Paddy Cunningham snr

Early memories:

“Primarily I played a lot of hurling before I started getting into football, from primary school at Holy Child right through. Once upon a time there used to be street leagues between the likes of Tullymore, Commendagh, Clonelly, Ballymurphy, Springfield etc – I was very friendly with Gerard McCallin- the McCallin of St Johns. I ended up playing for Commedagh when I should have been playing for Tullymore because I lived at the sausage and egg in Tullymore”.

“I progressed from there and went to La Salle [De La Salle College as it is now] and then got involved with St Galls. I played with St Galls and captained La Salle for years at football – Sean McGourty actually did the hurling funnily enough. I went on and played for St Galls at football and hurling and won an All-county minor Championship in hurling when we beat Ballycastle. It was unheard of for a South-Antrim team to win all-county hurling in those days”.

“I played Vocational schools and in 1971 we won the All-Ireland Vocational schools hurling and in the same year- I think it was within a week or two-weeks- we were beat by Mayo by a point in the football. It was basically a gather up of the panel that played hurling and football as well- we were quite successful. Vocational schools in those days isn’t like it is now, it was picked by different guys from different schools all over the county. It was quite an achievement to beat Tipperary in an All-Ireland Hurling final, it was played before the national league hurling final in Croke”.

“That was basically it in my early career, I had a contact with Lámh Dhearg because my parents first house was in Hannahstown and my eldest brother Des was born in Hannahstown before they moved down the road”.

Dual playing career:

“I started going out with Kathleen around about 1974 and once I got up the Hill I never got back down it again. We socialised in the old Shebeen pub beside Charlie Watters and when I got in there Hughie Groogan would have grabbed me and gently threatened me – I had to come to Hannahstown or I wasn’t getting down the road- I used to laugh at that one. I eventually transferred over in 1974 to the Lámhs”.

“I was playing for St Galls when I was 17-years old and I was going out with Kathleen and we were playing Lámh Dhearg up at the Budore pitch. I remember going out with the ball and Shanty hitting me an awful razzle. I think it was to either say welcome to Hannahstown or take care of my sister? I always remember it and I knew what Hannahstown was all about. I eventually signed the form for Lámh Dhearg”.

“In 1975 I went to Glasgow for two years but came back nearly every weekend- people can say that was a lot to do with Kathleen- but I did come back to play for the club. I came home on a Friday night, the firm I was working for Glasgow was very good to me and they let me go at lunchtime on a Friday. I used to do a 120-mile trip down the west-coast of Scotland and got on the boat at Cairnryan to Larne. Shanty or Cyril Jordan or somebody would have picked me up- there was no problem on a Friday coming over- it was on a Sunday after maybe playing on a Sunday afternoon. I’d be rushing to Mrs McCague’s house to get my dinner and somebody would drop me back up to Larne for the 8 o’clock boat”.

“I’d get on the boat and over to Cairnryan at 11.30 at night and sometimes if it was rough sea’s you’d get in 1 or 2 in the morning and I’d get back in the car and drive back to Glasgow. It was a massive commitment but I was young and fit then. In 1975 I was playing county level; I’d played every level of county football and hurling by minor and at U-21 I played football and we got to the all-Ireland semi-final against Kerry in Tralee of all places”.

“There was a couple of points in it with 20-minutes to go, young Tull [Stephen Tully] his father [Brendan] who was playing for O’Donnells at that time and eventually came to us in his later playing days- he was sent-off. It was nothing too serious but hit Ogie [Denis] Moran and got a straight red. They went on and won by several points and that was the 75 team that went onto hammer Dublin in the all-Ireland U-21 final. They also went onto win the senior all-Ireland that year and formed the nucleus of the Kerry team that were going for 5-in a row”.

“Gerry Moore [RIP] and myself were the only two Lámh Dhearg players on the team, the infamous Gerry Armstrong tore Páidí O’Sé apart. On that Kerry team- 9 of them went onto play in that team that were going for 5-in a row. Players like Pat Spillane, Ogie Morgan, Páidí O’Sé, Jack O’Sé etc. It was some team that Kerry had out and Antrim were so close, but the next year we were gone. Antrim didn’t build on the likes of those teams because it was a class team”.

