Paul Lynch

Introduction to the club:

“It’s quite an interesting story because it has a lot to do with the social politics of Belfast, in the early 1970s my family- my brothers, sister, my mother and dad, there were eight of us- we lived in Braniel in East Belfast. When we lived in Braniel in East Belfast I went to St Patrick’s College, Knock. One of my teachers was a guy called Fr Jackie Fitzsimons and he taught me Science and Latin – it was quite interesting. A couple of years into my grammar school career we were put out of Braniel during the troubles of the 1970s, we had to go to Glengormley to live. We lasted six months there and were put out of there and had to go across to Stewartstown to live”.

“That was in 1971-72 and at that stage Fr Jackie Fitzsimons had left St Patrick’s College Knock and had moved to be the parish priest at St Oliver Plunkett. Fr Jackie Fitzsimons was the priest that took the people out of Lenadoon and brought them to camp at Casement Park as a protest against the antics of the British Army in the Lenadoon estate in the early 1970s. when I first moved up to Stewartstown, two days into the house a knock came to the door and it was Fr Jackie Fitzsimons – he said I’d like to sign you’s up to Lámh Dhearg- he was playing in the Lámh Dhearg senior football team. He took us up to Hannahstown and introduced us to the club- which would have been Charlie Waters at that stage and then up to Budore”.

“That was our introduction to Lámh Dhearg in the early 1970s, we started playing U-16 football –  two brothers and myself at that stage- Martin and Brendan. Stephen came along later because he was the youngest one, there is 11/12 years between Stephen and I and he progressed after that”.

Family connection:

“It was absolutely brilliant having your whole family working around you in one football club- it was an absolute dream. I was really blessed in that Martin played senior football, Brendan played South-Antrim, Reserve Football and played a few games for the seniors,  Steven played Senior Football for Lámh Dhearg. It was brilliant to play with them and around them, the difficulty was that Martin and Brendan had sabbaticals in the 1970s. It was only when they returned sabbaticals from their and started to play for Lámh Dhearg again that we got really close on the football field”.

“We played together on a number of junior teams- we played together at U-16, minor, South-Antrim and senior reserve. I only played four senior matches in my whole life; Martin was a regular on the senior team- playing at right-half back and could play – It was a real pleasure to have them there. My brother Damien [RIP] played for Sarsfield’s because we only lived around the corner from Sarsfield’s – he played for Sarsfield’s and hurled for them just and got away with it because there was no hurling at Hannahstown for that stage”.

“Stephen went and played for Sarsfield’s and no-one in the house spoke to him for 14-months, he’d gone and signed for a foreign club – even though they were around the corner. Eventually he came up to Hannahstown at U-16 and minor level and came into the fold. Funnily enough, when I managed one of the senior teams- he played midfield in one of those senior teams. It was very, very interesting and great to have my family around me – my father [James] was also heavily involved. He was chairman of the youth committee at one stage and took an active interest, he never played any sport but yet all of us played sport- it was very interesting. He took a very active interest in the Youth Committee and on the Club Committee and sat on that for a quite a number of years. That was our grounding throughout the club”. I had also cousins Bill and Damian Molloy who played for us and Bill was a key player in the team of ‘92

“We also had an uncle John Dunne [RIP] who would have been a big, big influence around Lámh Dhearg. He was my mummy’s youngest brother and was probably three years older than me. He really took on board handball in Lámh Dhearg, handball was started by Ambrose O’Neill who would have been a St Pauls man – but he hurled for Hannahstown. He started handball in Lámh Dhearg and then John Dunne took it over, John played for Rossa and then joined us. He played South-Antrim football for us as well but by trade he was a boxer. He won an Ulster title [Ulster light-heavy weight title] and was a great asset to our club because at that time- it may have been a more physical game than it is now”.

“John Dunne and my father were a big influence and then of course my nephews were heavily involved as well. My brother Damien’s two sons [Christy and Dee jnr] were big Lámh Dhearg people and were heavily involved . As we went through the generations all boys – except one- played football, hurling and handball for Lámh Dhearg. Damien’s lads would have played football and hurling- I don’t think they would have played handball. In Martin’s side you’ve Martin Og- who played senior football for Lámh Dhearg and Declan who’s played football and hurling and is current county captain”.

