Business of winning a job this man takes very seriously
Proud and passionate, “militantly Marino” as club member Tom Humphries once put it, they’re clannish too, embodying the cloaking spirit Kevin Heffernan brought to them and Dublin.
Gilroy, a godson of Heffernan, has brought some of that attitude to his position.
In his pomp, Heffernan was never close to other managers and neither is Gilroy now.
While Jack O’Connor may chew the cud regularly with Seamus McEnaney and Kieran McGeeney the same with James McCartan and Justin McNulty, Gilroy is aloof.
His relationship with the media is similar — cordial but nothing more. They’re kept at arm’s length although it never comes as one bit offensive. The leaks that beset the end of Paul Caffrey’s reign haven’t been repeated under Gilroy.
Castlegregory native Michéal Ó Sé played one season with St Vincent’s and was instrumental in that 2007-08 All-Ireland SFC club triumph.
Teaching in Dublin at the time, it was Gilroy who welcomed the Kerry man to the club with open arms.
“Giller was getting older and they were looking for a midfielder. He just sat me into the car and showed me the drive to training. I was nobody but he was a sort of father figure to players.
“He just said, ‘This is the drive, this is the club’. He was very good at looking after fellas. When he said things in the dressing room we listened. He could have the craic as well, though. He wasn’t a pain in the hole.”
Gilroy’s grá for his club is undoubted. Prior to last year’s All-Ireland final, he joked that the only options open to his children were playing football and hurling for Vincents.
Stepping outside the club and into the Dublin hot seat, Gilroy’s guardedness was understandable.
Firstly, he was an unproven manager when he succeeded Caffrey. Secondly, the connections with Heffernan and Dublin royalty suggested it may have been a job for the boy.
As much as he was a self-made man with Dalkia away from the pitch, they were shadows he had to jump out of. He did that and more last year but he had always kept his composure.
While Tommy Lyons sought to use Dublin’s hype to aid his team, Gilroy fought to dim it.
For instance, the All-Ireland final press conference was done more than two weeks before the decider.
As Ó Sé explains, nobody from Dublin knew more about the team’s false dawns than St Vincents themselves.
“When you’re in charge of Cork, Kerry or Dublin you’re two seconds away from a kick in the hole. He would make sure never to lose the run of himself.
“Look at the All-Irelands — ’83 to ’95 to ’11 — Vincents lads like [Mickey] Whelan, [Gay] O’Driscoll and [Tony] Hanahoe would have been well used to success and it fucking killed them to see things go bad.
“Gilroy would have known all about that, how they were built up only to be brought back down.”
Gilroy is known to have a close circle around him. If it’s not the club, it’s his alumni, Trinity College — selector Paddy O’Donoghue was a pal of his there.
Erins Isle’s Ciaran McCarney, who runs his own financial services company in Drumcondra, came on board as media liaison.
A friend and business acquaintance of his having been introduced through Gilroy’s St Vincents club-mate Podge Byrne, he saw how Gilroy brought his acumen in the boardroom to the Dublin position.
“He’s a very rounded guy. He’d have an astute business head and would have key people doing key jobs and ensuring he didn’t have to be on to them every five minutes to see they were doing it right. He’d be a good talent-spotter.”
Ó Sé can understand Gilroy’s need for structure — he had to adapt it to his own life.
“I struggled to find out where he was getting the time as a player. He never talked about work either or said ‘Jesus, I struggled to get away from work’. He went to Trinity but in Vincents it didn’t matter where you went as long as you were Vincents. It’s a small club, really. It’s run by 30 people and if you get the arm around the shoulder you feel part of it.”
Having also worked alongside Kerry manager O’Connor in Coláiste na Sceilge, Ó Sé knows there’s huge respect between him and Gilroy.
“They wouldn’t be ringing each other up and shooting the breeze but there would be mutual respect.”
In Ó Sé’s opinion, he wouldn’t have seen ending Dublin’s 16-year All-Ireland famine last year as a crowning achievement — more an act of duty.
“I remember him saying after winning the All-Ireland [club] that the last thing he wanted was a drink. He said the only time you’d want one would be after losing. He was never a man for hanging out of the rafters.
“He would be ferociously competitive. No more than the next fella, he would do what it takes to win. Vincents would have been known for that. I’m sure he would have plenty of advice coming to him. There’d be a great locker room atmosphere to the club.”
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