announced and it wasn’t my Daddy so I thought what’s going on and then just after I was named as Clubman of the Year. it was a great honour to be awarded Clubman of the Year at 25-years of age – when you think of some of the other people to have received the award down the years”.

Junior Championship and Senior Football Championship:

“Winning the Junior Hurling and Senior Football Championship back to back was absolutely amazing for the club and it was great to be part of the journey. In 2016 when Simon Wilson came into take the seniors and was ably assisted by Paul Gibson and Paddy Brunty snr. We were playing in Division 4 hurling and finished runners-up to St Teresa’s in the league after successive defeats. We drew St Teresa’s in the semi-final of the Championship and on the day of the game were boosted by the return of Micko and Declan Lynch. Dee McConville had recently came back as a coach and there was a positive atmosphere and a real belief we could beat them. it was an almost faultless performance all round and Domhnall Nugent was in superb form”.

“We met Cushendun in the final and made a solid start with Aidan McGuigan nabbing an early goal but Cushendun regained the initiative and got themselves into three-point lead with time quickly running out. I remember Reg was fouled and Micko took responsibility for the free, I was hoping he’d float the ball into the danger area and someone might get a stick to it and find the net. Micko had other ideas and his shot on target deceived the keeper and the game was level. The pendulum had swung and Domhnall won a free- which he subsequently converted. The linesman had told the subs that it was the last puck of the game but the referee let Cushendun attack one last time and I’ll remember Mark Lynch acrobatically trying his upmost to clear the danger and Charlie helping the ball out of play via his Cushendun marker and time was up. It was a real smash and grab win and one to savour”.

“In the Ulster quarter-final we were in cruise control at half-time against Sean Tracey’s in Crossmaglen but ended up hanging on in the end and then defeated Iniskeen Grattans to take our place in the Ulster final before Halloween. The final against Sean MacCumhaills from Donegal. It was tense game and a shoot-out between Domhnall and Lee Henderson but luckily we hung on in the end. Paddy-Joe hoisting the Ulster Championship into the air at Owenbeg will live long in the memory and the team delivering the clubs first Ulster title at senior level means they will rightfully take their place in history books. The Mooncoin game was a bridge too far especially missing the ‘Owenbeg 6’ but the lads training through the winter and on snowy nights don’t come too often- its when you know you’re really at the business end of the season”.

“The senior footballers were unlucky to lose out to St Galls in the semi-final that season but Ciaran Flaherty was a superb addition to the ranks. It was great to be around the team and there was a great buzz from players and management alike. Marty Lynch, Stevie Lynch,  Terry McCrudden and uncle Jim were so welcoming, I’d played with Deaglan and he was doing a superb job training the team and Brendy [Murray] and  Sootie were just two great lads that did so much in the background.  I missed the first Championship game against St Pauls but the quarter-final win over St Galls will live long in the memory. It was September 1^st and the first day back at school- I was walking up the lane to St. Mary’s and taking stick off some of the younger St Galls pupils who I know. One of them said they’d beat us 15-points – needless to say he avoided me in the aftermath but I thought he was onto one when a dreadful start saw us go 2-01 down within the first three-minutes. Thankfully the ship was steadied and lads worked their way back into the game with Conor Murray bagging a few goals”.

“I remember his second goal tipping the scales and putting us in front, it was nervy end to the game and Stephen Lynch and myself were on tender-hooks at the opposite side-line to our bench. We thought the final whistle had blown and prematurely were dancing with joy on the pitch, only for the ball to almost fly past us and play to continue. We were able to celebrate moments later, however. I believe beating St Galls was a massive physiological boost. We played Creggan in the semi-final at Glenavy and it fell on a Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon is when I usually head to Solitude to cover Cliftonville but I decided to miss out this once and listen to Cliftonville v Linfield on the radio. I was told by my A-level business studies teacher that boys/ men couldn’t multitask but I was coping well with listening to Cliftonville on the radio and doing my stats. Thinks were going well at Glenavy but not so well at Solitude and after Cliftonville went 2-0 down my focus was solely on the semi-final in front of me. After coming through a hard fought game with Creggan I was naturally delighted we were in the final and checked my phone to see a dreaded Cliftonville defeat- only to realise I had missed an epic 3-2 =comeback win. It was a bittersweet  afternoon”.

“I really enjoyed the build-up to the final against St Johns, Curly and myself conducted interviews at the club with John Finucane and at St Johns with Paddy McBride. There was a bit of semantics before the game as Raff Gatt drove by Bukey’s and placed a  St Johns flag in his garden. Living around the corner from Raff, I decided to get my own back and placed a Lámh Dhearg flag in his garden – his mother caught me on the act but saw the funny side and I believe that Raff spread a rumour in the aftermath that I slipped on the way out of doing it- that is a lie. The game itself was nip and tuck and could have swung either way. I remember the premature cheer of Paddy’s free dropping short in injury-time only for the ball to be recycled and a point followed to put us in front. Declan Lynch showing a cool head and fisting over an insurance score was magnificent and when the final whistle went I immediately sought my Dad. I knew how much it would mean to him and spotted him wearing a red and white scarf that my nephew Ciaran had bought at a Cliftonville match I brought him to. I was late to the celebrations that evening as I had to write the report for the Saffron Gael but the two-day holiday in the aftermath made up for it and the memories will be cherished”.

