Co bhron a chroi orm nuair a fuair me an nuacht ar bas an tUasal Liam O’Neill, iar Uachtaran Cumann Luthcleas Gael i rith na seachtaine.
It was with very deep sadness I learned of the passing of former GAA President Mr Liam O’Neill during the past week. He was 70 and his death came after a short illness.
Liam O’Neill was a proud and passionate Laois man, and one of the most forward thinking GAA officials I ever had the pleasure of encountering and befriending.
It must be said his fellow county man and former Leinster Council Secretary Michael Delaney is worthy of commensurate commendation. However, as somebody living with a disability, it can not be said often enough how much so-called simple things can make huge differences.
Which takes me to February 3rd 2001. Meath v. Laois, Leinster U-21 FC first round. The Meath team with which I felt the greatest bond in my entire life. Yes because David Gallagher was captain and Niall Kelly was another vital cog in Paul Kenny’s side. More than that, though, they were the bunch of lads my own age.
Anyway, you can imagine my surprise on arrival at O’Moore Park to discover that the stand – and by extension the disabled viewing platform – were ni more, having been levelled as part of upgrading at the midlands venue. In fact, it was in heaps of rubble all around us!
Now, I would have been happy enough to ‘persuade’ the wheelchair up onto one of the mounds of stone at a bit of a height and would still have had an unimpeded view.
But no, an utter gentleman who I now know was the late Liam, God rest him, insisted on helping my late father get me into the front seat of Volkswagon Jetta, but parked the car ON the sideline – yes really – to make my viewing experience the best it could be in the circumstances.
More than that, though, he was also on hand the minute the final whistle went to not only help da lift me out of the car and back into the wheelchair, he insisted on chaperoning us back to the van which was in a carpark outside the ground a bit down the road.
From that day forth, a very keen interest was maintained in his GAA administration ‘career’. It was always hoped and expected that he would one day rise to the very top of the ladder therein – in other words to become GAA President. Which he duly did in succession to Cork’s Christy Cooney.
Prior to all that, mind you, just two years after our initial meeting when he was my Saturday saviour, he was one of those to the forefront of one of the greatest coups of all time when the O’Moore County managed to snare the services of Mick O’Dwyer after the Waterville wizard had completed his second stint in charge of Kildare.
And, on cue wherever the Peter Pan of team management seemed to sprinkle his magic dust, the blue and white had some had of their greatest days when the oldest swinger in town was patrolling the sideline.
However, it must also be pointed out that immense credit must go to Liam O’Neill and others within the county for having structures and infrastucture in place to allow Sean Dempsey and others to assemble Minor and U-21 sides comprised of some truly smashing footballers.
Like Joe Higgins, Niall Fitzpatrick, Derek Conroy, Colm Parkinson, Martin Delaney, Noel Garvan, Tom Kelly, Ian Fitzgerald, Stephen Kelly, Chris Conway, Danny Doogue and the brilliant but injury blighted Brian ‘Beano’ McDonald. I think I’m right in saying under the stewardship of the man affectionately known as ‘Kang’ (Dempsey) they qualified for three All Ireland MFC finals on the spin. With most of the same players going on to lift what is now the Delaney Cup with Micko in 2003.
From a personal perspective, apart from disabled facilities in Croke Park which have only improved in the very recent past – though beyond recognition it must be said – the other thing that really ticked a box for me during Liam’s stewardship was the fact that he was one of the very few people within the organisation willing to give the Railway Cup – as it should always be known – a chance at salvation.
Indeed at the time of his ascent to the office of GAA President, yours truly keyboarded a piece entitled “Finally somebody with the drive to match (Martin) Donnelly’s vision”. Relating to the fact that Liam had backed the enthusiasm of the joint most generous man in the history of Irish sport for the inter provincial competitions.
Which manifested as the matches being played on Friday and Saturday nights under floodlights for the duration of Liam’s tenure at provincial venues which, although not being able to accommodate the crowds you’d love to see at the contests for the grand old trophy, did at least lend themselves to creating atmosphere at the encounters.
Never more so than on the occasion of the 2006 decider when Leinster – under the direction of some Boylan lad – got the better of Ulster under Parnell Park’s Saturday night lights after a cracking encounter. What’s more, it was a match which, for me, took on even greater significance in its aftermath when Graham Geraghty bestowed upon me the No. 14 jersey in which he had just slotted over a triumvirate of points.
It would be guessed that there might not be many winning Railway Cup jerseys lying around, so it is now one of the most treasured artefacts in what is a fairly extensive memorabilia collection here in Boylan Talks Sport HQ. Even more so now that, shamefully, we might never see the grand old Cup competed for again.
That said, what I didn’t realise until after Liam had passed away most recently was that it was in fact himself who put together the embryonic stages of what we know now as the Football Review Committee. Having said that, knowing how forward thinking he was about most things, it shouldn’t have been that big of a shock to note that the great Laois man could see what was coming down the tracks for the game before the train had even left the station.
Wasn’t there something which now feels poignantly fitting that, when Liam O’Neill’s brainchild was brought to fruition by Jim Gavin’s revolutionary group, they received their trialling in a staging of the Railway Cup on a Friday and Saturday evening in Croke Park.
All any of us can hope to do in life, whether in terms of work, sport or whatever it might be, is to leave things in as good if not better shape than we took them over in. Liam O’Neill achieved that and so very much more besides.
May he rest in eternal peace.
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