This article is from page 56 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 56 JPG
WHEN Miltown got their 2008 show on the road and started training in Hennessy Memorial Park in the depths of winter, Michael McDon- agh was always on the move.
It wasn’t cajoling his players to greater effort with ball drills or wire- to-wire runs. He leaves that to others. Some say it part of his own fitness regime, doing his own laps. Others say it was to exercise his mind for the club, whether it’s on or off the field.
Thinking about teeing up a chal- lenge against a Kerry club through his contacts down there; the con- struction of the stand that Hennessy Memorial Park deserves; how to keep the senior players off the beer during Scou Samhraidh Willie Clancy.
All difficult assignments in their own very different ways, but Mc- Donagh loves the unique challenges involved in all three. All because this is where he wants to be and in a mat- ter of fact way describes how it was always going to be.
‘““Miltown is where you come from and where you’ll end up,” he says, starting off in the third person. “I was always involved with the club — I
never lost contact. I would always go to the games, even when I was caught up with the county board. I always knew I was coming back. I always thought it almost natural that I would try to give something back when I got older, after all the club through the camaraderie had given me so much when I was younger.”
Here’s the thing — sometimes he thinks of those younger days when walking around the field on those training nights. The people who put everything into Miltown — John Rei- dy, Mickey Wilson, Noel Walsh and Michael Mahoney. The list goes on…
He name checks them, giving ex- tra weight to some of them. Michael Mahoney: “because he is what I’d call a mainstay”. Noel Walsh: “he’d come all the way from Limerick for club meetings and never miss one”. Pete Cleary: “he came from America to train underage teams”. Joe Cullen: ere tors Oe bt-D (elo eae
“When you live in a small parish, the GAA is the focal point of the community. When I was growing up the only place to go was the football field — everyone went there. It was the centre of the parish and you were brought up with that. You went there
after school, you went there at the weekends. There was always a ball, whether you were in national school or secondary school.
“You’d always watch the seniors training. They were the team of the club, the club was built around the senior team. Your year was judged on the performance of the senior team. That’s why 1985 and ’90 are remembered — because we won the championship in those years.”
The closest Miltown have come to a championship in the intervening 18 years — save a final appearance in Doonbeg and against Doonbeg in “91 — was seeing the Tulla Pipe Band parade the Lissycasey and Doonbeg footballers (1998) and the Sixmileb- ridge and St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield hurlers (1999) around their field.
At least there are some links be- tween those days and now. ‘Team trainer Michael Murray was Mil- town’s photographer on those county final days, chronicling Hennessy Memorial Park’s second coming as final venue.
Then there’s Michael McDonagh link to those times.
Those county finals, not to mind a string of National League games
in both codes wouldn’t have been played in Miltown, but for his input, not to mind the contribution made by those 100,000 or so worms that came all the way from Holland.
“Those worms,” he says, “did a great job, being a vital part of the Prunty pitch we put down. How good the project was can be gauged in the fact that a lot of clubs have followed our lead with the pitch.
“We went after those big games and we went after them hard. It was great to bring hurling back to west Clare. Before that we didn’t own our field and wanted to purchase it. John Reidy was the main driver, Michael Mahoney was another. We had great help from the community and from the Hynes family who sold us the ntatee
“Now if you went up there any night, you could have anything up to 40 or 50 young lads up there kick- ing ball. It’s great. It’s what it’s all about.”
Loves being there himself and do- ing laps of the field. Who knows, if the lads out on the field have as much passion for it, they might walk be- hind the band yet.