Coaching with U-16 and Minor teams:

“Bukey and Paddy Tumelty were taking the U-16 team and I joined them with my role to focus on compiling stats. The first game we beat St Johns at Hannahstown and went on from there and won the league and U-16 B Championship that year, unfortunately we were beaten in the All-County Final that year. But I was delighted that those lads got to experience something I had experienced myself. I remember we played Ardoyne at the final in Coláiste Feirste on the Friday evening and I remember hearing the story about Joe Kernan getting his runners up all-Ireland medal and using it as a motivational tool the year they won the All-Ireland in 2002. I thought I would use my U-16 medal in similar motivation and passed it round the dressing room before the game and told the players to go out and earn one themselves- I’m too sure it had the desired affect or not because we were given a very stern test by Ardoyne in a fabulous final and eventually got over the line to win. I’m not sure I would have liked to back into the dressing room to face Paddy Tumelty if we hadn’t have won”.

“This year has been tough with the Covid-19 crisis, the lads by-in to their strength and conditioning with Aaron McAufield was superb and we were on the pitch a few weeks preparing for the league starting when the GAA went into lockdown mode. I’m sure the lads have been missing it – I know that Bukey, Brendan [McCloskey] and myself can’t wait to get going with them and help them develop further in their final year before they embark into senior football”.

“There are some great lads in that team who I’ve been fortunate enough to know through working in St. Marys’ – Dan Murray, Tiarnan McKenna, Fionn Mervyn, Niall McGarry, Diarmaid Clenaghan, Ciaran Goss – Michael Flynn was then persuaded to join in minor. The La Salle lads of Aaron McCloskey, Michael Braniff [Butch] and the likes of Smickers [Ciaran Smith], Lee Clarke, Eoin Campbell, Aodh Tumelty and a lot of others. They’re a fantastic bunch of lads and it’s great to be able to play a small part in their development, I’ve no doubt that a lot of these lads will feature in the senior teams in years to come- their attitude and commitment is top class”.

Journalism, Andersonstown News and Saffron Gael:

“I remember thinking in school of what I wanted to do when I was older, I loved sport and I enjoyed writing so I have to credit my English teachers in school and my GCSE history teacher [Bukey] for teaching about how to be objective and analyse interpretations etc. My first English teacher in school [Shane O’Neill] would have did a lot of writing and he gave me the enthusiasm for writing. The first report I did was of a Mageean Cup match in La Salle. I was in my last year in school and was too old to play because I was going to be 19 that year”.

“I would have went along to the games with Kieran [McGourty] and Raff [Gatt] and did a report on our victory over St Louis’ Ballymena and Raff being PRO for Ulster Colleges put the report on the website. It was good buzz to be able to read the report online and to be published. I decided that I wanted to do study journalism at University and went to University of Ulster Coleraine and had a fantastic time and played on the hurling team up there. We made it to Fitzgibbon weekend in our last year- it was down in Galway but unfortunately we were beaten by Blanchardstown by a point in the final of the Fergal Maher Cup”.

“In my second year Uni the County Antrim Post came into circulation and they asked somebody from the club to contribute reports- Bukey delegated that responsibility to myself and so began eight years of writing about local GAA in Antrim. It gave me a platform for my work to be noticed and I really enjoy the role- it’s more of a hobby than a job to be honest. John Quinn always reminds of a time that I was doing the report on a reserve semi-final that his son Jody was playing in. I think we’d scored five goals and I’d my headline written before Jody scored a sixth and my headline was ruined. The County Antrim Post did a number of Championship features and I think Reg got a bit of a ribbing because he was ‘star-man’ in the first Championship feature. I also began writing for Andersonstown News and contributing reports from Cliftonville games. I was lucky enough to be in press-box at Celtic Park the night they played in the Champions League and to be able to interview Neil Lennon and Scott Brown after both games”.

“The County Antrim Post stopped in around 2016 and in order to fill the void left in local GAA – Curly McIlwaine and his brother Paddy set-up the Saffron Gael website. Curly is such a well-respected and renowned figure in GAA circles throughout Ireland. His work is top class and it’s a privilege to contribute reports to the fantastic website. I began contributing match reports to site and did a report on the 2017 final- something I will always cherish. The Saffron Gael wasn’t going at the time of 2016 hurling success but in 2017 I went home after the game and did my report before I went to the club and missed the team coming home and the start of the celebrations. It’s a great job when you get to write about your club winning games and Championships – the pitfall was having to do the report of this year’s final but it’s always important to be objective in your writing and not show any bias obviously well taught by Bukey in his History lessons on analysing sources ”.

