Down Memory Lane

I was blessed to move to Dunderry in 1986 as that was the start of the Golden decade in Gaelic Games in the GAA  Club.
Tommy MC Cormack my uncle had recently retired as Chairman of the  Club,having thus served for over three decades I reckon.There was never a more fanatic member .In fact he died less than a decade later and his dying wish to be visit the Pitch one last time before being buried was honoured .
I atttended my first AGM shortly after arriving and declined the nomination for Secretary proposed by Gerry Callaghan as I was of the view that one should start on the factory floor ,as it were before looking for the Gaffer's job and boy did I spend many years on said floor before the chance came around again.
At that time we had some of the foremost dual players in the County at underage level and there was no adult hurling team here and the neighbouring hurling clubs were salivating at the prospect of getting their mitts on our boys.
The men and women who had achieved this underage hurling miracle were loath to see these boys dispersed to our hurling neighbours and naturally had a preference to keep them together in our club but were very much aware that there would be stiff resistance within the Club to upsetting the footballing apple cart as it were by entering a hurling team,
So a number of them approached me and requested me to propose such a team as they were somewhat afraid to do so themselves less they be chastised.
At the appropriate stage during the AGM I put the motion to enter a team and it was just carried despite the virulent opposition of most of the top table.To say I was shocked was an understatement.
Anyhow the work went on and there was a fierce buzz around the place.a buzz grounded not only in the high expectations of success on the playing fields because of the undoubted emerging underage talent allied to the acquisition after fierce machinations at Provincial level ,which  enabled Parish residents the Rennicks brothers and Pat Gibbons  transfer here from Trim for whom they had played at Juvenile level and in respect of whom Trim refused transfers, but also because o the excitement of finally acquiring our own Pitch.
Basically it involved the transferees thansferring to another County ,playing with a a club  there and then transferring back to Meath when they could play with whatever Club they chose .
My ex club Saint BRIGIDS of Blanchardstown gave a hand in this process and I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS.
By this route we eventually got these men onto our books and they contributed significantly to our unfolding success.
And Dermot Dempsey also threw in his lot with us and added his considerable maturity to the gosoons on the hurling fields of Meath and added to his considerable haul of county medals .
The Rennick transfers s sparked a rule change in the GAA and the new rule now applicable that you play with your home Parish makes those machinations irreverent today
I played a small part in the drive for the top in that I did my best for the adult hurlers on the field of play at full back for as long as my battered and ageing chassis was able to compete and picked up two Junior medals as a player and one Intermediate one as a sub,being usurped at full back by Plug Levy and more luck to him.
On the football front I turned up for training a number of nights ,fully intent of competing for a place ,but never got further than being mandated to kick the ball in between  back and forwards in competing drills.
It rapidly became clear to me that anyone nearing the three o wasn't wanted  and a guy of my vintage, nearer 40 than 30 was not flavour of the month.
I felt huge sympathy with lifelong and ebullient Dunderry men of the era who were thrown on the scrapheap at the time in order to make way for the emerging youth ,in what I still consider to have been premature retirement.
Anyhow what happened happened and the Club prospered,but in due course.
In 1988 the Pitch was opened to great jubilation and to the profound credit of those who had made such valiant sacrifices in putting it there,.
But not everybody in the Parish fully grasped the full extent of our achievement in the overall scheme of things GAA.
On the way to open the Pitch Tommy and Joe were stopped by a man whose hobby and job were farming exclusively and who had never darkened a football pitch ever nor never would  and on being told here they were off to said"Well that's Croke Park fucked ,I hear that Dunderry is so good that Croker will get no more matches."And he genuinely meant that.
Well the pitch was opened and Meath played Cavan in a challenge to a huge crowd .I remember a guy called Cahill fielded for Cavan and I think he was related to our Phil.
Tommy had a prodigious memory and dictated an article from memory to me about the history of Dunderry GAA which i wrote down and it was published in the programme written for the opening.
He concluded by wishing that the Club would attain Senior status in the near future.
Hid wish came to fruition as we attained Senior status in football in 1990,in Hurling in 1991 and as a bonus in Camogie in 1991 also.
And all this in an era when the MEATH on the national stage GAA SPORTS WISE WAS  VERY STRONG.
 to be continued.