Ryan O'Donoghue on putting his beloved Belmullet on the GAA map as he returns to club action
ON TOP: PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month for July Ryan O'Donoghue of Mayo, with his award at Eyre Square in Galway. Picture: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Obviously, Ryan O’Donoghue has to recuse himself, but Belmullet was the highlight of last week’s homecoming for most of the Mayo group.
Ask Andy Moran, ask Paddy Tally, ask the other players. After O’Donoghue and club-mate Seamus Howard crossed the Bellacorrick Bridge on the Wednesday and entered Erris via the hamlets of Glencastle and Tallagh, the euphoria of the team’s achievement erupted.
In Texas, the state capital’s slogan is 'Keep Austin Weird'. Belmullet retains the right to be wild in spirit as it is in nature.
“I think it is a bit different out in Belmullet,” says O’Donoghue, the PwC footballer of the month for July. “Like, it's harder, it's a lot longer for me to travel anywhere I go. We probably don't have the resources. We more than likely have probably the worst weather in the country. All these things add up.
“And they know how mad us people from Belmullet are. I don't know why they probably thought it was (the highlight). Maybe you could feel the emotion and the relief that came from the people of Belmullet.
“It was something I'll never, ever forget. Even the pride. Like, I shed a lot of tears coming in that road because I fully believed, when I was going to the bus in MacHale Park on Friday I was like, ‘The next time we're coming in this road, me and Seamus are going to be in the front of the bus with Sam.’
"And I was so proud of ourselves and what we'd done. That was literally a dream come true.”
Erris was, is and will be home for O’Donoghue and his fiancée Courtney as they build a new home. “The planning permission I think went in on Monday morning, which was good timing,” he smiles.
The sense of belonging made him change careers. “I did accounting and finance in UL, I went working as an accountant for a while, but I wanted to get back and give to the kids and give back to the people of Belmullet. I went back and done teaching.
“Obviously, it helped with the inter-county career as a lot of us are teachers, but I'm back in my home school where we won three All-Irelands – two Gaelic and one soccer. Look, I love Belmullet, it has one of the best golf courses in the world (Carne), I'm seven minutes' drive from that, which helps.”
Long before captain Jack Coyne told Mayo people to stick their chests out, O’Donoghue was doing it for Erris. “Like, I remember when I was up playing for the Irish schoolboys’ soccer team, and we were on a training camp in Dublin and you introduced yourself and I said, 'My name is Ryan O'Donoghue, I'm from Belmullet'.
"And a few boys went laughing and said, ‘Where's that?’ And that stuck with me for a long, long, long time. And I think after last Sunday, a lot of people know where Belmullet is.”
O’Donoghue has never forgotten where he’s come from but he admits his younger inside forwards Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald reminded him of the simple joys of playing football.
Last week, McDonald spoke of feeding the crowd and them returning the favour as they did against Kerry. After seeing how supporters reacted to their score celebrations during the All-Ireland Round 1 win over Monaghan in Clones, the trio agreed to keep doing it. Manager Andy Moran backed them to the hilt.
“And even my turnover on Dylan Casey in the 26th minute, Darragh is giving it socks to the hill with the fist-pumps. And the two bucks have just been celebrating everything. But we've been playing well and it has never distracted us from our job of getting out to the press.
“Like, if that was the case, Andy or Aido (O’Shea) or Coyner might have said to us, 'You lads, you can't be doing that.' Maybe half-time in the Monaghan game, they roared us in when we performed pretty well in the first half.
Read More
"So ever since that, the three of us have said, ‘Let's have a bit of craic here. Any time we do something well, why not just give it to them, see what they give back?’ And all of a sudden, then every time we've done it, after something good, they gave it back and then the whole team fed off it.”
Next on the menu for O’Donoghue are Knockmore in the opening round of the county senior championship on Friday evening – “I don’t think any of them are on the beer,” laughs the 28-year-old.
It’s not so much back to reality when reality is heaven. “It was just the stuff of your wildest dreams. I don't think anyone could have ever imagined what actually happened.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
