The GAA is a unique organisation. It is an unparalleled amateur sporting organisation that is played, and run, at a professional standard. It is arguably the most professional sporting organisation in the country, even though it operates on an amateur playing basis. The effort put in by volunteer coaches at the grassroots level of a GAA club is most admirable. There is a certain unique spirit the GAA possesses, and Eamon Dunning embodies this characteristic.
The Roscommon native is a well travelled man who has adopted St Brigids GAA club as his club. He is quick to point out that his roots are in Clonown, Roscommon, and that his local team Clann na nGael will be in his heart forever. Where ever Eamon has travelled, his love of the GAA has followed.
He recalls a tale from his youth: “we’d go to 10 o’clock mass and then we’d meet our neighbours and we’d spend all day kicking a ball in a field. We had to make the football out of paper and tie twine around it. We wouldn’t go home for dinner even. It was the same in school; we’d make a football and spend all day kicking it around. We all lived for football.”
The GAA has been omnipresent in the life of Eamon Dunning. In 1965, Eamon emigrated to Manchester and he linked up with St Brendans GAA club during his time in England. It was his time playing Gaelic football in Manchester that developed his character both on and off the pitch.
“Football in Manchester was filthy; it was absolutely filthy. You’d want to be insured to play, but having said that, when the game was over you’d go and have a few drinks with the lads and there was no bitterness. At the time you could be working with the same guys on the building sites and although they’d be playing for another club, they’d still be your friends. It was most enjoyable,” says Eamon.
The handful of clubs based in Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham who all played in a Lancashire league were solely made up of ex-pats. The English never integrated. It is clear there was a strong commitment to the GAA from the Irish in the sports-mad city of Manchester. “We used to train every Thursday and you’d have to get two or three buses out to train, it was tough going,” a nostalgic Eamon recalls.
In 1971 Eamon returned home to Ireland and settled in Blanchardstown, Dublin. The local club was St Brigids. He joined St Brigids in 1975 and nearly 40 years later he is still seen around the club on a weekly basis. Eamon began his career with St Brigids by chance when he stopped to watch a local GAA match.
It’s clear that Eamon’s devotion to the club began from the outset as he says: “at the time, they only had one intermediate team. A year later myself and a friend of mine, Jim Powell, started a second team. It all really started from there. An under 21 team was created and a junior team then followed.”
In the early 80s, St Brigids created a juvenile committee which had a separate chairman, secretary, and treasurer. Eamon believes this is the “best thing that the club have ever done.” The club linked up with local primary schools in Blanchardstown, Castleknock, Corduff, and Clonsilla. These teams started an under 10 league of their own, refusing to enter into the Fingal league.
“They used to be fierce matches at under 10. It was a great idea to have them play locally before entering the Fingal league at under 11. Jason Ward was a product of this system before playing Senior in 1991,” according to Eamon.
Jason Ward, although a proud St Brigids man, played inter-county football for Leitrim. He was the first player to avail of the parent rule and he was part of the Leitrim side who famously won the 1994 Connacht Championship.
Eamon was the manager of one of the teams from Clonsilla. He rejoices: “we won the league in ’84 and we won it well. We had three girls on the team that beat Blanchardstown, who had all boys in their squad, in the final. It was a great day.”
Eamon gave up playing at the age of 35 and he’s been coaching teams ever since. Eamon loved the early stages of his coaching career, stating: “St Brigids started a camogie team in the 70s and I coached it. We won a good few leagues and championships, I even brought them up to Senior B level.”
“Then I started coaching minor hurling. We won the minor hurling division 3 about five years ago. I love coaching the juvenile teams because if you take an under 9 or under 10 team, they don’t even know how to pick up a ball. The following year they can do that. The following year they can hit a ball. You see promotion all of the time. They’re learning all the time and it’s the thrill of a lifetime to see them play minor hurling.”
Eamon explains the key to the success of his minor winning side: “when we won the minor championship, we had Paul Winters (current Dublin senior inter-country hurler) on that team. He was only 15 but he was a different class. To see all of them progress, all of the time, is an absolute pleasure to watch.”
Eamon is still coaching in St Brigids: “I’m coaching a Junior division 6 side at the moment. I’m coaching 30 years and I keep saying I’ll leave it because I want to watch the Seniors play and when you’re coaching a team you just don’t have the time to do that. But I love it. I might go back down to coaching juveniles again. I’ve grandchildren coming along and the ultimate goal would be to see them playing inter-county football.”
