The year of living dangerously

WHEN THEY lay down their armour, you’ll find Paul Galvin and Seamus Moynihan in company.

The latter smiles benignly at the spikiness of his fiery compatriot; Galvin is buzzed by the death-white intensity of the now-retired legend.

“I’d look across the dressing room in the minutes before we’d go out, and you’d look for Seamo, the eyes glazed over. He’s already imagining it outside. His face is pale, gaunt. You say to yourself, ‘we’re gonna be alright today.’”

Where Moynihan is ice-cold, Galvin is combustible. But their Kerryness is unequivocal.

In this All-Ireland winning, All-Star season, Galvin was dogged by opponents, heckled from the stands, abused on the streets of Cork and pilloried on live television — but losing the Munster final cut deepest.

“Páirc Uí Chaoimh is unique. Afterwards, you have to wade through the crowd to get to the dressing room. You hear a lot of stuff on the way, but it’s also handy. You can store it and use it later.”

By the time the All-Ireland semi-final rematch with Cork came around, the 27-year-old Cork-based schoolteacher had been sent off against Armagh and told by RTÉ pundits he wasn’t fit to be educating the youth.

His mother felt it better not to travel to Croke Park for the semi.

The small print offers perspective. The water-bottle incident with Armagh’s John Toal was his second sending off in 26 matches — the first being during the experimental yellow card phase in the League. His Críost Rí teaching colleague Mick Evans also felt compelled to ring into a radio show after the Sunday Game assault to vouch for his outstanding teaching qualities.

“A lot of the stuff about me, especially on TV and radio, was loose and irresponsible. Some of the comments completely undermined me in terms of my teaching,” says the Finuge man.

“It compromised me in the classroom, the staff room and in parent-teacher meetings. These guys haven’t a clue what I’m like as a teacher but they were happy to drag something they knew nothing about into the TV arena. I was, basically, slandered. If they want to criticise Paul Galvin the footballer, fine; but don’t criticise my teaching abilities when they know nothing about that. A classroom is a very sensitive environment, you have to have a certain nature about you. I was very close to pursuing that issue through another avenue but it would have only dragged the whole thing back into the public again.”

The rap painted a giant X on his tee-shirt for the world to shoot at — and nowhere did they take aim like in Cork, his home from home.

“I don’t see Cork differently to any other opponent. I’ve been here seven or eight years, I approach playing them the same as if it was Armagh, Dublin or Mayo. Two years ago there was supposed to be a thing with Limerick, this season it was Armagh. It’s just that I live and teach here.”

He’s off to Australia with his Kerry colleagues tomorrow, but he won’t be on the return flight. Galvin’s cooling the jets for three months down under. He won’t admit it, but you sense if he was teaching in Kerry, or anywhere else but Cork, he might be returning to school in January.

“I was friendly with Anthony Lynch in college, and have great time for him,” he stresses when it’s suggested this year’s trouble began in the drawn Munster final in Killarney. Lynch was sent off that day for an unrelated incident, and a few well-planted words later, Galvin was persona non grata on Leeside.

“I pulled out of him a few times (in Killarney). Was it any worse than what a corner back would do to Gooch in a game, or what Anthony would have done himself in his time?

“I seem to get the Cork supporters’ backs up.

“Maybe some counties just have that with a rival player.”

Will it change his approach? Galvin raises his eyebrows.

“I definitely seem to get people’s backs up for some reason. But I don’t care how I’m perceived, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing for another four or five years. And if I get sent off again, then I get sent off. And if I have to throw a water bottle, then I’ll do that too. It’s all about the ball. I’ve never gone out on a field, and said: ‘I’m going to nail him.’”

He admits to a “few nervy moments” after Dave Coldrick (“one of the best referees in the country”) sent him off in the All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Armagh. Of course, he wasn’t right to get involved with (water carrier) John Toal, but he has no regrets.

“Knowing Armagh, that was calculated.

“Toal was there as more than a water carrier. He’d have been an additional weapon to use from the sideline, to gee up his own fellas. It would be like us having Seamo as a water carrier next season. If he got involved in a bit of pushing and shoving, it would fire up our boys.”

Jack O’Connor patted him on the back walking past. Galvin pondered the ramifications of his actions awhile, but Darren O’Sullivan rendered it all meaningless with a third Kerry goal. The momentum regained against Longford in the qualifiers sky-rocketed.

Not that Galvin considers his business concluded with Ulster. “The Tyrone thing? Yeah, it’s still there for me.

“I’d like to beat them. I still say the 2005 Tyrone team was a great team, better than 2003. We thought we were a powerful outfit, but they beat us and deserved to.

“For me, it still hurts.

“The question is still there about Kerry not beating Tyrone, around the country especially. Beating Armagh this year only dealt with Armagh.”

Meeting Cork in the semi-final brought its own issues for the wing-forward.

“With all the flak flying, my parents didn’t go to the Cork game, and that bothered me. I was able to take the shit that was going, but it was hard for them, particularly my mother.”

It’s strange to hear Galvin say “there’s more to life than football” but you can surmise this season has changed his perspective somewhat. Taking a few months out offers a peek of what Seamus Moynihan’s feeling. The sense of belonging that Jack O’Connor speaks about. Rooming with (Aidan O’) Mahony, and the snoring — “he seriously needs to get his nose refixed” — Darragh and Seamo, Gooch and Declan, Tomás and Fitzie.

“Funny, with all that happened, it was my most enjoyable season ever. Mentally, I still feel very hungry for football.”

Earlier this month, his Finuge side — Galvin is carrying them on his back at the moment — lost by a point to Listowel in the North Kerry Championship semi-final. It pained him more than having his nose reset by surgeon Charlie Chinkwin two weeks ago. On the day, he took his inter-county colleague Brendan Guiney for four points, the final act of a rough and tumble year with the Listowel man.

Eight days before the All-Ireland final, Guiney and Galvin “got back to basics” as Seamus Moynihan has it, in a final behind-closed-doors trial game in, of all places, Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Early in the affair, Darragh Ó Sé lobbed a pass into Galvin, but Guiney cemented him. Cue mayhem, with Wexford referee Brian White left shaking his head.

“I wasn’t delighted, but the management weren’t too upset. It was just the pitch they wanted things at I’d say,” says Galvin. “Brian White was roaring at us. I’ve had a few run-ins with Brian before and he must have been thinking, ‘What’s this fella on?’ But that day, I remember thinking we were really going well. Declan (O’Sullivan) was flying, Tommy Griffin nailed down his place that day, Gooch and Donaghy were very good too.”

By All-Ireland week, Kerry were bubbling just below boiling point. It was a long way from the fall-out of the Munster final.

“Coming onto the field against Longford (in the qualifiers), all the players felt the crowd. They were fantastic. I felt something in the air that day. After the booing and jeering of Pairc Ui Chaoimh, it was some turnaround. (But) would we have turned it around without Donaghy? No. It’s that simple. We were lacking direction, and he provided it.”

In three seasons, Paul Galvin has gone from wild-child to double All-Star and he’s still learning. “Winning the All-Ireland and the All-Star in 2004 took that little edge off me. I wasn’t used to it. It’s only 5% but that’s a lot at inter-county level. The key now is to learn from that experience for 2007 and be ready.”

He’ll miss Jack O’Connor, who moulded Galvin and Aidan O’Mahony into the forces they are. But both delivered for O’Connor, too. In September, Kerry looked unstoppable, but the landscape has shifted with the departure of management and players. “Now, people have a different impression altogether,” he says.

Of Galvin too, perhaps.