Peter Kane

Peter Kane

This island has a rich folklore for storytelling and it is very much part of our DNA. It is one of the reasons our Celtic culture has been maintained for hundreds of years. 

In the new Heritage Square located at the entrance to the club stands a display highlighting the history of storytelling in Hannahstown. There is no doubt we have had some great story tellers in our club and this tradition continues to this day. Many a championship has been won and lost in the clubrooms and around the grounds of Pairc Lámh Dhearg.

After taking up the Chairmanship in 2019, I wanted to make sure that we captured as many of the stories and memories from our past and bring them to life for everyone else to enjoy. The outbreak of COVID 19 has accelerated this process and I want to pay tribute to the fantastic efforts of both Kevin Herron and Paul Buchanan and all those people that have provided us with their stories so we could provide to a wider audience. It’s great that we are now back on the pitch and starting to make new memories to be told to future generations.

Upbringing in Lenadoon and St Oliver Plunkett:

For my story now, my father’s side of the family were very much steeped in the GAA with my Dad and Uncle Tomas lining out for the Mitchels in the 40’s and 50’s. They both became better known for their exploits on the bowling green of Falls Bowling club from the late 60’s/ early 70’s winning  when the club was the most successful in Ireland. Brendy McCloskey the clubs bowling expert can fill you in better.

They were joined by several of my Aunts who were great camogs and have a few All Ireland medals for Antrim. The family were closely linked with Rossa with my Granda in the early 1900’s and my Uncle Pat lining out for their seniors on many occasions before going across the waters to play soccer in England. I noticed he made the Rossa Top 15 players in the recent Saffron Gael article. In fact upon his return he even played for the club for a short while. I tried giving it a go with them but last only a few weeks. I still have family in Rossa with the Hamills and Rea’s, the craic is good whenever we get together.

Prior to that, my family was all mainly Rossa – the McKinley’s [Liam and Brian] and they’re related to Roy McLarnon from St Agnes’. We would have been down at St Agnes’ and I remember being up to watch St Agnes’ against Lámh Dhearg at Budore”.

“My journey to Pairc Lámh Dhearg took a path like so many others from down the hill not knowing anything about Lámh Dhearg until fortune took its turn. Growing up in Stewartstown I would have spent more time playing at Sarsfield ‘Bear Pit’ pitch looking for lost sliothars after the big games that were played there in the early 80’s. Even despite living at the bottom of Stewartstown beside  club men such as Eamon Haystack Cunningham, Paddy O’Donnell, Kieran Megraw and the Herron’s  and the McNeill’s – Lámh Dhearg would not have been on my radar. We got the likes of Micky McGuigan. Beansy and Anto [Finnegan] and that whole street from the bottom and middle of Lendaoon to join”.

I first tasted Gaelic games while at St Oliver Plunkett PS under the supervision of Finbarr McCormick , a native and club man of Castlewellan. To say that I had some of the craziest classmates you could ever meet would be an understatement. Paddy Tumelty, Micky McGuigan, Beansey Elliott, Kipper Carmichael, all under one roof was an experience. Our class was always in trouble and the Mr Ahern’s strap would often make a weekly appearance”. 

“Off the pitch with these lads we have shared each other’s holy communions, confirmations, wedding days, children’s christening and we are all great friends to this very day. We are just waiting on Beansey to do the honourable thing and get us another stag weekend

  Paddy and myself started the crusade of our primary class up the hill when we were spotted by Paul Buchanan when we joined the new Carrigart youth club that had just opened its doors in Lenadoon”. 

“We grew up playing U-10 right up until this present day, the call was always to meet at a quarter to 11 at Greenways every Saturday when we were young. Shanty or Shakers bus would have brought us up the hill and god knows who we met on the way up the hill because we probably we would have asked them to play for the club. Shanty had sliding doors on the bus and we would have tried to open them up early but he kept a tight ship and Shanty would have kept you in toe- but the craic on the bus would have been brilliant. St Oliver Plunkett provided a good backbone to the club and we were fairly successful”.

