Ulster champs go into overdrive
He had just bought it, and the contract had a long time to run. He was in trouble. A call to the provider was made more in hope than expectation.
“I got a very helpful person who just happened to be from Mayo on the other end,” he said. “I told him the situation and explained who I was and he knew what I was on about, so he sorted me out with a new phone and I have that since.”
It’s been well tested in the weeks following the surprise win over Dublin. While the players and backroom team must focus solely on the match, for the county boards preparing for an All-Ireland final, there’s much more than that to consider. Tickets, banquets, clubs, hotels and finances hold court ahead of the prospective midfield battles. Unlike Kerry though, this is all relatively new to Donegal. Sunday will be just their third senior final appearance and first at the minor grade.
“Yesterday was the busiest day,” he said from his RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta studio in Gaoth Dobhair, or the day job to the rest of us.
“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes that nobody knows about. You’re liaising with team managers, players, former players, the executive, past executives.
“There are a lot of queries on the banquet at the minute. If we hadn’t got a limit of 2,000 people, we could sell 6,000 tickets without a a doubt. The big issue for us was determining the capacity. With two teams (senior and minor), they will take a huge chunk of tickets, we had to go with capacity and decided on CityWest.”
His role means he has become the point of contact for so much in the county’s build-up to the game.
“I suppose so but we share the work. I have a very good working relationship with the chairman and treasurer. The chairman works full-time in Donegal County Council and the treasurer runs his own business. We communicate by phone, text and email on a very regular basis. The same with the PRO.
“You’re communicating with them maybe 15 times a day from 6am to 11pm. Then you’re keeping the other executive members in the loop, because if something comes up, you’ll have to call a meeting at short notice or maybe have a conference call.
“The big problem with Donegal is that it’s huge. We have officers in the far north in Innishowen and the far south in Ballyshannon. There’d be nearly two hours between them. I’m based in Gaoith Dobhair and it takes me over an hour to get to Ballybofey for meetings, so you’ve lost that time going there. It’s a problem most other counties don’t have. It’s also a huge problem for players, because when you’re trying to organise a training session in the middle of winter, you’re trying to organise a central location. You’re going back to the same pitches to see if they’re available. It’s a huge issue and it’s a cost factor as well.”
Days like August 31 in Croke Park make up for it, though. Aodh Mairtín credits Noreen Doherty, the board’s full-time administrator, for keeping the county going. He’s finishing his five-year term in December and were it not for her help, he wouldn’t have been able to do it.
“I’ll not disagree with him,” she laughed when it was put to her.
Noreen is a pioneer in the GAA. In 1992, she became the first female county secretary in the country.
“I came through my club Sean McCumhaills, and became secretary there in 1980,” she said.
“I attended county board meetings and I was the only female in the room. I’ll never forget that. It was so new to have females involved at club level. I became assistant county secretary in 1986 and again it was very unique to have a female on a county board. I became secretary in 1992, the first female secretary in Ireland. There were no females at all. Now they wouldn’t even pass a remark.”
Still, 20 years later, to have a female involved so deeply in a county board is rare? “There’s one or two out there. You might have had a treasurer or on the executive but rarely in a central role. I’d like to see more but it’s so time-consuming and you could understand it doesn’t suit every female.”
She’s been helping Aodh Mairtín with the day-to-day running these last few weeks. The night before, he had been filling out player injury insurance documents and handling transfers for clubs. The week before there was the suit fittings for the county teams and meeting with O’Neills to sort out kit for the day of the game. It begs the question: are you enjoying it?
“It’s more enjoyable now than it was in 2012 because, to be honest, it was like I was hit by a double decker bus in 2012,” said Aodh Mairtín.
“Once that final whistle went in Croke Park in the semi-final, the pandemonium started. We were waiting 20 years to get there. The banquet wasn’t a huge issue in 2012, it was the match-day tickets. It’s kind of reversed this year. There’s more emphasis on the banquet than the match-day tickets. In 2012, we didn’t know what allocation we were going to get until a week after the semi-final and we couldn’t get any assurances to our clubs. That put a lot of pressure on us for a week.
“This time we had a criteria put in place passed by the county committee that we were going to base the allocation on the adult membership. Our adult membership is 11,189 and we have an allocation of 16,000. That means every adult member should get at least one ticket. So the clubs are at ease and it took a huge amount of pressure off us compared to 2012.”
It didn’t make the first few days after the Dublin win any easier though.
Noreen recalled: “Everyone seemed to panic and you thought ‘we can’t go through three weeks of this’. But it has died down a wee bit. We’re dealing with people who are voluntary and you have to deal with the officers and be conscious of that. They’re under real pressure because they have X amount of tickets to deal within their club.
“It’s a great way to be though. Walking down the street, all the talk is football and tickets. It’s funny because everyone is known in their own town but every time I go outside, it’s just football, football, football and tickets.
“Most of the week spent answering phones and backing up other things. Working is not the plan leading up to the weekend. Hopefully I can get finished on Friday here.”
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