“My brother Brendan has a young fella [Brendan jnr] he would of played for Lámh Dhearg at an early age but he seemed to concentrate his energies on soccer and works for Cliftonville. Benny [RIP] would have been the club physio  and Brendan jnr coaches the youth teams over there- you can see the linkages and every strand of my family had linkages. My sister Deirdre and her young fella [Terry McGuinness] played for Lámh Dhearg, he hurled and played football but primarily he seemed to have enjoyed the hurling more than anything else. Down every strand of my family – somebody has carried on the tradition within Hannahstown. What makes it even more special is that all my sons have played for the club and are still involved- Gavin, Darren, Gerard-Francis, David and Mark. It gives me great satisfaction to see them as dedicated and proactive club players and members”.

Playing career:

“My senior career – I thought- was quite limited, I played senior reserve football and played a couple of senior games. I didn’t really connect with the senior side of things or push forward. My interesting story is when I first joined Lámh Dhearg and went to the first match I was asked to meet at Billy Frame’s pub- that’s where all the Lámh Dhearg men met. When I went up there and met I was put into the back of a 20-tonne lorry along with about 12-14 other people and we sat on this open back 20 tonne lorry and were driven to Budore pitch were I played my first match. It was absolutely class and the person that drove us was Seamy McPeake’s father”. Big John “Clokey “McPeake RIP

“We got off the lorry and were given a rig, put it on and put your boots on, played the match and if you got mucked up – you went to the wee stream at the bottom of the field and washed off the muck, jumped back into the lorry or at that stage you might have had an opportunity to jump into a minibus and were taken to the top of the hill again and made your way home. It was absolutely amazing and it was the first country shower I ever had; it was absolutely amazing. No graces about the thing, you just jumped in and did your business and moved on. I played for Lámh Dhearg from I was 16 until I was 29”.

“I won a few things, I won South-Antrim and Senior Reserve Championships but never won anything for senior and enjoyed every single minute of it. I played with Michael Herron [RIP] and was on the team that he managed as well and was absolutely brilliant. I played with some really special people; in those early days I’d played with people that wouldn’t be heard of now. People like Jimmy Mulholland from out the Rock, Hugh and John Prior, Peter Fox, Malcolm Murray, Gerard and Seamy Fitzsimons and Sean Kavanagh. They were all good fella’s and great people who were absolutely fantastic. We looked up in awe at some of the more senior players that were parading around at that stage – Fitzy, McElhatton, Jim Herron – he was a magnificent player at that stage. I have to say one of other players that I played with that was absolutely fantastic was Paul Buchanan – he was probably one of the best half-forwards that Hannahstown will ever have, without a single doubt. They were all great people to play with and fantastic”.

“I’d a short and sharp football career but enjoyed every minute of it, we’d a great Beringer Cup win down at Corrigan Park one night. We played McDermott’s and they were a great time. Jim Murray- who was the country secretary played in the middle of the field for McDermott’s. The person who scored the point that won the match for us at the very, very end was my brother Brendan – it was fantastic and I’ll always remember that. Other successes included winning leagues and things- they didn’t exactly jump out at you but the Beringer Cup was a big, big success at that stage and we really enjoyed it”.

“There was great camaraderie and the best person on that team would have been Dominic McCann, he came from the 1971 senior football team and played centre-half back. He was as tight as a barn door and absolutely amazing. We’d some good people who’d come back to us like Gerry McConville and Brendan [Lynch] and wee Joe Simpson, Paddy O’Donnell – there was a good squad of men knocking about. Paddy O’Donnell was one of the best footballers that Hannahstown every had, but he never really got the credit because he was so small. He could have turned you on a six-pence and was an amazing footballer but didn’t really commit himself to it as much as he could have – but he was an amazing footballer and very under-rated”.

Start of Coaching and minor success 1988:

“I think I was just naturally always involved in Lámh Dhearg and at stage I was still probably on the Youth Committee, I would have done things around the club, taken an interest in administration around the club and helped out with things. Maybe it was my career path? I’m a professional project manager and maybe my career path where I worked for the housing executive and building up my managerial career helped me push along those routes. I spent time in committee’s and on councils and doing bits and pieces and then I started the coaching”.

“I went to one of the first coaching courses that was run in the north by Val Kane at that time from County Down- he would have been DJ Kane’s older brother. He was a teacher in Newry and set-up a coaching school in Jordanstown. I went to the first set of coaching courses and got my qualifications for coaching from there. I brought back those principles of planning and coaching and along with my own career path- decided to implement them. The first team I took in Lámh Dhearg in that coaching scenario and applied it to was an U-16 team in 1984. It was the first football team that I managed in Lámh Dhearg. In our first match we were beaten by 42-points by St Johns”.

