Modest duo the wind beneath Gaels’ wings

THIS is the biggest day in the year for GAA clubs, St. Patrick’s Day, All-Ireland club finals, and due respect to the players from the four clubs who have made it this far – regardless of results today, it’s a magnificent achievement.

But what of those behind those clubs, the men and women without whom there would be no club, never mind an All-Ireland title? What of those who first had the foresight to buy the fields, those who followed and developed on that, those who have trained teams from underage to senior, through good times and bad? What of all those?

O’Loughlin Gaels are in the hurling final today, representing Kilkenny and Leinster, but they are not there by accident. True, in the likes of Brian Hogan, Martin Comerford, the Dowling brothers, the Kearns brothers, Maurice Nolan and Mark Bergin et al, they have the hurlers, the stars who, through their exploits thus far, have earned the Gaels this right. But they also have the others, those who got their hands dirty doing all the unglamorous work, those who give back in spades what they themselves had got from the club in their own years of playing. And with O’Loughlin Gaels, as with many other clubs, they are as involved on the field as off.