WHEN TOMMY BEATS THE DRUMM FOR DUBLIN A leader of men on the field of play from yesteryear, former super Dub, Tommy Drumm is these days a leader of men in the equally hurly burly world of industry. Where once the hallowed turf of Croke Park was his field of dreams, a score and more years later it's building sites and virgin green field opportunities, which get his adrenaline going. A different hat rests easily on the Dubliners head. Like in times past the hat suits him just fine. If Jimmy Keaveney gave the Dublin team of the seventies the gloss, the metallic look and Sean Doherty provided the solidity then our man Drumm was a key piston in the engine that drove Heffo's Heroes all the way into the annals of GAA folklore. As someone who masterminded manys the Dublin sortie into the oppositions half of the field, Tommy Drumm proves himself to be quite an engineer in Kevin Heffernan's scheme of things. For the last number of years however, the approachable Drumm has been engineering a bright future for himself off the field of play instead of on it. Tommy Drumm's field nowadays is the construction industry and as General Manager of McInerney Construction Dublin Limited he's a busy man therein. Just as in the halycon days of Heffo's Army et al, Tommy is still a member of a successful and ambitious team. Whereas the Dubs had cups on their minds, Tommy Drumm and McInerney Construction seek to re-establish the 'McInerney Home' in the greater Dublin area. Involved in the building trade since the early days of this century, McInerney is the original of the species and the parent company is quoted on the London and Dublin stock exchanges. Trading for decades now, McInerney Construction is headquartered in Waterford with operations in Cork, Limerick and Dublin. Business is going extremely well for McInerney Construction, so well in fact that the firm completed the construction of over four hundred private homes last year. "It was an excellent year McInerney Construction with our figures up on '94. Overall it was good year for the construction industry. "Thankfully interest rates were low which meant that borrowing was cheap which encouraged house hunters to purchase instead of renting," explained the man who speaks of his business with an eloquence that fairly reflects the panache and poise he demonstrated with club and county years ago. "Back in the early seventies, the company was building up to two thousand houses per year, leaders in their field, with a large proportion being for the local authority. In 1987 McInerney ceased housing in Dublin as the local authority housing requirements reduced dramatically. Dublin operations began again in earnest however in 1993 when we purchased a site in Rathmines and built thirty-six town houses on the site, The Innings, which sold off the plans and since that we have purchased land in Lucan and Rathfarnham upon which we are building ninety-four and eighty-eight houses respectively," Tommy enthused. "The Fairways in Lucan is sold out and we are particularly excited about our 'Rathfarnham Gate' project in which we are effectively building a new streetscape opposite the castle, in what remains a very strong village atmosphere in the suburbs of Dublin." Though he would possibly be attempting to prompt fate by simply admitting as much, Tommy has enjoyed, for the most part, rare 'oul times on and off the field of play whatever the company and environment. In simple terms he has been a successful in a suit as he was in a football jersey. Tommy Drumm's path to fame in GAA circles began in earnest when he made his debut for the Dublin Seniors in a Ceoltas Ceoltoiri Eireann organised tournament back in '76. Ironically though he lined out that day as Dublin's left half back it was on the other wing that he was to become much more accustomed to in his peak years with the Dubs, eight years all told. A student at Trinity College Dublin alongside then Wicklow notable Keith Ryan, Tommy helped his alma mater to a Sigerson College Plate trophy but by then he was already established as a promising county Under 21 player, ironically 'oft employed as a full-forward. Making light of the fact that he failed to gain recognition at county Minor level, Tommy was part of the Dublin Under 21 squad which reached the All-Ireland final in 1975, a squad which trained under Paddy Cullen and which included stars like Brian Mullins, Fran Ryder. Running parallel with his burgeoning football career was his rapidly improving career moves, his first post seeing him cut his teeth in the engineering profession with the Office of Public Works. By 1976 however, it was almost football for breakfast, dinner and tea as he became a full fledged Dub in what was a really high profile camp. "A great buzz was generated in GAA circles in Dublin once the mid seventies came along but in fairness the GAA needed to get something going in the city, and the 1974 win sparked great enthusiasm with younger lads." If the GAA needed a bandwagon to set things alight in the Metropolis then the likes of Jimmy Keaveney made for a good driver. "The likes of Jimmy had a great influence on the kids. He was deadly in possession on the field and off it he was a good ambassador for the game." With Keaveney's impact on the set-up once the ball was thrown in Dublin found themselves looking a gift horse in the mouth. To their eternal credit they proceeded to put the infrastructure in place to allow things develop. A more professional system was put in place by the GAA in Dublin at this juncture, more organised and added to the type of discipline and morale generated by Kevin Heffernan the Dubs found themselves almost fated to go to the top of the rankings. Rubbing shoulders with such brilliant individual footballers Tommy Drumm made good his early coaching and promptings from men such as Joe Lawless at Whitehall Colmcille and Brother Walsh at Saint Aiden's School, Whitehall. What about the pressure of it all? "We were very aware of the groundswell of expectations that built up the more successful we became but because everything on and off the field was done in the best possible manner, it made it easier to handle. We were able to control it to a certain extent." A natural athlete who excelled at soccer also, representing the Combined Universities while at Trinity, Drumm handled the pressure as well as many of his erstwhile team mates, nonetheless he does recall how much football affected his life during the Dubs era. "It really wrapped up your whole psyche, every day then seemed to be a football filled one with another game or another training session dominating it. It was tremendous, I loved every minute of it," Tommy mused. For someone who loved even training and had stamina to give away to those more needy around him, the rather sudden disappearance of Tommy Drumm from mainstream Dublin GAA affairs at the young age of twenty-eight didn't go unnoticed by the masses. West of the Shannon, north of Clonee and south of Booterstown it was mooted that the flying had somehow burned himself out or had even fallen out with Heffo. "The simple truth of it all was that I had been offered a job by McInerneys, I had talked it through with Heffo before the '84 All-Ireland against Meath and decided to go after the final one way or the other. It was a huge wrench to leave the Dubs but it was decision that had to be made and thankfully I've never had any reason to regret it." Dublin's loss was Qatar's gain. For just over six years Tommy worked on various projects for McInerney in Arabia, finally coming back to the land of the Gael in 1991, going away to Spain again for McInerney between 1993 and 1995. In hindsight we might have seen the Drumm/McInerney liason in the making for McInerney's have had a long association with the GAA and its star names. Dan McInerney was a famed Clare hurler of the '50s and is the son of company founder Thomas McInerney, while among Tommy's work colleagues presently are proud Clare G.A.A. fan Joe McNamara (Managing Director of McInerney Construction) and ardent Cork gael Dan O'Driscoll (Contracts Manager). Less than six months ago, two months after returning from Spain, it was rumoured that the same Drumm was about to made a sudden re-entry into Dublin GAA circles by taking on the Dublin post vacated by Pat O'Neill. The Whitehall clubman was indeed approached but due to his workload with McInerney Construction he excused himself from running the job. It would have been a nice and timely reunion but Tommy Drumm knows his own mind. That, after all, is what has helped make him such a success in GAA terms and in the world of commerce. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 29th March, 1996 Tweet

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