Playing Career:

“One of the big highlights for us would have been U-12 when we went to Banagher in Offaly. I roomed with Collie Gorman above a bar, the kids that we stayed with got us a few pounds out of the till- we had great craic there. I still have the programme from Croke Park on the Sunday. We held Aidan Fogarty’s All-Star trophy; he was from Banagher. That was one trip we enjoyed and in U-14 we were fairly successful and got through to the Feile final. we were 23-0 down at half-time against Loughgeil and came back to within 4 points in the end. It was one of those days and PJ O’Mullan was full-forward for them and had a great game”.

“But we won the Belfast Championship, it was played before the Lavey and Rossa Ulster Hurling Championship match. We were 7 points up and nearly threw it away and ended up drawing. We had replay the following week up in our pitch and I scored my first career hat-trick- I scored 3 goals in that game and it was my only hat-trick to. The first day there was a match played before it that went to extra-time and our match was started fairly late and the crowd had started to come in for the Rossa and Lavey game and it was a great atmosphere at Rossa Park. The replay match at our place was just one of those cold autumn days- it was a typical Hannahstown day”.

“Going into U-16 and minor, the talent in the squad was massive and your always fighting for your position. I would have preferred the hurling and when we came to minor, I was only one or two people that were studying for A-Levels- it was Collie Gorman and myself. We won the U-17 winter league and had a fairly good team. We were in the minor football final in 91 and we got beat by Cargin, I came on in the second-half and scored a few points but got beat by a strong Cargin team- that would have been Gavin Brown’s team. The next year of minor I was studying and drifted away and it wasn’t until Buke got me back in there to be involved in the minor football team”.

“We had some great nights in the club week after week in September or October, celebrating victories up in the club up the big disco hall. We were a band of brothers and are still good friends to this day. We’re in a WhatsApp group and on Father’s Day we met and had a few beers- we’re still recovering from it. The stories are still going from the old days and we’re in contact every day with each other. Nobody expected us to win the minor finals, I think Loughgeil are still hurting a lot and St Johns too. They walked off at half-time and kissed the cup, they were that far up in the first-half and it took a Jim Brady team-talk to sort it all out but we got there in the end and got over the line”.

“I was in and out at senior and drifted away a wee bit, I was at university and went to America and college in Philadelphia. I actually played a bit of hurling out there with a team only started up called Philadelphia Gaels, we got games in Philadelphia and Virginia. At that stage I started to get bother with my knee, I was playing on Boxing Day at St Galls. They always had a Boxing Day game and Joe McNeill and myself would go because we both have good friends at St Galls”.

“I actually went over on my knee and Micky Culbert snr gave me a drink of poteen and pain went away instantly. After a night of being out on the town my knee was like a rugby post- I’d torn my cruciate ligament. It was the time before sports science and I had to have my knee reconstructed and get a couple of operations for it. it was through the NHS so I had wait for it as well and it dented things. I would have played South-Antrim hurling with Frankie Quinn and Colm McKenna – they came towards the end of their careers and I would have played senior reserve hurling along with Pat Toland. Pat was taking the team and he was a great fella and was always encouraging”.

Coaching, Feile 2000 and Celbridge:

“We’d a lot of young hurlers coming through and it was a good opportunity to blend them into playing senior hurling. I started taking teams through Barry Armstrong and I started developing hurling in the club. for a few years Barry and myself took all the juvenile hurling teams in the club. Barry would have taken the older teams and I would have taken the younger ones. We took them up in U-14 Feile and that was when the likes of Micko, Brendan and Ciaran [Herron], Joe Doone, Charlie McCloskey, Reg [Brendan McComb] Terry [O’Hara] and boys that played senior hurling and football for the club”.

“I always recall the trip to Wexford with the U-14 hurlers, it was preparation for the Feile. Barry, myself and some of the parents went down to Gorey in Wexford. We’d challenge matches in Dublin and Wexford and stayed over in B&Bs and other mentors stayed in the big hall. On the Saturday night a few of the mentors went for a few pints- the boys were in an arcade a few doors down from the pub and weren’t very far away. We put big Joe Doone on the door, he was a man-child and despite being the same age as them and younger than most of them- his first door duties was our door men and he made sure nobody moved from the arcade that night”.