Club Facebook and newsletters:

“I was somehow talked into doing the club newsletters along with Bukey who can be very persuasive and putting content onto our own club website along with Mary Gibson. I’m an admin on the club Facebook and the amount of WhatsApp messages that come through to me from Bukey in all the different groups is unreal- my phone memory is almost full by now. I’ve said a couple of times that I was fed up on doing the newsletters and it was time to hand it over to someone else but Bukey was always able to talk me around. The social media is such an important tool to the club and the other admins in Facebook do a great job of keeping the whole club informed of events etc”.

South-Antrim:

“My father did a lot of admin roles in the GAA- through serving on club committee’s on various roles but one thing he loved was sitting on the South Antrim committee. He served South-Antrim as chairman, secretary and more recently vice-chair and head of CCC. He was a fantastic servant and I remember when the disciplinary reports came home when he was chairman around 2003 / 2004 my sister Grainne used to love reading through all the misdemeanours. After a few years away from his recent stint at South-Antrim my he wanted to be involved again and stood for election as chairman in 2018. He lost out to Frank Caldwell of St Agnes both but of them wanted to work together and formed a strong committee and CCC which had the best interests of the South-Antrim clubs. He encouraged me to come on board also and since 2018 I have taken over the role of South-Antrim PRO. I loved going to the Feile matches and compling round-ups to put in the paper and Saffron Gael. This year myself and Conor McCartan from St Pauls did our groundwork on the fixtures and had them uploaded onto the website in good time for anticipation of the league starting at the beginning of April and we were about to embark our Feile football finals when the season came to a halt. Though it appears as the kids will get some game time in the coming weeks and I can’t wait to get back to work on South-Antrim matters again”.

Covid-19 pandemic , Gaelic life-challenge and ‘My Red Hand Journeys’:

“I’ve enjoyed the Gaelic life-challenge that the club has taken up during lockdown. At the beginning the only thing I looked forward to was getting out for a walk. Previous I would have went to the gym, I always enjoyed walking but I mostly enjoyed doing a gym workout and sprint classes. Walking then became my only form of exercise and we’ve been lucky that the weather during lockdown has been largely kind us. I’ve amassed over 600,000 steps during the Gaelic life-challenge”.

“With being off school since March- I was not looking forward to the prospect of having nothing to do until August / September. I remember posting on twitter and asking if anyone knew of any voluntary opportunities and Stephen Lynch suggested I started a podcast about Antrim GAA. I’d been talking to Bukey and he joked about doing a book and then he got back to me and suggested doing a club-feature called ‘My Red Hand Journey’. I said yes it would be great and give me something to do during lockdown. The process involved Bukey picking the people, phoning them and briefing the targets and myself, I would ring the person up- record the conversation on my iPad and type them out. We did a couple through zoom such as Ciaran Flaherty, the ‘cousins’ Paddy Tumelty and Brendan ‘Beansy’ Elliott, Marty McCartney, Damian Kane and Jackie Duffy. Ray Megahey recorded his on Dictaphone and a couple of people have written it up themselves”. 

“It’s not as straight-forward as me typing it up and sending it out, it has to go past the ghost editor in Bukey – who is very hard to please and he takes time to edit them. Bukey is professional to the core to ensure the features are quality and do justice to the members featured and enhance a positive image of the club. In fact Bukey is the hardest editor I have experienced working under but so focused and diligent on getting it right. But if it didn’t go past Bukey then John Finucane might have had a few trips down to court to protect a few of the contributors. There is a big effort as well to source photos- some of which I had never knew existed. People have done a good job of sending some photos onto Bukey and myself.  I’m amazed at the number of pics Bukey has of the club and he can tell you all about them.  Sourcing the pics takes up much time. It can be very time consuming having to listen back to the interviews and typing them out and but seeing some of the feedback on social media and WhatsApp groups is very uplifting, knowing that people are enjoying them and getting something out it. Sean McElhatton has emailed us regularly to give some positive messages and didn’t know different events. The participants have also provided such positive and complimentary feedback”.

“We have picked a variety of stalwarts from different generations and aspects of the club. I have really enjoyed it and it’s something positive to take out on the time spent in lockdown during Covid. I’ve learnt so much about the club and different characters in the club that I hadn’t known and they’ve contributed so much to the lifeblood of the club. It would be interesting to get a trace of emails, messages and phone calls to Bukey since we did our first journey with Brendan McComb at the end of March. Bukey’s knowledge of the club is also superb. He is like a talking encyclopaedia of Lámh Dhearg – he knows everything. You talk to him about one aspect and he gives you so many stories related to events etc. He’s very knowledgeable but so passionate and committed about Lámh Dhearg and Gaelic football in general”. 

Lockdown has been tough on people and I’ve found it tough because I love my routine of working in school and looking after the two kids in school I’m responsible for, coaching and the journalism. But this gives me something positive to look back on and the next person that writes the history of the club will have an easy starting point. We hope to compile all the journeys into a book which will be a special souvenir of the surreal and challenging times of Lockdown. There is no doubt the journeys have raised the spirit of our members and provided a valuable insight into the club’s history. It has been a pleasure to be involved and working so closely with Bukey even though he is so fussy but a dedicated clubman”.