“I recognised that there was a lot of work to be done but I knew that we were better than people gave us credit for and all we had to do was introduce some methodologies and some bonding, planning and implementation strategies. Great guys in that first team included big Seamy McPeake – he played in full-forward for me in that team, Martin Prior came along later on and Martin McCague. There were a lot of people from Oliver Plunkett soccer team – Paddy Maxwell would have been in the middle of the field, Martin McLaughlin, Rigsy [Raymond Gorman], Micky Boyle, Dodger [Pat McCambridge] – those guys started to tag along with that team and become part of it. we knew we had the core of something that we could work with and we planned it”.

“That was the start of the team that won the Minor Championship in 1988, for four consecutive years I ran teams that level right through won a minor championship. From that team we built on it, we got beat in the semi-final of the U-16 championship the next year and next year [1987] we were beaten in the final of minor championship by a very good Davitt’s team – who deserved to win that day and were the better team. The next year we won the minor championship for the first time in the history of Hannahstown in the 1988. We won the Minor championship and Dodger was the captain and that was team was absolutely magnificent. That was the core of senior team in Lámh Dhearg right through until the mid 1990s”.

“We had a core of players that came along and tagged in and added onto it, a person that is often forgotten about is Ciaran [Fred] Magee. He lived in Stewartstown and played in the middle of the field in the second team in 1988 along with Patrick Dornan and he was power-house – he was as tight as a wall and an absolute power-house. We got probably the most intelligent left-foot in football in the history of Antrim- Frankie Wilson and his cousin Paul McCabe. Paul was a standard utility player at the start of his career but really matured into one of the best markers in Gaelic football. Colm [McCabe] came a year or two years after that and wasn’t on the minor team”.

“If you look at that team, it was a team made up of potential All-Stars. They were amazing players, in the second year of that championship Fitzy came along with me and joined up in that management team. We took that team in 1988 and we gelled very well, he was absolutely brilliant. He was a great man to man communicator but with regard to planning and strategies- he doesn’t give it too much thought. You could never do without him and he was a brilliant man to man communicator and his knowledge of Gaelic football was exemplary. The two of us bonded very, very well and I came to respect him enormously. Although I fell out with him quite a few times, I came to respect him absolutely enormously and I hope he had the same respect for me. My interest was too achieve and we achieved winning the first minor championship that Lámh Dhearg ever won in 1988”.

Coaching the senior team and 92 Championship:

“I wanted the opportunity to manage them in senior in the manner that would make them succeed- that meant changing the culture and changing the ways of some things that existed within Hannahstown. That cultural change wasn’t just going to happen the next year after winning a Minor Championship. Those boys had to get stronger, fitter and faster and we had to start doing some gelling and bringing some different people on board with them. we had to then try and combine the existing stalwarts at Hannahstown with the new breed of dynamic players that had won a minor championship. They were two different sets of people and our job was to bond them. probably the biggest bonding exercise we ever went through was in 1991-92”.

“We went along to Gartan outdoor pursuit centre outside Churchill in Donegal for a three-day bonding and coaching session, we set up three-days away, we took over the outdoor pursuit centre, cooked our own food, lived in our own accommodation, looked after ourselves and set our runs, training, physical and bonding activities for the three-days. Fitzy and myself went down to that session, my brother Brendan set-up a lot of the courses around the place- the cross country runs etc and we used the volunteers from Gartan for canoeing, archery, water-sport activities and we let them off on the Saturday night to go into Letterkenny and enjoy themselves”.

“That was probably the best bonding session because it was the opportunity for the older and younger guys to mingle and match and become dependent on each-other. I think some locals guy fell out with them and they had to respectfully engage with them. At one stage Henry Clifford got lost and appreciated the lift from the local police and politely redirected to Gartan. In that regard they all bonded exceptionally well, they came back to Gartan and went to mass the next morning as a group, done our business, trained and headed home. We had an absolutely magnificent time and that was the point in which we bonded to be the best team in Antrim”.