“I came back from Glasgow at Christmas 1976 – I was repping in Glasgow and came back to Derry to manage the branch in Derry. It was a national company that I worked for with 70 odd-branches throughout Ireland and UK and Derry was one of them- that’s how we ended up there. I continued to travel and was asked by a couple of Derry clubs to transfer to Derry because at that stage I was starting to play senior county football and was very well known and people wanted me to transfer but I said no- I was still going to do the travelling”.

“Over that period up until I stopped playing Gaelic football, I just did the travelling. Come Championship time I would have come down during the week and did the 70 odd miles to train during the week. If you’d ask boys to do that today they’d say- you’re off your head ! that’s the way it was. I loved the game and I loved playing for the club, that was the sort of commitment and that’s the Derry story. Paddy [jnr] was born in Derry and could have donned the red and white jersey rather than the Saffron jersey”.

Players and managers:

“The first team I played on was managed my Hughie Jordan [RIP] – he was the main man from the clubs point of view. Sean McElhatton was manager at a later stage. I was considering leaving at one stage because I’d had enough of the travelling and family was growing up. I’d have travelled up and down with the kids and I’d had my day with Lámh Dhearg. Seamy Fitzsimons and big Kavanagh [Sean Kavanagh] had taken over”.

“The two of them arrived up to Derry with Eamon McGarry and somebody else- they brought a squad up- I was getting the house done up. They called up to the house and I brought them into the house and there wasn’t a stick of furniture. They said I thought you were doing well up here etc and gave me a bit of slagging for having no furniture in the house because I’d to get it out to get the house decorated- it was a bit of fun”.

“Seamy and Kavanagh were mates of mine from my playing days and convinced that I should give it another couple of years and I duly done that and said to hell with it- I’ll do it. at that stage I was still playing for the county and I remember we were playing Monaghan in the quarter-final of Ulster Championship in Castleblaney. When I match was over I ran off the pitch and Jackie Duffy was outside in his Range Rover for me. I jumped into the car and he drove to Belfast to St Pauls – I ran in and took off the number 7 county jersey off and put on the number of 11 of Lámh Dhearg and straight out onto the pitch”.

“There were other lads playing county for others club that were doing the same thing. There were many a time we would have played a senior match for the club and that night you’d be going to a tournament in Aghagallon etc. That just wouldn’t happen now-a-days because the welfare kicks in. When I was in Glasgow if they’d have coaxed me to play the tournament that night I’d have played it and I’d have phoned my boss up and said- I’m not going to see you until tomorrow lunch-time. Cryil [Jordan], Shanty or Raymond Jordan would have picked me up at 5.30 to get me to Larne for the 8 o’clock boat in the morning- people say you were crazy but that’s what you done”.

I was at school with big Kavanagh and I knew JP O’Kane and others as people and as friends. I missed playing with Rooster [Gerard McCague] because he only played two or three years for us and went off to Australia when he was 21. I would have liked to see him playing in his best years because he’d a lot in front of him. I’d have loved to have played with him. Shanty was a pretty handy footballer himself and Anthony McCague was also handy, a very resolute and strong defender with ability to strike long range frees or kick outs. A pleasure to play with my brother in laws and always a strong McCague family connection in my playing career”.

“I was playing at the end of the era of the 71 team- it was coming to an end. Shanty was finishing up along with Fitzy, Jackie Duffy, Sean McElhatton. JP O’Kane had left the club and was going to Cooley Kickhams. The nucleus of the good team that I was coming into the tail end of was gone and guys like  our Michael [Cunningham], the Aldergrove boys such as Bandy Leneghan and Marty McGarry were coming in. You still had big Kavanagh but it was a whole transition game. We got a half decent team and made the final against St Galls in 83. It was a good balance of young players like Micky Ryan, Stevie McCartney, Mickey Seenan and Bukey along with experienced and good players such as Jim Herron, Anthony McCague, Cyril and Raymond Jordan, Sean Kavanagh and John McKiernan etc and we were well coached and prepared by Sean McElhatton”.

“It was so close and we really should have won that match and we were beaten narrowly by a point with a cruel and wicked deflection off one of our defenders – it was a major, major disappointment. That was the start of St Galls great run and they won a few Championships and an Ulster. You could imagine the smile the St Galls guys gave me after they beat us in the final- they said if you’d have stayed with us you’d have had a Senior Championship medal. Sean Kavanagh said – for all the medals I would have won at St Galls [4 or 5 and an Ulster] – you wouldn’t have had the same craic. He was true, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world to be honest. I stopped playing around 1989 – I was 35 at the time and encouraging to see more new kids on the block emerging such as Dodger, Frankie Wilson and Mickey Boyle etc.  The boys did 92 and I’d packed up before the new dawn and the nucleus of that side was beginning  to develop. I’d roughly 15 years of playing senior football”.

