It is said that a prophet is never recognised in his own land. GAA folk though are renowned for honouring their own. Long-time Ramor stalwart Fred Duffy was duly afforded the thanks of his club colleagues late last year. Sometimes one wonders if even the best wordsmiths could adequately put into verse or essay the quintessential appeal of the GAA. Countless people have been asked countless times to spell out just exactly what - in the vernacular - they have 'gotten' out of their involvement with the GAA. Without exception, these self-same people have found the question as difficult as a Gay Byrne poser for a million! Fred Duffy is as eloquent as the next person yet he too appears stumped when asked to quantify the return on the investment of the time and energy he has committed over the years to the GAA. Sure he has made a lot of friends through his involvement in the Association down the decades and, similarly, he enjoyed every moment of his playing career and his time in administration since. However, one suspects that even had his involvement with Gaelic games been arduous and devilishly laboursome, our man Duffy would still have considered it a labour of love and his relationship with the country's biggest sporting organisation a marriage made in Heaven. Fred's relationship with the GAA - like all relationships - had its ups and downs but it was always nothing less than solid. That relationship was cemented by numerous victories and defeats on the playing fields of Cavan and countless committee meetings held under the auspices of, first, Virginia Blues, and latterly Ramor United GFC. Late last year, Fred's long association with Gaelic football in Virginia was recognised by his club colleagues at Ramor United by means of a presentation to mark his 50 years administrative service. "I was thrilled and very honoured to receive the presentation - it was a lovely gesture," Fred explains. To those gaels in the Ramor catchment area au fait with the lifetime's service afforded Gaelic football by Fred, the presentation was only right and proper. The presentation of a fine Cavan Crystal ornament and a photographic history of Fred's time within the GAA family were the least Fred deserved considering his dedication to the cause of Gaelic games. Fred has been a mainstay of the Gaelic game in Virginia for over half a century. As a player of some standing and then, after he hung up his boots, as an administrator, the former publican has served the GAA mightily well down the years. The GAA stalwart says he has enjoyed every moment of his time with the GAA and he has no regrets. If he has any major unhappy memories, then he's keeping mum in that regard. Either way, it's the happy memories that last longest and, in this respect, Fred has a good few in his locker. For instance, his time with the former powerhouse Virginia Blues club afforded him the opportunity to put some silverware on his mantle piece at his residence on Main Street. In 1958, Fred took his place on the half-forward line as the Blues swept all before them to land the blue riband junior football title. Alongside the notable talents of such household names as Hugh Barney Donoghue, Eamon Matthews and Tommy Galligan, the greyhound-like Duffy had a tremendous innings with the Blues. The title win in '58 was special for Fred and all concerned with the emerging Blues. It was wholly significant, representing the first championship title to come Virginia's way since the not so insignificant year of 1916. The Blues' achievement in 1958 marked a sweet upturn in Fred's own personal fortunes. Some years earlier he had been advised to quit football after contracting pleurisy. "I was only in my teens when I got pleurisy and the football went out the window when that happened. It was a bit of a blow. "I remember being told by the doctors to give up football for at least two years and that was hard to do because I was so keen on it and I thought I had a good chance of making the county minor team too," recalls Fred whose daughter Rachel inherited his love of Gaelic football. A degree holder of leisure and sport Rachel had the distinction of captaining England on last year's football world championship. She also played for Cavan ladies in the recent past. Things worked out pretty well for young Duffy though. The reformation of the Blues in the mid-fifties came as a tremendous filip to football in the Virginia area and to Fred personally. Indeed, it was generally recognised at the time that the Blues' potency was also timely for Cavan football as it injected an even greater degree of interest and vibrancy into a football scene which was already buzzing with the likes of Lavey, Mullahoran, Bailieboro and Cootehill very much to the fore. After his enforced absence from the game he loved, Fred's return to the fold saw him play with an enthusiasm and a delight becoming of a youngster who was denied his cultural inheritance for two long years. So what did he make of the club's relatively instantaneous success? "Terrific, they were great times. In a lot of ways, the Blues' win in '58 was unexpected because the club had only been reformed a couple of years before that. Most people would have said that we were ahead of our time, ahead of schedule in getting to the final in '58, "As well as that, Ballinagh, who we beat in the final, were the hot favourites to win the title that year. Very few people around the county expected us to beat them." It continued to get better and better for Fred and co. thereafter too as the senior championship title was collected in '59 at the expense of a star-spangled, Noel Reilly-powered young Crosserlough side which was gathering its forces together for the upcoming seven-in-a-row onslaught on the record books. Other than the likes of Cootehill and Lavey, very few teams at that juncture had managed to put back-to-back blue riband junior and senior title wins together so the Blues' achievement was noteworthy in the extreme. "The Blues had some great talent, on and off the field, back then with as many fine fellas on the committee as there were on the pitch. "People like Paddy O'Brien, Mattie McNamee, Phil Costello and my own brother Myles were great men to have on the committee. "There were great people on the team too. Eamon Matthews was a terrific player for us back then. He was very nearly always man of the match for us in the championship games and he could always mix it with the best of them. "We had good footballers from Munterconnacht and Maghera playing with us too until they got their own teams together. Fellas like Seamus McMahon were invaluable and I don't think we'd have won the titles we did without the help of those so-called outsiders," adds Fred who also doubled up as a committee member with the Blues while still a player. Overall though the competition among the top teams was fierce at that time and fairly reflected the array of talent which Cavan could boast at that time, Fred tell us. And, as we've heard so often in the intervening years, the football was of the no-holes-barred type too. "There was no place for cowards on a field, no way. The football was tough but it wasn't dirty, just manly and honest. If a fella was hit he may have went down but he didn't roll around the place trying to con the ref or get a man sent off. He got up fairly quickly and fought twice as hard after that." And any injuries worth talking about? "I was lucky with injuries. There were a lot of hard men around but I was fast and young and fortunately avoided any serious injuries. "At that time, you played on even though you might have been hurt in a challenge. And there were no such things as hamstring injuries. In fact, the first time I heard about a hamstring, I thought someone was talking about their work in McCarrons meat factory!" The Blues suffered a major disappointment when losing out to Castlerahan in the 1960 senior final but enjoyed a purple patch again 1962 when they won the senior championship for the second time. "That was a brilliant panel of players, Fred opines. The '62 squad - which had won the senior league the year before - was the best group of players I was ever involved with as a player," Fred opines. Reckoning his time on the football field to be "the best time of my life", Fred played on 'till the Blues won the intermediate championship title in 1967. In the years since, he has been an ever-present on the Ramor United committee since the club came into existence in the early seventies and served for many years as club treasurer. He is currently assistant treasurer and along with the other 150-plus members of the club looks forward to seeing United reclaim pole position in the county. Tweet

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