“Big John McKiernan had come back and joined Lámh Dhearg after much persuading, I think it was 1979 that he won a senior championship medal with St Teresa’s. His father lived in the Rock- he actually came from Leitrim but lived in the Rock- and we went down and persuaded John McKiernan that Lámh Dhearg was his spiritual base. He then joined Lámh Dhearg and he had the best set of hands of anybody I’ve ever seen field the ball. He was magnificent and one of the older people in that team but magnificent. He was the difference, if you put the ball to the square it went to John McKiernan- he was absolutely fantastic. Other senior players would have been Terry McCrudden, Eamon McGarry, Bill Molloy, Mickey Seenan, Bukey and Brendan Toland etc. They were all senior players that needed accommodated with the talented younger guys that were coming through – Dodger, Micky Boyle, Frankie Wilson, Stevie McFadden etc. The respect from those players were amazing, they were some group of guys. To this day I just hold those guys in awe. They were a magnificent bunch of men in all respects and were fantastic men”.

“In 1992 whenever we went along and started to bond and build a different style of football into Lámh Dhearg, in doing that we then came up against some of the older styles that really pushed us forward in 92. In the first round we played St Galls and beat them in a very closely contested match, the one thing I remember about that match it was played at Casement Park. I remember Eddie Fitzsimons [RIP] standing up, pushing everyone out of the way and booting the door open and heading out to the pitch for the second-half to win the match. His attitude was enormous and we were blessed with having Eddie and Frankie jnr back from the states. They would have graced any football team in Ulster and Ireland – any team would have sought those two guys. They were brilliant”.

“In the quarter final of that Championship we played O’Donnell’s and were lucky to come out with a win. We won by a point in Corrigan Park, we had an absolute nightmare of a match and thought we were top of the tree and it turned out we weren’t. We had to work so hard at rebuilding our business”.

“When we reached the semi finals we still weren’t fancied by outsiders but Fitzy and I both knew that we were commanding high ground on this. We knew we were the team that could take control of Antrim at this stage. On one side of the draw you had Cargin playing St Johns and the other side we were playing Rossa. Rossa had won the Championship in 91, we were playing the county champions and very few people gave us a chance. We knew we would beat the County Champions – they had some exceptional players like Noel Murray and Collie Murphy – two players that would turn you inside out if you let them. They also had the two Armstrong’s [Donal and Yash], we beat Rossa in a very, very closely contested match and we beat them by being the better footballing team and the more energised football team- we peaked at the right time. We waited for someone to play us and knew that whoever came through Cargin and St Johns would not be in a position to touch that team. We were the best football team”.

“There was bit of a row during the Cargin and St John’s semi-final and both of them were put out of the Championship and the county board is their wisdom – or lack of it- decided they would award the trophy to us and we weren’t given the opportunity to play our final. To hear people say you weren’t proper champions was frustrating but factual. Even if the county had have been smart enough to take one of the two teams from the previous rounds that Cargin and St Johns came through and let them play-off to meet us in the final- would have been the smart thing to do. But sometimes county boards don’t think in a logical, intellectual way and unfortunately we ended up on the wrong side of it. The County sent the Senior Championships medals to Lámh Dhearg for us to give to our players and it wasn’t the same as winning them on the pitch and some boys still don’t recognise the medals. They did us as big a disservice as the other two teams did us and it something that I’ll remember”.

“It caused a lot of problem in Antrim at the time and all I know is that we had the best team in Antrim and were ready to do the business but nobody turned up. It was very, very difficult to prepare for Ulster. We had to try and bring people around and get them focused and drawn in, was very difficult. But all credit to our players- they did focus and we had a very, very tight match with Burren. It was a smashing Burren team and ‘Shorty’ Treanor [John Treanor] won that match, he commanded it and we could very little with him. No matter what we played on him he commanded that match- he was an exceptional player and controller of the ball. Frankie Wilson was kid then and he [John Treanor] would have been in terms of what Frankie Wilson would have been at the end of his career- he was totally in command of the pitch and we couldn’t cope with him. enthusiasm was lacking a bit and we just weren’t as committed as we would have wanted to be and it didn’t work out for us but Burren were some team, a class team”.