“Football has actually started to get less physical now unlike the days of Shanty, Fitzy – As a new kid on the block I was sometimes on the end of many torrid times physically. Fortunately for me Fitzy was my protector big time because I was the young sheep of all them. If you could play at all in those days they just absolutely hammered you. I wasn’t the bulk or physique of Fitzy or Shanty or any of them boys. You had to have your minders on the pitch- there’s no doubt about it. I think if I remember that at one match a few boys arrived in a helicopter looking to give Fitzy a corporate lift home from the match”.

“You’d have gone up to the country in those days and it would have been a tough  physical battle from start to finish. If you didn’t have the men who could handle yourself you were in deep trouble. I actually think we’d played a bit more football we’d have been a bit more successful- because as well as having people who could handle themselves- we had good footballers at the same time”.

“I hurled first before I was a footballer, I played in the Primate cup in P5 and I was on the P7 hurling team – it’s a massive gap at that age. I won the Primate cup with Holy Child for 3 years and played hurling on an equal level with football up until minor. Then after that when I came to Lámh Dhearg there was no hurling, I knew Barney McKenna was playing hurling for somebody else although he was playing football for the club. There was a few decent hurlers about the place and I always said- the way hurling was then; you’re going to have to play hurling in the club to attract dual players- because they aren’t going to come to just play one”.

“Kieran Megraw and a few of the boys got together and started up a hurling team, I could hurl alright and If I’d have stayed at St Galls I might have played senior county hurling- I don’t know. We won All-County Minor Hurling Championship and that was some feat to beat Ballycastle in the All-County Final. it was great to start hurling in the club, some people had never held a hurl in their hand and they were going out and playing a match- it was so funny to watch”.

“Shanty and big Fitzy never hurled in their lives and they were chopping people in two with hurls- they didn’t know what they were for. We’d a few smashing players like Brendan Toland [Tote’s], Damien Kane, Marty Collins and crème-de-la crème Father John O’Donovan. We went on to win the junior hurling championship within three years and were a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully it went on from there, the Herron’s came through, Paddy [jnr], Reg, Paddy Tumelty, Daniel McGreevy etc came through and a few great hurlers and we played senior hurling for a couple of seasons. It was some achievement for the short period of time that we were involved in Division One and Senior Championship. Even today, I know I was known more for my football but I’d still rather go and watch a county hurling match than I would a county football match. I certainly loved both codes”.

County:

“Most of my playing career with Antrim we would have been in Division Two, we were always playing Tyrone and Down. Those two were higher than us, you had class players regardless of what Division you played in. In those days the winners of Division One would have played the winners of Division Two or Division Three so you would have got the chance to play the Kerry’s or Dublin’s of this world”.

“I was coming down twice a week in those days, county training was a Tuesday night and a Thursday night- not like it is these days it’s four nights a week. Big Fitzy run the county and I would have come down to train and the training was hard – Gerry McCann [St Johns] would have trained us and the training was as hard as you’d have got. You’d have went into Casement afterwards and had 4 or 5 pints”.

“I’d have went up and stayed in the house I live in now- the old house before I built the new one- Mrs McCague’s house. I’d have got up the next morning at 6 o’clock and headed to Derry to start work. That was all part of the programme. We were nowhere near an Ulster final because in those days you had the great Down and Derry teams – Tyrone weren’t even to the fore in those days. Monaghan and Donegal were good and we beat a great Donegal team, a lot of the all-Ireland team that won in 92 were only starting – Donal Reid and boys like that”.

“Fitzy was managing and we beat them at Casement, it was a magnificent performance from an Antrim team because Donegal a Division One team when we beat them. I played under Phil Stuart and Br Ennis – they were also managing in those days. It was just getting to the stage that the travelling and big commitment, four or five years with the county and coming down twice a week as well as playing club football- it got a bit too much from Derry. If I had have been living in Greenan or Hannahstown I could have continued but it was getting too much”.