“We’d a few other trips and we brought teams down to all-Ireland and to Croke Park and it was always important to get to Friars Tucks in Newry on the way back. We also took kids one year to the compromised rules final in Croke Park and so we didn’t lose them- we had them dressed up in club tops. Little did we think that the Dublin kids thought they were Tyrone kids and chased them around Croke Park looking for a fight. It was also the time the vuvuzela’s came out and Conal McGuigan was the first one to buy one. They were quickly confiscated and put away. Barry and myself got heavily involved in the hurling and Feile 2000 came. It was the first time Feile was being held in Ulster in the 30-year history and Dee McConville and myself took that team. In 2000 we were supposed to host Setanta from Donegal but when we got the team list- it appeared most of the kids were very young. We went back to Croke Park and raised our concerns that they were sending up a very young team – they were only about 10/11. Setanta were removed and didn’t come up. Stevie Bunting for years has called me Setanta for getting them thrown out of Feile. One of the referee’s didn’t turn up and I had to referee it. I forgot to stop-watch and Michael O’Muirchearttaigh was up watching it. we’d no idea how long we played- thankfully we lighting and had to abandon the match and get all the players into the changing rooms. Thank god I didn’t have to say I didn’t have the stop-watch, lightning took over. We hosted Knockbridge from County Louth for the weekend and it was a great weekend. In 2002 we hosted Celbridge – the 2001 Feile was cancelled because of foot and mouth disease”.

“Celbridge from Kildare were arriving on the Friday and on the Thursday I got engaged to Sandra. I went into town on the morning and picked a ring, later on went up to ask her father’s permission to marry his daughter. I drove off to organise the pitch and get the club ready, collect the bunting from Conway Mill and get everything organised for Feile. I didn’t see Sandra again until the Saturday night of our engagement weekend- we went out with our friends to celebrate. Sandra knew what she was getting into when we got engaged. After our exploits in 2000, Pat Guthrie- who was the National GAA co-ordinator of Feile- presented the club with the Coca-Cola trophy and that is presented each year to the Feile personality of the year. it’s presented each year at the juvenile awards to the person who shows the true ethos of Feile. It was donated to us by Croke Park”.

2003 and Centenary Events:

“In 2003 I got married, Smickers [Brian Smyth] organised a guard of honour- mass was running late and the boys had a match. I got married over at St Anne’s – Smickers had them lined up ready to go, hurls down and then they were off to play a match. From that I kept heavily involved in the teams right up to taking the senior reserve hurling. I was involved with the senior team as well in 2003 under Barry. It was the culmination of years of work and didn’t just happen overnight- it was built on the success of juvenile”.

“We would have probably be one of the top two teams in juvenile hurling in Belfast. St Galls had a freakishly good panel and we were always up playing against them. Story is just before my knee operation I was taking one of the teams and Micky McGuigan always tells the story well. We were playing in the South-Antrim U-16 final and Micko got himself into a bit of trouble and a fight had broken out. I ran over from the side-line to get to him and half way across I collapsed in a heap- my knee just went on me and Micky McGuigan still thinks to this day I was taken out by a sniper- that’s my cruciate ligament story”.

“2003 was a big year for me because I was trying to organise my wedding but I was also chair of the organising committee for the Centenary Dinner. I chaired that and Sandra was on it also and there’s a photo of group of us. It was a very successful event in the Europa in February 2004 and part of that preparation involved Shanty, Sean Maguire and myself taking a trip around all the old pitches we played on – the Bullring, Budore- the Rock field, up where Ballymacward school is. We videoed all this and played the video at the dinner and it was the first time we really started to introduce videos at the presentation nights. Another thing was that we managed to get Cormac McAnallen to come to the dinner. I met him at the front door of the Europa and Cormac didn’t realise that it was full black-tie event and came in a pair of trousers and a shirt. I had to swap over my gear and give him some of my clothes for him to wear- a dickie bow etc.- that’s why he was wearing a blue shirt at it. He didn’t get the memo about the dress code and I had to give him some of my clothes to wear when he was up speaking. Two days later Cormac sadly passed away and we have a club banner dedicated to his memory, it’s an iconic image of him up catching a football and we still proudly host it”.

