Tony Golden had a passion for hurling that never waned

As a young garda on his first assignment stationed in Cabinteely in south Dublin, Tony Golden had all the attractions of big city night life and entertainment on his doorstep, but nothing could beat for him the thrill of the hurling pitch in his native Ballina.

Tommy Lyons, who was manager of Ballina Stephenites when they won the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championships in 2005 with Tony’s brother, Kenneth at corner back, remembers Tony as a talented hurler, driven as much by passion as skill. “He used to work the night shift in Dublin the night before and arrive home in the morning time to play hurling for the club. That was his commitment to the club.”

With marriage and children, he’d given up the cross-country commutes for the weekend training sessions but his love of the GAA never waned. “He’d have had the young fellow playing before long, I’m sure of it,” said Tommy of Tony’s toddler son, Andrew. “His love was of the red and green of Ballina and Mayo.”

His love of club fostered love of community and vice versa and both were nurtured growing up in the Golden family in Faranoo on the outskirts of Ballina where his father, David, farmed and drove a taxi, and his mother, Breege, was kept more than busy rearing Tony, his four brothers, David, Kenneth, Patrick, and Seán, and their little sister Mary. “They’d have been very much heart of the community, the Golden family,” Tommy said.

Crowds line the streets of Blackrock to watch the funeral on a large screen. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

“Seán also played for the club. The GAA is the grassroots of any community. They’re interlinked totally.”

There is another link in the chain that bonds a community and it was evident in Tommy’s decision to make the trip to Tony’s funeral along with former club chairman, Padraic Prendergast, and 23 more from the club.

Tommy and Padraic are guards, both retired three years from the force, but as they said, retirement doesn’t mean you leave it. “They call it a big family, the guards, and you might meet somebody and he might be in uniform and you’re out of uniform but you’d say, I’m a guard myself, and that would be an instant connection. “I’m a guard myself. That’s a natural shorthand. It means you know, you know what the job is, what life is like.” When one member of that family is hurt, they all feel it. “It’s very hard when something like this happens because it could be any of us,” said Padraic.

That sense of solidarity brought the club to the door of Tony Golden’s home yesterday to form a guard of honour in their red and green jerseys for his coffin as it left his estate and onto the main road. “It’s the least we could do,” said Tommy. “He travelled across the country often enough for us.”