At the outset here I will admit to feeling wholly unqualified to be writing the following but, for a person and families of such status and repute in our locality and community, I feel compelled to record her passing…
It was with profound sadness that I this morning learned of the passing of Anne Moran. A member of the famous Watters family, who, collectively, have made an incalculable contribution to our community – as indeed have the Moran family – what a legacy, both family and sporting, she has bequeathed.
Again, I will admit to feeling wholly inadequate to pay tribute to Anne, but, what is known is that she and her sisters were the fulcrum of a Dunboyne camogie team which dominated the sport in Meath for the better part of two decades.
Then, once her playing days ended, she turned her competitive spirit and skill to bring on the next generation – helping out with the management and coaching teams. Whether her own kids, David, Tricia, Sean and Stephen – were involved thereon or not.
The love of the small ball code in particular flows through the veins of both sides of the family. As does natural ability and skill with the ash stick and accompanying spherical bit of leather. In fact, my late father reckoned Anne was as good a hurler – male or female – as he ever saw.
So, with passion for and inate skill at Gaelic games imbued from both side of the family, it would scarcely be a shock that David, Tricia, Sean and Stephen were all skilled players who contributed handsomely to some of our club’s most memorable successes.
More than that though, like their mam, when her offspring had hung their boots up in a playing sense, they all went into imparting their knowledge to hurling, football and camogie. At the time of typing, Stephen is a selector with our senior footballers, Tricia is involved in the coaching of underage teams in Kilcock and her daughter Louise was recently selected for one of the Kildare underage camogie teams.
Furthermore, I would be amazed if Seanie is not with some of our hurling or camogie teams. The apples definitely didn’t fall far from the tree in this case. In fact, with the latter named of her children the old dictum applies in more ways than one.
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When she stepped back from her involvement in GAA circles, one thing you knew was that something was going to have to fill the void. And so, the golf clubs took over from the hurl. Again, not just happy to be doing it, she had to be the best at whatever she took on. Lord help anyone that derailed those ambitions!
Once more, the golf too became a family affair – long before Mary J. Blige made a song and dance about it. That meant herself and her sister Kathleen – a classy operator with a caman in her own right – teaming up for pairs competitions. Usually with devastating consequences for everybody else in the field!
More than that, John, her husband, and their family, have all made their mark in the tee-to-green action. To the extent that a highly experienced and skilled practitioner thereof once observed to yours truly “If Sean hung up the hurl and concentrated on the golf he could play professionally”. Good luck with that discussion around the dinner table!
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It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, well, whatever about that, it takes families to make a club. Few, if any, have made more telling contributions to the life and times of St Peter’s GAA Club than the various different branches and extensions of the Watters and Moran families. Whether that be playing for managing teams, catering for same by way of making mountains of sandwiches or buns/cakes or raising funds for teams or the club in general.
In fact, fundraising tends to be off the scale when the two mighty clans are involved. From selling All Ireland scorecast cards or sponsored cycles or cake sales or producing immaculate flower displays or indeed decorating for and helping out at club functions, Anne and her family have always been to the forefront of it all.
No doubt her proud family will carry on the treasured traditions, but, for me at least, the feeling that an era has ended is inescapable. To John, David, Tricia, Seanie and Stephen, her sisters Marion, Brigid and Kathleen, brothers John, Jim and Tom and the enormous extended family, my deepest sympathy and that of our family. May you rest in peace Anne, the camogie field and golf course above are yours to grace.
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