Post-92 and trip to Disney Land and Toronto:

“It really cut us up as an organisation and people started to drift and lose their discipline and things started to happen inside and outside the organisation that was difficult to manage. Really and truthfully it cut us up and we had difficulty keeping the ship together after that I must say. About 1992 or 93 we were sitting in the club one day and Fra Fox was the bar manager. We were sitting having a chat with him and some people were coming in at around 4 or 5 o’clock on a Saturday for general stuff and a Walt-Disney thing came on the TV. It was people going to Disney Land and the person sitting me was Eileen McGuigan – she said If I ever win the pools, I’d love to take my family to Disney Land. I said- isn’t that a very interesting thing to hear. I waited and two days later I said to Fra Fox – do you remember what Eileen McGuigan said? He says yes about going to Disney Land, I said is it that bad that we have to win the pools to do that, why don’t we do it? he said why don’t we? So we sat together along with Harry Fitz and worked out a plan of how Lámh Dhearg would go to Disney Land”. 

“We spent two to two and a half years putting together the whole business and in 1995 Lámh Dhearg went on a tour- which included going to Disney Land and it was an amazing thing. That all came from the end of the 1992 championship and being people down. We needed something to bond people again, the people could buy into and something that people could come together and that’s what we chose. It was amazing the strategy put together was perfectly planned, it was put together that most of the people who went on the tour – the tour was through three centres- Canada, Toronto, then into Florida to Disney Land and across to the far side of Florida to Clearwater. There was an awful lot of planning in it and the finances, what we did was primarily finance it through a lotto system. We were one of the first clubs in the north to introduce the lotto and everybody followed us”.

“It was compulsory for anybody going to America to sell five tickets a week, 50 percent of what they sold went to their account and 50 percent of it went to the club and that’s the way we ran the lotto. About 70 people went to America and approximately half of their money would have been paid by that lotto. The driver was that we had to put together a financial package, we did fundraising and bungee-jumps – which Paddy O’Donnell brought us a bungee-jump team from Donegal. There a man at Lámh Dhearg called Maurice Flynn- he is major construction contractor, one of the biggest construction contractors through the public sector. Maurice Flynn and Paddy McCann got together and decided on the day of the bungee jump to ring up Healy’s [Funeral Director’s] and had Healy’s deliver a coffin to the bottom of the bungee-jump as a reminder to anybody who failed or wasn’t successful in their jump. It was the funniest thing you seen the whole day and was absolutely amazing”.

“We made a good few thousand out of that but Maurice Flynn and Paddy McCann got a coffin out of Healy’s – it was absolutely brilliant. There was a lot of fundraising and planning, on the tour itself we played Gaelic football, hurling and handball in Toronto. Billy Millar was a contact there at that time- he played for the Antrim U-21 team in 1971. He was a DJ and an organiser in Toronto and put together a team from the three teams in Toronto to play a Lámh Dhearg select. Damian Brown flew from Chicago to Toronto to meet us, he had been the senior goalkeeper three years before. He flew up to play in that match and we were getting beat at half-time by four-points. Martin my brother was the manager and Terry McCrudden was the captain and at half-time there was strong words spoken by the Manager and captain and we won by seven-points”.

“We won the hurling match as well and on the handball side of things- John Dunne organised to play a Canadian select in handball in Toronto and the four handballers won their games 3-1. All three teams from Lámh Dhearg were successful on that and we stayed in the most beautiful accommodation in Toronto and we enjoyed ourselves and made our way on the airplane to Florida and Disney Land. We stayed in the same Hotel as the Irish Football team stayed in the year before in Florida. We had our own private pool, Terry McCrudden had his own private Kentucky Fried Chicken beside the pool and 5-star accommodation and supplied to us. We worked very, very closely with the travel agents”. Fra, Harry and myself even enjoyed an inspection trip courtesy of the travel agents but it really helped us ensure we had a quality holiday of a lifetime.

“In the third week of the tour we went across to the other side of Florida and a place called Clearwater and spent our last week in Clearwater- they had the most beautiful beaches. then we made our home back to Toronto and back to Belfast. It was an absolutely amazing tour and phenomenal and there was some funny stories. Seamy Fitzsimons was responsible for making sure everybody did what they were meant to do, Fra Fox and myself would have looked after the money and organisation etc. Big Seamy was absolutely brilliant, whenever anybody decided to push the line a little further than they should have- Seamy indicated that they shouldn’t and everybody did as they were told. It’[s the first time I’ve ever seen silver service being brought to a room every single night with gloves and silver trays- that’s what he got his food in every single night for him and his family. Absolutely fantastic”.