“All of my grandchildren are involved with St Brigids. The GAA is my life. I would not be as fit as I am today only for the GAA. I’d go home and sit down and do nothing if it wasn’t for the GAA. But I’m out there with a football with the kids. I’m always training down in the club and it is terrific the people you’d meet.”
The GAA thrives on its community based ethos which is evident as Eamon says: “I’ve met Sean Og O’hAilpin in my house. James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick was up training my minor team. Brendan Murphy of Offaly and Damien Hayes of Galway were up speaking to the team. I know all the Cork footballers. Paudie Kissane is a great friend of mine. It’s the people that you meet which is unreal. They’re all friends of mine. I was at a wedding two months ago and I had a great chat with Mick O’Dwyer.”
Eamon has gained many things from St Brigids such as “hardship and many friends.” He speaks of the welcoming nature of St Brigids: “every friend I have has some association with the club. They all call me ‘Silver’. They wouldn’t know me by my real name at this stage.”
The friendship and family ties are interlinked for Eamon as he speaks about his wife: “my wife is a Cork woman and she too was heavily involved with St Brigids. Coming back from Cork and anytime there was a football or hurling match on, we’d have to stop and look at it. That’s the one thing I have to say about the woman I married; she embodies sport. She was out seven nights a week. When I was playing she’d have three of the children with her – two in the pram and one holding her hand – and she’d push them across the field walking to watch us. And that’s the family spirit that the GAA is all about.”
Indeed there is something very special about the GAA. For those who are involved, no explanation is necessary; for those who aren’t no explanation is possible. Eamon told me of a story which he feels represents what the GAA means to him. “I had a cousin over from Australia two years ago for the Dublin v Mayo match. There were two lads gunning for each other in the Hogan Stand. But as soon as the final whistle went, they were walking up the aisle talking to each other. We went to the pub afterwards and there they were drinking together. My cousin just couldn’t physically believe it. He was afraid more lads would come into the pub and it would be uneasy.”
“The GAA breeds a unique type of person. You go into Meaghers, The Big Tree, Hedigans, or any pub around Croke Park and they are all drinking together. It’s hard to explain to an outsider.” On a more local level, Eamon has his priorities set for his beloved St Brigids. “My hope for St Brigids is for them to reach a county final. To beat St Vincents would be ideal. I’d hope for that because that’s why you play the game, you must want to reach that level.”
“One thing St Brigids has had all my lifetime is a great chairman to bring them forward. And each time they take the club one step further.” Eamon is in high praise of the work done by current chairman Billy Quane.
Eamon reiterates his heritage by saying: “I don’t shout for Dublin, I support their efforts, but I’m a Roscommon man and that’s the only team I truly support.” Having said that, Eamon goes on to praise his adopted Dublin club saying that: “St Brigids help out greatly in the parish; it brings people together. It’s brilliant. I think the GAA really is so special. I’d have nothing wrong said about the GAA. You could kick lumps out of each other on the pitch and you’d still be the best of friends in the dressing room.”
The GAA plays a pivotal role in many rural towns across the country. Eamon agrees that the organisation is “all powerful”. “I think that the GAA is something very special. If I was driving along and I saw a soccer match, I wouldn’t bother with it. But if I was driving along and I saw two ducks playing Gaelic Football, I’d have to stop and watch them.”
Eamon Dunning is the GAA. His journey from Clann na nGael of Roscommon to St Brigids of Dublin, via St Brendans of Manchester, is a route illuminated by the eternal flame the GAA shines upon Ireland. It’s very easy to follow a GAA club; it’s much more difficult to support one.
When players such as Shane Supple, Paddy Andrews, Sean Murray and the now retired Barry Cahill don the blue and navy of Dublin, it is because people like Eamon Dunning are tirelessly putting in the effort of training the stars of the future in St Brigids. Without people like Eamon, St Brigids wouldn’t survive. He, like many others, is the life and soul of the club. St Brigids relies upon volunteers such as Eamon to be the lifeline of the club. And there is a certain soothing comfort in knowing that there are still many years of devotion still to come from Eamon 'Silver' Dunning.
S.DAWSON 07/04/14
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