Family connections:

“Michael [my brother] came to us as a minor and he could have made a great footballer – but not through any lack of ability. He was very injury prone and that was his big draw-back. He could catch the ball and speed and was magnificent, he only played up to 23 of 24 years of age. I remember us playing Rossa up at the club and Michael broke his leg. Fitzy came on and was spraying his leg and said – get up you’ll be dead on. He ended in plaster paris, Michael was a great player and was a key player in the 83’ team and also played county but unfortunately very prone to injury and his career was shortened from that point of view”.

“Dessie [my eldest brother] he came to us in his later years but I think he only played one season with us. He had been a Rossa man most of his life and been on the Rossa team that won the senior Championship in 1973- they beat St Johns. Dessie came to us and it was full circle from being born in Hannahstown to coming back up and playing his last year in football for us but it was only about half a dozen or ten games. I’d two brothers that didn’t know whether ball was blown up or stuffed up and never played football”.

“Shanty, I don’t have to tell you what the mans like- he would go from here to Connaught to watch a football match and he lives for the club and football. We used to go out socially when Kathleen and myself were going together and just married, we’d have went socially with Pat and Anne and Hughie Jordan. The woman did the woman’s thing but all we talked about night, non and morning was football, football, football. It was trips down memory lane with Shanty and Hughie telling me about different matches they played etc”.

Administrative roles:

“I always felt I should have a wee bit business sense and could give something back to the club because I got a great thrill out of playing for the club- albeit there was no medals to show for it- it was all about the playing from that point of view. I thought I would go back and take a role on the administrative side, especially with Shanty and the McCague’s had been giving a lot of time to the club and Shanty had been chairman for years. I said I’d give it a wee bit of a go”.

“I became PRO for a couple of years, but in those days the PRO was a wee bit of marketing for the club- it wasn’t certainly to the fore that it is now with the IT stuff and everything. It only lasted for a couple of years and then I stepped back from it. Then Jim Ferguson asked me to come in and be treasurer of the club, I done it for a few years but I was running my own business and being treasurer of the club- I was actually devoting more time to the club than I was my own business”.

“That job would ideally suit a financial guy who is now retired or a school teacher who is retired because it is a massive commitment, as there is to being secretary, chairman or whatever. It’s nearly a full-time job at that level- especially in those key positions. I had to take a step-back regrettably and it was a massive commitment. Anything that I ever did for the club, I did it 100 percent and I wasn’t going to be any different off the field than I was on the field. I felt I just couldn’t give it the commitment that it deserved”.

“In the period that I inherited it from Jim Ferguson at the time we did the £100,000 draw. It originally started out as being a house that Jim Ferguson had for sale and that’s how it originally promoted. We hit the austerity times, times were hard and people were losing their jobs and we had a meeting and decided that nobody would want a house because it would be too much of a burden on them and the valuation of houses were coming down”.

“We thought that because we had a lot of tickets sold, it wasn’t right to devalue the house down – looking back at it we gave far too much money away- but we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We had already committed to giving a house and we’d that many tickets sold that we felt that we couldn’t turn around and say the draw is only for £30,000 or whatever- we couldn’t really do it from that point of view. The work that went into selling that and for so little return- it really annoyed me- it was nobody’s fault at the end of the day. All of a sudden austerity hit and the affordability wasn’t there anymore, we made a few quid out of it but the work and effort that went into it- we didn’t get the just rewards in that kind of way”. I remember fondly doing the live monthly promoters draw on the club facebook and it was exciting for all involved as it was an incentive for promoters or buyers to win a monetary prize and build up the atmosphere for the grand draw.

“That was the biggest thing was treasurer that we had, I stayed on for another year or so after that and got various things running but we were asking the same people time and time again for money and it gets a wee bit embarrassing if you’re asking the same people for all time and you’re going to the same people to ask for money . While in my role as treasurer I really appreciated the effort, time and pressure in running the club and I always felt if all our members put their shoulder to the wheel the club would be in a stronger and better financial position.

“I remember one AGM meeting I asked members to guestimate how much it cost to run the sporting end of the club alone? Never mind the rates, telephones, electricity or whatever and the answers I got back I just laughed at them- about £10,000 a year or £20,000 a year. when I told them I could see the surprise in their eyes and they were maybe thinking, we need to be doing something here- but that’s the way it was”.