“The other big event that I organised and was involved with, with Sean McElhatton was the gathering of 2013. We had people from all around the world that came for a weekend of activities, craic and banter. The ladies darts team had a night and the 71 team and different types of function- we lit the beacon for the first time. We always said we’d use the beacon any time we won a Championship. That’s where it started from and it was a great weekend of activities at the club”.

“After Celbridge came to us in the Feile- we went down to them and they hosted us. We’d a great weekend there and they’d a lovely big plaque that they gave to the club. In their clubrooms we had a sing-off between the Lámh Dhearg choral society. It Stevie Bunting snr, Barney [Herron]and a few of us against the Celbridge boys and we obviously won hands down. The Lámh Dhearg choral society was started that night and we’d great craic there. They came back in 2003 and helped us celebrate our centenary. Another thing about Celbridge, when I went up and made a speech I thanked my wife and ever since that Stevie Bunting snr calls me darling”.

Juvenile Committee’s:

“I’ve been involved in juvenile committee’s – the Centenary Dinner was probably the first big thing and then I got involved in Juvenile Committee’s and helped to organise the juvenile dinners along with Smickers, Buke and all the different committees. To give Buke a break, I started to MC for it and put together the collection of photos of all the teams and all the memories of the year. Our juvenile dinner is probably one of the biggest Juvenile Dinners in the GAA. We’ve nearly 350 people and it’s so big that we have to split it in two for the younger ones and have a smaller one at the club. We’ve had great personalities over the year presenting awards and had some great nights. We lost a great friend recently in Paddy McIlvenny [RIP], Paddy would have always been there for our juvenile dinners and enjoyed the craic and the banter at it”.

Paddy Cunningham snr story:

“My dad passed away in 2012 and everybody from the club called to the house and if anything needed done there was people there to give a hand, organise seats and organise the food etc. Paddy Tumelty was one of my grooms men at my wedding and any time I saw Paddy Tumelty at my dad’s funeral he was carrying the coffin – he was always there carrying the coffin or doing something. Paddy Cunningham snr came down to the wake house and I introduced him to my mother and said this is Paddy Cunningham snr. She asked is this young Patrick ? I said yes and she thought I was talking about young Patrick the county player. Paddy didn’t know that my mother knew his father and bowled with him. Paddy went about for about six months saying that they were all calling me Paddy Cunningham jnr. I had to tell him that she referred to him as that because she knew his father. I always sleg Paddy about that”.

Odhran:

“One of the things that nobody knows- I’m the only coach in the world who has taken a team of the grounds of Stormont and in the grounds of Belfast City Hall. The county organised blitzes and I managed to coach teams on both former bastions of the British empire. On the lawns of the City Hall and the lawns of Stormont I’ve had teams playing. Odhran has been my shadow up in the club for the last 10-years. Sandra’s family are all very tall and he was born very long. Jimmy Agnew called him the ‘wee bull-calf’ and he’s been up there ever since”.

“I’ve taken his teams throughout the years and last year was probably the first year that I haven’t taken a team that he’s been involved with. We’ve had great times and we’ve won tournaments and it was great to have Barry Armstrong and Sootie [Patrick McCague jnr] helping out too. We managed to win the U-14 league with the last puck of the ball, we got beat in the final the previous year”.

“It was great to get involved and I was coaching the kids of the kids that I was coaching way back in the 90s- I was now coaching their kids. The likes of Daniel McGreevy and Tony Stanley – we’ve turned full circle. Hopefully Odhran will stay on, my only concern is that the generation have lost out on Casement and hopefully covid doesn’t set them back. Looking forward I would like that to be a big focus with Gaelfast putting more emphasis with post-primary schools. My concern is that there is going to be a big drop off in future, – that’s the age groups that we have to focus our attention.

