Paul's aim for a home of their own
November 30, 2009Ask any Meath GAA fan what was notable about 1999 and most will happily recall that it was the last time The Royal County lifted the Sam Maguire, with Ollie Murphy and Graham Geraghty cutting a swathe through defences en route to glory and Geraghty himself lifting the famous cup on a hastily constructed stage in the centre of Croke Park.
Those who reside closer to the Dublin border in the village of Clonee remember another famous final victory ten years ago - the day local club St. Paul's won the Meath Junior Championship in Páirc Tailteann. Ten years may seem a long time ago for followers of the Meath team, but for players and patrons of St. Paul's, it must seem like decades ago since that junior success, given the upheaval the club has faced in the intervening period. Lifelong clubman and chairman of the last five years John Curry gave up some of his time to discuss the past, present and future of St Paul's Clonee.
Far from the highs of that JFC win in '99, the club now finds itself battling to gain promotion from the Junior B ranks, something which has so far eluded them since their relegation to that grade in first half of the decade. St. Paul's are in the unfortunate position of being surrounded by bigger, more successful clubs who all impact on the Clonee men's chances of bringing new talent into the club. Kilbride, Ratoath and Donaghmore/Ashbourne lie to the east, Blackhall Gaels and Dunboyne to the West, and Dunshaughlin to the south. All bar two of these clubs are senior, Kilbride are Junior A and Ratoath are an ambitious club recently returned from Intermediate and with facilities to rival anyone in the county. As if this wasn't bad enough, the club has been forced to move from its well known roadside pitch in Clonee to an alternate location several miles away.
"We've moved to a location near Woodpark Stud, we have been there three years. We were hoping to get back to Clonee - Kepak offered us a site but our planning request was turned down by the County Council. That is on hold at the moment for a few years, but where we are at the moment is 100% better than where we were in Clonee. We've got dressing rooms, showers and lights for training, something which we didn't have in our old pitch because we knew the road (the new M3 motorway) was going to be coming so we were never going to be able to build any facilities there."
Without a permanent home, it must make it difficult for St Paul's to build up any kind of underage structure with which to sustain the club in the long term? "We're joined up with St Peters Dunboyne all the way up to under-16, then they play minor with Dunboyne", explains Curry "then after that, lads are free to join Dunboyne or St Paul's, and of course most of them choose to join Dunboyne, and you can't blame them.
"We were a family team, with families and friends playing for the club, now - barring sons of former players playing with us - we don't get the players. You won't get lads coming to play Junior B football when they can go and play senior with Dunboyne, and even Dunboyne's second team is Junior A. Even though there is a decent population in Clonee, it's mainly flats and you don't get too many people coming into the area who want to play football, so it's hard for us. Of all the lads who represent the St. Peters/St Paul's combination at under-16 level, about 90% opt to play for Dunboyne as adults"
As with most clubs, Paul's entered 2009 with real hope of returning to the premier level of junior football. "We thought we would give it a real go this year, but we're just not getting to the quarter-finals. When you get that far then anything can happen, but we're just not making it out of the group just yet. We were very close this year, we were docked two points, but even then, we still needed to beat Walterstown to qualify but we lost to them and that put us out."
The loss of the two points came about following a mix-up between the club and county board over the availability of one of their players. The player in question scored the winning point in a championship match but it materialised afterwards that he had been under suspension, something which St Paul's were unaware of. Curry though, was at pains to stress that this didn't ultimately impact on his club's chances of progression in the competition. "We were still in with a chance even after losing the points, we had to beat Walterstown in Dunshaughlin but we lost to them so that finished us."
It's worth mentioning that the two points which were deducted came after a one-point win over Duleek/Bellewstown - the team who went on to win the Junior B championship. Looking at things in that light, Paul's can't be too far off the pace. To win a game like that and then have the result reversed must have been difficult for Curry and his colleagues to recover from? "These things happen, but it was very tough for us to recover from because it was a big win for us."
So what of the future for St. Paul's, will they ever be able to field underage sides in their own right and thereby guarantee a stream of players for adult teams in the years ahead? Curry is optimistic "If we can get back nearer to Clonee, there are a lot of houses being built on the Lucan road which is quite close to where Kepak were going to give us a pitch, so then you could start fielding at under-10 and under-12 level. If you could do that, and build up an underage structure, then that would mean that players would not be inclined to go to Dunboyne when they got older because they would have played with St. Paul's all the way up. There wouldn't be a case where their friends were going to play elsewhere and so they wouldn't feel obliged to do so."
With the development of the new site on hold for the time being, does Curry fear for the future of the club? "The future is bright for the Paul's; most of the lads are under 25 so I can't see any problem for the moment. It is important that we get a new pitch and clubhouse built, so hopefully the county council will let us get on with that in the next year or two. We are St Paul's Clonee and we want to get back to Clonee."
Most clubs in the county have, at one time or another, been at a similar crossroads in terms of putting down roots in an area where they can prosper.
Followers of St Paul's, and GAA in Meath in general, will be hoping that the sod will be turned on the new site in the near future and that Clonee will gets it's club back. Tweet