“He’ll probably hate me for saying this, Jim Ferguson is an absolute miracle man for our club. I don’t think he gets half the adulation that he gets, the amount of work when I was treasurer that he did behind the scenes and doesn’t look for any credit whatsoever. The man is unbelievable and Jim’s work rate is unreal and still to this day- I can still see behind the scenes the work he is doing. He’s a fantastic and there’s no praise that can ever justify the work that he does for the club- it’s unbelievable.

Whilst my input was very little for the 3G pitch- a lot of the credit goes to the committee under the astute leadership of Chairman Barney Herron.  It was a very proud day when the club opened its 3G Pitch and Highway to Heath path. A superb facility and achieved by the vision and graft of the committee members such as Barney, Smickers , Linda Fegan , Jim Ferguson and Mickey Brady etc.  There is now a dedicated and hardworking development committee set-up to take in on from there and hopefully things will come to the fruition with the new pitch- full support to that”. Fair play to them.

Young Paddy:

“I always knew he was going to be a player; in his juvenile age he was playing and practicing. The one thing about Paddy, he’s become a great footballer purely and simply because he practiced. He’d natural ability obviously but before our final against St Johns – he’d have went out to Glenavy and taken a dozen footballs with him and went out for two hours and hit frees. He’s done that all his life and he became so good at free-kicks because he practiced and practiced and practiced- he’d probably hate me for saying that. Everything that he became good at- it was because of natural ability and practice. He did things way beyond the remit of normal training sessions”.

“Paddy came down into St. Mary’s as a third year when we came back from Derry in 99, he soon had to get rid of the Derry accent he had because they’d have picked up on it in St. Mary’s but only that he could play a bit- the boys in St. Mary’s looked after him. He progressed and played for us at U-16 and minor in both codes. I’ve followed his career and I’ve been very proud of him. He’s achieved wonders, not only at club level but county level”.

“The 2009 Ulster final when he scored 11-points and the year before that, he had probably the best game I had ever seen him playing in a Sigerson Cup final down in Carlow IT. I think they played the Guards that year and O’Mahoney that played for Kerry and a couple of lads were on it. that was some Sigerson team he played on and I think he scored 2-05 or 2-06 in the Sigerson final. He never got beyond his station about how good a player he was or whatever. He is very modest in his own way- which I’m also very proud of as well”.

“People never knew about the Crohn’s disease that he’d carried most of his life and people that suffer from Crohn’s ask – how in the name of god does he play with that?  It is the most debilitating disease you can have. How he gets the strength to do it? From that point of view more than anything- his commitment is unreal. Paddy would hate me saying these things because he is a modest person”.

“We’re all very proud of him, he achieved great things and is coming to the end of a great career but he can look back and hold his head up high and say he’s done so many wonderful things. Going back to the 2009 Ulster final, 1971 was the last time Antrim had got to the final and Fitzy played on it, Tony McAtamney – Fitzy’s big mate was the captain of that team. Paddy can always look back in years, I hope they get to another Ulster final sooner rather than later that they get to another Ulster final. Back in 2009 people were asking who captained the last team and nobody could remember – big Fitzy said it was Tony McAtamney from Portglenone- he was the captain”.

“Those things will be repeated years down the line and people will remember back to 2009, a brilliant picture we have in the house of when the teams are walking round Clones and Paddy is leading Antrim and his godfather and godmother are in the photograph. Success breeds success and the number of phone-calls that came to our house wishing Paddy all the best etc- not only from Antrim but from all over. The phone never stopped with people wishing him and Antrim all the best- we were very proud of him”.

“The St John’s final was his sixth final, if he’d have been beaten in six in a row it would have been very hard to take. I’m so glad he’s got something to show, I’d have loved to have a Senior Football Championship medal – but it wasn’t to be. At least he has one and perhaps he should have had another one last year. We’ll go again and Paddy will keep himself fit and I think he’ll have 2 or 3 years at club football anyway”.

“Winning it was massive, not only for our immediate family but massive for Pat McCague as well because Pat is his god-parent and his Auntie Ann as well. A tremendous occasion and just fantastic and a day his mum and myself will never forget either. I think Kathleen cried for a week- tears of happiness and there’s a great photograph of them hugging each other”.

“Ciaran [my eldest son] came down and played a couple of seasons with us, he was a massive strong fella and because he lived in Derry having to travel- if Ciaran had have been here he would have played a long time for us. He is about 6’2 and built like a tank, Antrim aren’t blessed with too many boys like that. He’d have been a big asset to us in full-forward or midfield. He decided to reside in Derry and that was it”.