Féile with Odhran:

“Odhran was born in 2005 and I when he got started I was coaching my own kid for the first time instead of other people’s kids. We won the U-14 league two years ago and we won a few tournaments along the way and they’re still playing together. We went to Ballybay Monaghan for the Féile football, Dee McLaughlin and Brendy McCloskey took the team. I was only supposed to stay for the Friday night because Odhran was to go to the Gaeltacht the next morning. We decided we’d go for one night and see how it went- one night ended up saying we’d go on the Saturday afternoon but we kept winning. We decided we’d go on the Sunday morning and we got moved to south-Monaghan to play in the semi-finals and in the last kick of the ball Fionn Mervyn won it and we got into the final. it was 5 o’clock before I left south-Monaghan to drive to north Donegal to leave Odhran to the Gaeltacht. It was a brilliant weekend and we forged great links. I stayed two doors down from the bar with the chairman of Ballybay – his father was a former president of Ulster GAA. I stayed a couple of doors down from the bar which was handy in terms of walking to it”.

“In 2018 were in Dunleer in Louth and we’d a great time there and were well looked after, to me Féile is what it’s all about. It’s a great time for the team and the experience of different counties and the pressure of competition football. It’s one of those weekends that the kids will have great memories of and they’ll talk about it for the rest of their lives. It’s what the GAA is all about”.

Coaching the senior ladies team:

“After an AGM one day, I was having a few pints with Micky Brady and Eamon McGarry in the Sunday club and by the end of it I’d talked myself into taking the ladies team. I must have been about 2010 and I was also taking other juvenile teams. It was James Martin,  Robbie and myself. We won the junior Championship in 2013. It was good to get a photograph afterwards with some the mentors – Kieran [Megraw], Caoimhe [Whinnery] and all the ones who started the ladies football up. Kieran established ladies football and it was great to get him into the team photo. That match was played in the club as part of a triple header, we hosted it and won that final and had a great night out at the Bot that night. We were all sunburnt and had red faces on us all. We just couldn’t get past the finish line to get promoted. I had a team based on the older girls and didn’t have the luxury of having the U-16s and minors. We were always stuck for players and scraped through, there was Sunday afternoon calls to say people couldn’t make it – I dreaded Sunday afternoons. It wasn’t until you were up at the pitch and the girls were playing that you got that enthusiasm again to take it. their character of the team always drove you on and got you jeered up again. It was great to coach my niece Meabh Martin- she was a big part of the team and one of the reasons I took it. She’d play for the club since she was a kid and I wanted to make sure was getting football”.

“There was bit of gap between the older ones that started through Caoimhe and Aisling [McConville] and the next generation that was coming through. We were just trying to hold it until they started to come through and I think that’s now for the past couple of years. The enthusiasm and commitment and levels of training and what they’re doing now at all age levels in the club is brilliant. It was great to see Tierna Fegan captaining Antrim in U-14 last year. The senior ladies winning the Championship last was brilliant and it would be good for them now to move on through the divisions- it would be a good thing to see. It’s a one club philosophy and one of the main reasons we need a second pitch”.

“It’s important that the role of woman is recognised in the club, many are involved behind the scenes and organising things like O’Neills orders and juvenile dinners. These are the parents of our kids who are keen to get involved and help give something back. Without their help we would really be struggling”.

Second-pitch and facilities:

“We’ve 29 teams now and I look after the fixtures, every year I’m pulling my hair out trying to satisfy everybody’s training and match needs using only one pitch and the 3G – that’s why it’s so important to get the second pitch. The enthusiasm and determination of the Development Committee would remind you of a gestapo meeting the way that they are. They’re so effective, efficient and persuasive. Dodger has headed it up and Joe McNeill, Fitzy, Shanty, Joe Finnegan etc are knocking on doors and there was late night calls. They’re relentless and very persuasive. We hope to be starting the drainage in the next few weeks”.

“I work in facilities for my own personal job and over the year have been managing the pitch and co-ordinating things around the ground, I’ve been doing that for a good while as well. we’re constantly trying to improve our facilities and that ties in with the development of the new pitch and it’s great that Dodger is leading the sub-committee for me. Also the work that goes on behind the scenes- the juvenile dinners and how they run so smoothly now, the O’Neills orders and that’s all down to the dedication of small groups of people; many of them you don’t see that often or it’s a case of they like to work behind the scenes”.

