There is almost a sense foreboding about beginning work on what you will read hereafter. From the perspective of, is it actually going to happen this time? Such are the amount of false dawns which have been ignited and then extinguished with regard to the re-development of Meath’s home. Our home. That which has been nigh on a second home for 36 of the 45 years yours truly has been rolling round this big auld ball on some set of wheels or other.
That said, seemingly angst pertaining to the old field is nothing new. As evidenced by the wonderful book produced by the great Mick O’Brien of Walterstown – The Struggle For Pairc Tailteann which, as far as can recalled from a brief flick-through in the waiting room of Dunboyne Herbs many moons ago, related to the first round of upgrading which took place in the Pairc circa 1988.
Back then, the Royal County elected to play their home National League matches in Pairc Colmcille in Kells. Admittedly, that was never going to be an option this time around, but it’s a pity other options weren’t explored before jumping straight for Croker as ‘home’.
But it is what it is. Seemingly Thunderbirds really are go on Pairc Tailteann 3.0, it’s easier to believe so when seeing Government Ministers Helen McEntee and Thomas Byrne and former Co Board Chairman Barney Allen and the Godfather of all Meath supporters, Jacksie Kiernan share their memories of the old place just before unto dust it returns again.
So I may as well do the same. To begin here, at my own expense, it will be admitted that an awful belt to the solar plexus on the occasion of my first visit to what we often refer to as PT.
It was the occasion of Dunboyne contesting the Meath IFC Final of 1990 against Dunderry.
Now, as if Dunboyne getting beat wasn’t a bad enough debut in the county grounds, before there was a ball kicked at all, one was left crestfallen by one’s stupidity.
Not a notion was had as to just how big a deal county final day was and is. So there was I, delighted with myself, arriving to Pairc Tailteann with my homemade flag – comprised of a portion of black silage plastic and two yellow fertiliser bags. Both courtesy of our neighbour – agriculturally speaking – and lifelong friend Pat Clarke.
You can imagine my horror, then, to arrive to Meath GAA HQ and festooned with hawkers giving “Hats, flags or headbands” every bit as much gusto as would their counterparts along Jones’s Road on (what used to be) summer Sundays or the beloved street traders in around Moore Street and the Fish Market.
My second outing in situ thence wasn’t exactly a box of Roses either. November 9th, 1991. As Dunboyne Boys National School – as it was titled then – sought to, and eventually did, win the Meath Primary Schools Div. 1 Championship. However, that was only half the story for me on the day. Now read on…
At various stages during my formative years of being on the GAA circuit, the point was made, only partly in gest, that so protective was former Co Board Chairman Fintan Ginnitty (RIP), that one often wondered did he consider it his own. Inclinations not quenched by the fact that the late Drumbarragh Emmets and Gaeil Colmcille clubman seemed to have in his possession at all times a bunch of keys commensurate to that in size of those manhandled by another dear, departed friend who held a very senior staff position in Mountjoy Prison!
Fintan clearly had them fairly well hidden the day of the schools finals because Tom Dermody, bus driver Joe Dalligan and the late Peter Clarke, then Principal of the school, helped ma to get me out the side gate from the Navan O’Mahonys club rooms, down the grassy bank and eventually onto the sideline.
I’ve no recollection of how the return journey was accomplished, but, what is as clear as day is that my hat-trick appearance in our home ground also ended in disaster. Coming as it did, in our first championship outing since the unforgettable summer of heroics and heartache of 1991.
Our first championship outing turned out tonour only one of that summer, one which also summoned the end of the core of that magnificent Meath team which held Gaelic football in the palm of their collective hand from 1986 to 1991. A team that would definitely have won three Sam Maguires in a row were they not blatantly rode by the scandalous allowing a goal by Kieran Duff to stand, even though the bristly Dub executed a push on Terry Ferguson that Stevie Wonder would’ve spotted.
It was probably apt though that my Pairc Tailteann hex was broken when Dunboyne did eventually win the county IFC in 1992.
Since then, some of yhe most treasured days of my four and a half decade existence have come via my beloved black and amber on the old field.
Yes, obviously the three Keegan Cup triumphs stand out, but, there are other occasions which will perhaps strike every bit as much a chord or more so than any of the aforementioned.
Namely, our U-14 FC win of 1996, comprised of the lads my own age group, the U16 FC trilogy against O’Mahonys in 2000, our Minor football win of 2014 and completing the double at the same grade nine years thereafter.
Of course there were tough days, way too many to recount, but, the good days among our own in the Meath GAA equivalent of Carnegie Hall are worth more than any words could ever say.
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