“We had an interesting time when we’d a slush fund, I’d a contingency fund of £5000 just in case we needed it. We ended up using a brave bit of it in one of the complexes were some of our single chaps were sharing a room and decided that they wouldn’t carry out all the necessary cleaning etc and bits and pieces. We needed to spend a few grand getting things replaced and bits cleaned before we were allowed to move on. We had to use some of the contingency fund – there were a few rascals. We had very few issues on the trip and everything seemed to slide itself into place, people took responsibility and everything seemed to go very, very well. We had a marvellous tour – that was too be out bonding agent. I’m not sure that it worked as much as I would have wanted it to work, I was hoping it would have been the catalyst to kick ourselves on but it didn’t. Unfortunately it didn’t get us to where we wanted to go but the trip was amazing and we fulfilled Eileen’s dream. Her dream was to take her family to Disney Land and she didn’t need to win the pools and that’s what we did. We had a goal and we achieved it”.

“One of the other outstanding bits from America was Gerard Fitzsimons in Toronto with his YMCA vest on going out at night. Gerard Fitzsimons had a YMCA vest on and it was a tight vest were all of his parts were protruding out and he went at night like that representing Ireland. It has to be noted”

Handball:

“Handball was a great thing in Lámh Dhearg and was started by Ambrose O’Neill – he did it to get a team going and we played a little bit and messed about and played to train. When John Dunne came along he seen all us old fat people trying to play handball and he went – this isn’t the future of Lámh Dhearg and he started the youth. He ended with a number of all-Ireland champions. He got the four Herron’s involved [Michael, Brendan, Ciaran and Raymond] I think Michael, Brendan and Ciaran won Ulster titles and one or two won All-Ireland titles- they were absolutely amazing and it all came from John Dunne- coaching, working with them and putting his arm around the shoulder a wee bit because those guys were playing loads of sports in loads of places. They committed themselves to handball and were such athletes- they were amazing. The Herron’s were amazing at handball and the bee’s knee’s. all of them had a skillset second to none. They thought about their game and were absolutely brilliant. Young Kevin Holmes was a good player and won a doubles Ulster title I think. We won Division 5, Division 4 and Division 3, that was the John Dunne era and Jim Pullen, John Dunne, Roy Stitt, Steven Lynch and myself. The other guys came on board and they were the stars and we were just the old stalwarts that tagged in and did our best”.

“We’d a really good interesting time and Alec Fitzpatrick RIP also took to do with the handball. He was nearly 100 and wanted to get involved in something so he brought along his little grandson Mark Fitzpatrick. He played in the juvenile teams with our Gavin [Lynch] and ones. That next generation came as well under John Dunne- you’d Gavin, Mark Fitzpatrick and Kevin Holmes. They all started to bond in as well and you’d a circle of 8-12 handballers that were working really hard and started through John Dunne. He’s badly missed and there is a squad still playing now. Our Mark, Gerard-Francis and David along with Raymond [Herron] and others are keeping it going. Mark’s intention is to re-establish juvenile coaching for it. all of those things seem to be coming forward and that’s the route. One of the failings is that we tried for 20-30 years to get a handball alley put up and we never got it. we did try and it is a failing. It was like Davitt’s – how can you be a successful football team if you don’t have a pitch, how can you be a successful handball club if you don’t have a court. It’s a bit of a slight on Hannahstown when we haven’t provided a court for handball”.

Chairman and administration:

“I enjoyed being Cathaoirleach of Lámh Dhearg, there’s just too many things to do and push on with. I enjoyed being Cathaoirleach and worked hard at stream-lining the business side of Lámh Dhearg and I tried to make the circle fit and it was very, very difficult. It is a very difficult task and the model that we operated on in Hannahstown as that time was the income from your bar, plus your fees where what kept you going throughout the year. I don’t believe that, that model will work in the future and I believe that we’re going to have to finance ourselves in a different way if we’re to exist. It might be that we’ll have to go out to 40-50 people and say we require you to give us x – amount of pounds and that will be out financing model. We would need to do other things like fundraise etc around it”.

“Even at that time the seams were creaking, it was very, very difficult – I enjoyed my time but it was a chore to say the least. The bars opening up in Belfast was tough for the club and that’s when it got very difficult to manage the business. But we did manage it and keep it going and things have moved on in Hannahstown. When I was there the ladies football wasn’t as strong as it is now, Camogie wouldn’t have been as strong as it’s going to get and the whole ladies side has developed- which wasn’t a big issue when I was there. I’m glad to see that we’ve become much more open”.