Darkness into Light:

“I got involved with Darkness into Light through Grainne McGarry, she asked me if I’d be involved in helping to organise that. Not knowing too much about it, I said I would – thinking it was just a small event. It’s been a lifechanging event and has opened my eyes to the whole issue of mental health. The first year we had 1000 people coming up to us and leaving the club at about 4.15 on a Saturday morning and walking around the road of Hannahstown. It’s a huge event that takes a lot of organising between ourselves and Hannahstown Community Association. We didn’t realise at the time you could actually fundraise and we were having a mop-up meeting a few weeks later on and were told we’d raised £30,000 on top of that”.

“Three years later we’d 2000 people attending it and we’d raised over £120,000 for mental health charities. We’ve forged fantastic relationships with a suicide awareness and support group and have signposted people to it when they’ve needed it. it’s one of those things were you feel like you’re giving back, personally its opened up my eyes to the whole issue of mental health, opening up and talking and that’s what the club and our community is about- helping others. We hope to run it in October after it was cancelled in May- it might be a bit colder this time. Sadly the need gets bigger but the comfort it has given to families of those bereaved through suicide- the stories we got when we were down at the Kennedy Centre. People approached us, that had never spoken about their loved ones death in 30-40 years and just opened up in front of you. If that helps then that’s what it’s all about, it’s the power of the GAA and has actually put Hannahstown on the map”.

“From a leadership point of view, it’s actually given me so much strength to improve my leadership. When you see 2000 people walking down and coming to the road towards your club at 5.30 in the morning- you know you’re doing something right and you see your leadership skills coming through”.

Community:

“One of the things we wanted to do was have a link with the community and we started the club mass last year with Fr Kevin. We’ve some great photos of the kids came with their club gear and he blessed their hurls and footballs. We done it with girls Feile team before they headed off to Leitrim last year- they went to mass as well and it’s important to build the community link. We’ve been helping some families out through covid as well, we’ve did chemist runs etc”.

Power of the GAA:

“One thing that always sticks in my head is Tina Frazer who lost young Diarmuid and we host the event in his name. 6-7 months later young Cormac came back up playing hurling in the club. I always remember the time we were in Andersonstown Leisure Centre and he was playing hurling for us, he scored a goal and the smile on that child’s face – he looked up to this mother and gave her a big thumbs up. To me that’s the power of the GAA, it helps heal pain and bereavement . It still brings a tear to my eye”.

Chairman of the club:

“It’s an honour and a privilege but it’s a lot of hard work to be a chairman, you’re the chief-executive of a business that you don’t get paid for. It’s doing it for the pure love of the club it drives you on. Jim Herron approached me and asked me to do it, I took a bit of time and had to speak to Sandra and I said I’d give it a year. I keep going back to her and said I’ll give it another year. It’s something I probably wanted to do but the timing was never just right. The reason the timing was right because there were a few things in place, we’d a plan that Sean McElhatton had helped put together – the club strategy. We had the people there and there was some fantastic people who do never ending tasks – the like of Jim Ferguson, Smickers, Buke and Cocko”.

“They go behind the scenes and do a lot of work that nobody sees, the likes of Barney Herron and all others that would have been involved in the past. I’ve a lot of time for Barney with working him of the juvenile committees. the people were there and I wanted to get the right priorities in driving the club forward. We’ve made huge progress and I’ve always said- I want the club to be at the top table in everything we do. The club is an operation 24/7 365 days a year. it started last year with the Hannahstown lights up in January and it never stopped until the end of the year and that kept going”.

“Through our regular work with mental health and wellbeing there have been a few initiatives that we’ve organise. One of the things I’ve recognised was the resilience of our juvenile teams. Tony Stanley in our of team talks to the U-14 said- you boys have more skills than your fathers but you wouldn’t run through brick walls like them. They just didn’t have those skills because they’re looked after all through the years unlike us- the streets were our playground. Dominic McGuigan and myself got together and we entered into the GAICSE award – the president award. We had 24 for kids who week after week, for 6 months – got together and learned new skills. They were down at the fire-brigade and doing different things to help build their resilience up and they were supposed to finish off with a two-day trek that had to be cancelled because of covid. We’re hoping to get them back in September or October- that was one thing to help the kids resilience”.

