A friend indeed
December 30, 2009Brendan Woods is a busy, busy man. He runs a successful national and international haulage firm and also acted as Glyde Rangers' club chairman for the past three years. He's also the club's main sponsor, has been a selector for two years, and in 2009 kindly agreed to sponsor the county intermediate football championship. For the latter sponsorship, he certainly came on board at just the right time as the 2009 Brendan Woods Transport IFC final was without doubt one of the games of the year. Naomh Malachi prevailed to make the return journey back to the top grade, but not before the incredible drama of a Na Piarsaigh penalty flying over the crossbar in the third minute of added time. It was truly heart-stopping stuff.
Brendan's own club, Glyde Rangers, have also been making tremendous strides of late. They are probably the most-improved force in the Wee County over the past five to ten years. In 2008, they announced their credentials as genuine SFC contenders when stunning a strongly-fancied Cooley Kickhams side at the quarter-final stage of the Joe Ward Cup. Unfortunately, that dream run ended at the penultimate hurdle.
Another superb effort in '09 saw Glyde reach back-to-back SFC semi-finals. This time around, they accounted for Dundalk Gaels in the quarter-finals but came unstuck against Cooley in the last four - 1-11 to 0-9. Glyde had already beaten Cooley in the group stage, where they also came within one point of champions-elect Mattock Rangers in the first round and drew with defending champions Newtown Blues. All in all, Glyde appear very close to upsetting the so-called big four in Louth. Brendan is confident that the current crop is good enough to win a senior championship - and the evidence at hand backs this opinion up.
Together with his wife Sharon, Brendan established Brendan Woods Transport in 1994. The company began from humble beginnings, literally with one truck parked out the front of the house, but it has been transformed over the past 15 years into one of the most reputable national and international haulage companies operating out of the north east.
Headquartered on the cusp of Tallanstown - at Kilcroney, Louth, Dundalk - the company provides a specialist service across the full spectrum of haulage, providing bulk, container and tank haulage in Ireland as well as dry and refrigerated haulage to the UK and Europe. Brendan Woods Transport Ltd. also offers top-quality walking floor work to the UK.
At present, despite the enormous strain being placed upon the transport sector by the economic downturn, Brendan Woods oversees a fleet of twenty trucks and some 130 trailers. Business is ticking along, although the roar of the Celtic Tiger has long since subsided… "It's down, like everything else," the owner confirms. "Some days are busy enough and some days are not so busy, but we're anticipating a slight pick-up now coming up to Christmas.
"The continental work is still strong enough, but container work in Ireland has gone very slack."
Despite the negative effects of what is a global problem, BWT still provides gainful employment to a crew of 26, all of whom are local lads from in and around the Tallanstown, Castlebellingham, Dundalk, Carrickmacross areas. One of the transport managers is from Navan but by and large the staff are from the immediate locality.
Brendan himself hails originally from Darver but he has a lot of friends in the Tallanstown region and that was how he became involved in the Glyde Rangers committee. He joined the club in the late '80s / early '90s and has never looked back. Glyde has since become a huge part of his life and Brendan has served the club in a variety of capacities, including sponsor and chairman. "I started to sponsor them after I went into business on my own," he notes. "Myself and a friend of mine, Eddie Rooney, used to sponsor them jointly at first, but I took over the sponsorship on my own about five years ago."
Delighted that the club is doing well in recent years, Brendan agrees that the Glyde of today is a far cry from the club that was playing out of junior grade not so long ago. "Things have changed," he says. "They're after being in two semi-finals in a row and it was 30 years before that since they were in one. Hopefully they can go on to win a senior championship. I was a selector alongside Sean Harvey, under manager Mickey McConville, for the past two years and I think they have the makings of a championship-winning team there.
"The win against Cooley last year shows what they can do. We lost Brian Duffy and Trevor O'Brien this year and that was a big loss to us for a championship semi-final. Cooley's goalkeeper also pulled off a couple of great saves in that game, so we weren't too far off getting to the final. If the lads keep going, they will get there."
Brendan has spent so much time promoting the Glyde cause of late that he quips: "The wife told me I should have brought the bed over to Tallanstown."
As for the sponsorship of the intermediate championship decider, he explains: "The county chairman asked me would I like to come in as sponsor for the final because the previous sponsor had to pull out. It's the sport I love, so I decided to go along and sponsor it." In attendance to help with presentation duties, Brendan enjoyed what turned out to be a thrilling finale to the middle grade's knockout competition. "It went right down to the wire with that penalty in the last minute. Na Piarsaigh had taken their square man off and he probably would have taken it otherwise, but the penalty went over the bar and they lost. It was an entertaining game, though."
Of course, Brendan is a big Louth supporter too and he's hoping to see the Reds come good under new manager Peter Fitzpatrick in 2010, preferably with a few Glyde lads on board. He concludes: "They've brought a good man in and I hope they take a good look through the whole county at what players are available. We need to bring in the best players in the county and build from there.
"Personally, I think the players are there. I hope the new manager looks at all the clubs and gets the right blend. Even here in Glyde, I feel we have a couple of lads who have a lot to offer at intercounty level. We had four on the Louth junior squad that won the Leinster championship this year and there are a couple of others there as well.
"But it's not about Glyde. Hopefully we'll get a nice blend from all the clubs in the county. The new manager will have a fresh way of looking at things and that is welcome." Tweet