“I was on the Youth Committee and the Senior Committee itself for around 6 or 7 years on and off. Inside that Committee I would have taken on many roles and worked very, very hard to try and keep things together. I worked at the administration of the club for a good 10-years in total. Micky Herron would have been on a lot of the committee’s; Jim Herron was chairman in 92 when we put the America committee together- he wasn’t on that committee and had nothing to do with it but let us run it ourselves. Fitzy and Shanty, Sean Maguire, Kieran Megraw and others would have been about. It was a very difficult time my brother Stephen was secretary of the club for 1 or 2 years. Running Lámh Dhearg was a difficult task and requires time and energy. One thing that everybody has to realise, people are on committee’s because they want to be and they want to do good. Nobody is on their for the wrong reasons and people have to realise that. It’s only as you get older in life that you realise”.

Lynches Golf event and Golf society in the club:

“Every Christmas we have an event were we have the Lynch challenge, largely played in memory of my father. All our immediate family and extended family and some of my brother Damien’s friends would go out every year- usually about 25 of us- and play for that trophy every year. I’ve won it once and I’m absolutely delighted, it’s been going about 7 years- my sons Mark and David have won it once and I think Gerard-Francis has also won it. it keeps on going and we do it for fun, it’s a commemorative thing and some fun to bring us all together”.

“There was then a golf society set-up, it was called the Black Mountain Golf Society and it worked out of Lámh Dhearg clubrooms. The person who did a lot of work on it was Tony McCourt, there started off about a dozen of us and ended up about 28. The dozen would have been very interesting people. Sam McGarry, Joe Finnegan, Paddy Mallon, Pearse McFall – from St Johns, Maurice Flynn and his brother Malachy and his brother in-law Adrian Teeny and a whole squad of people. Geordie Fegan might have played a few times and a few of the McQuillan’s. We decided on our first year to go across on holidays to Portugal and the Black Mountain Golf Society organised the trip. We put a few shillings in and made our way to Portugal”.

“We went to Lagos and stayed in apartments, in one of the apartments it was Joe Finnegan, Billy McQuillan – who used to live in the house next door to Lámh Dhearg at the top of the lane, and myself. Every single morning a Rooster used to sound off at about 5 o’clock and this loud incessant noise would go every single morning and we didn’t get much sleep. On the trip our bar manager and club stalwart Joe Finnegan surprised us with his hidden culinary talents and treated to us beautiful and tasty barbecues with local poultry and dishes as his specialities.

That was the Black Mountain Golf Society in a nutshell. It was good craic on and off the golf course and was another interest but the primary driver of Lámh Dhearg was Gaelic football, hurling and handball”.

2017 championship success and ’92 reunion: 

“I have one picture that sits in my apartment on top of the table and its  my brothers and myself with the senior championship trophy in 2017. It was an amazing day; I was delighted and I’m more particularly delighted that Martin committed himself and took it forward. There was lots of planning and control and Stephen was also in that planning and preparation side. It was absolutely tremendous. I was so proud of all of them and I’ve been proud of all of them all throughout the years. I was really proud that Martin committed himself to the management along with Stephen- they gave an awful lot of their life to it. There was a lot of good planning in and around the team with Terry [McCrudden] and Deaglan Bunting as well- it’s good that Deaglan has come back into the fold this year”.

“The 92 reunion was a great night and it was great to see all of those people who have brought themselves through life so incredibly well. From that U-16 team that started off in the Mid-80s right throughout, they have the core of Lámh Dhearg right up until the current day. They’ve conducted themselves with values and in a valued structure that everyone would be proud of, they’re incredible people with super values who’ve stood tall and everybody would have be so proud to let their children be coached by them or to watch them playing football on the park”.

“They were an amazing bunch of people, so many of them have come through with good values and strong family commitments and they’ve been a credit to both Lámh Dhearg and society in general. I don’t know if I’d say I’m proud, I enjoyed it and I think the words I would use are – I enjoyed it and got a lot of satisfaction out of it. the energy that I put into it was compensated for by the satisfaction that I got out of it. one thing that I did learn and it’s stood by me for the rest of my life- every dog has it’s day- everybody has a period when they can offer a lot to a business but the longer you stay with that business, you will inhibit others and prevent others from taking it to the next level- everybody should remember that. That’s why I stayed with Lámh Dhearg for a period of time but then decided it was time for somebody else to take the baton and that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t try to hold onto the baton, I moved on and I’m lucky my family have carried on the tradition”.