“Another thing was the Dads, Lads and Others and it was to keep the boys of the streets on winters night, but also to give the dads a chance and an opportunity to give the young lads a kicking and play themselves. I was refereeing and as a referee we tended to win all the time. The younger lads struggled seeing us winning. It was great to play with Micky Boyle, ‘Beansy’ Elliott – who still have it. Some of the parents like Tommy Camlin and Marty Black. We’d 20 there some nights and it got us through the winter”.

Micky Herron:

“Last year was such a journey with the senior football Championship and that just took the imagination of the county. Replay after replay after replay, I couldn’t watch it on the hill at Corrigan Park – I had to go onto the line to watch it were I felt more comfortable watching games. the phone never stopped for 5 or 6 weeks. I remember Micky Herron [RIP] asking did I know were the replay was – always looking a heads up to find out where the replay was- he’d be phoning me every day. Three-weeks before he passed away he was getting treatment in the hospital and he phoned me and said – will you make sure you put my nomination in for South-Antrim and Kevin’s nomination? I said I didn’t want to bother you because I knew you weren’t well. He said no, no I’ll be back soon – it’s great to see that Kevin has taken over the mantle there and helped keep his memory alive because Micky was great craic”.

Covid struggles:

“Covid has allowed us to reflect and make us appreciate what we have in Hannahstown and appreciate what we’re missing. We’ve all struggled to keep ourselves entertained and things like the Stevie Bunting Bingo [Stevie Sweat]. The articles have been what I’ve always wanted, I’ve always wanted to capture the history of the club. we’ve learnt so much about the heritage and that’s what it’s all about. We’ve managed to capture that and it’s more important now that we start creating new memories. I was with Seamy McPeake on Saturday and we were singing the Hills of Hannahstown. Paddy Tumelty’s Coca-Cola is another club anthem but it would be great to see the younger generation singing it and taking it forward. It’s a great wee tune and I remember bumping into him that night when he was making it – he still has my hurl. Seamy is very proud of where he comes from and on a Thursday night we listen to ‘Lockdown with Seamy’. It’s another great asset of the club that we have – he’s always promoting us. Hannahstown is like an oasis and somewhere that if you have a bad day, you go up to the pitch and your problems seem to blow away in the wind. It’s an oasis and it’s a great setting for the club to have – looking down to the Mournes”.

“I’ve a touring caravan and I travel around Ireland, anywhere I stay – I would call into the local GAA club and see what they’re doing and the feel and anything we could bring back to our club. We’ve one of the best settings for a club in Ireland- there are a few others out there- but we’re one of them where are pitch settings are and the views that we have. That’s something we hope to build on in the over the next few months and years ahead”.

Sunday club [head shed]:

“The Sunday-club [head shed] from Christmas, just to get through the dark winter months- I started to appear on a Sunday afternoon and join the likes of McCrudden [Terry McCrudden], Eamon McGarry and Dee Mclaughlin. There is a small crowd and when it just finished off before covid it turned it 14 of us and we call it the head shed. We watch the football and you only stay there for a few hours; you couldn’t stay there all night. You sort the clubs problems and the world’s problems out. It keeps you very grounded, I can’t keep up pace for them boys so there’s always a pint in the pump for me because I can’t keep up with them. I think Seamus McGarry’s going to call his next dog – a pint in the pump for me- I still think I’ve one left when we open up the club in the next few weeks”.

The scoreboard:

“Standing by the fence on the walkway during the matches- there are 15 versions of the score. Never ask Smickers the score of a match because he’s always wrong ! we used the stones at our feet around the pitch to count the goals and points. We use big stones for goals and small stones for points. Until we get the scoreboard working it’s our only system of keeping tally of the correct score- even then Smickers tells you you’re wrong. It was Joe McNeill, Brendy McCloskey and myself that came up with it, now it’s been used for everybody to count their laps on the highway to health. After 3 or 4 laps you forget and if you ever notice the stones sitting on the fence, that’s what they’re there for”.