For most of his years, one way or another, Vivian Hoey has been involved with the Castletown GAA club. Now he is currently lending a helping hand to the juvenile renaissance that has been happening at his native club in the past few years,
as Royal County found out.   

Vivian Hoey describes himself as a man who lives and breathes Meath football, and it certainly seems to be the case.  
Vivian 'kicked ball' with the Castletown club from a small age and now, over 20 years later, he finds himself coaching the same age group in which he started out with in the club.   
"I played senior football with the Castletown club from when I was 17 until I was 24," said Vivian.  
"We went intermediate in 1991 by choice and in 1995 Shane McEntee was training us and we got to the championship final. We ended up losing it to Simonstown by a point. That was the year they went up senior and have stayed since."   
A former half-forward with the Meath Under 21 team of 1989, Vivian was unfortunate not to enjoy any success with his beloved Castletown as a player (although he has since made up for it as underage coach), but he does have a few found memories left over from his days of lining out in the centre of the field for the club.    
"I played centre-field for the senior team and I can remember giving Liam Hayes a fair dressing down one day, it probably would have been in 1989 as well," Vivian recalled.   
"We were playing Skryne in Castletown in a league game and I can remember Colm O'Rourke having his jersey torn off in that game as well. Castletown won that day."  
"I didn't actually win anything with the club. We lost the intermediate final in '95 and then they got back to the final in '2008 and lost it. They beat Wolfe Tones in the Division Two league final in 2005.  
Vivian was also unlucky to miss out on a chance of becoming the first Castletown man to lift the Trench Cup during his college days in Dundalk.  
He explained: "I went to Dundalk RTC from 1986 to '89 and captained the college team in '88 and '89. There were some good players there at that time like Fintan Cahill from Cavan, Stephen McGinnity from Monaghan and Stefan White of Louth.
"We were beaten by Galway University in the Trench Cup final in my second year as captain."   
However, those defeats are gone and past for Vivian at this stage as he focuses on his latest role with Castletown in working with the club's Under 13 footballers, whom have been on quite a role since himself and  Pat McMahon got involved.   
Vivian explains that it was the involvement of his son Stephen which lured him towards taking up the reins of the team along the with devoted Castletown clubman.  
"My own son, Stephen, plays and I stayed with his grade. He plays wing-back on the team and I'm joint-manager along with Pat McMahon," Vivian stated.   
"We won back-to back Under 13 league titles in 2008 and 2009 and we also won the Division 5 Under 14 league title in 2010. I am presently involved with the Kilary Emmets which are an Under 15 amalgamation between Castletown and Syddan and they won the Division Four league this year, so things have been going very well."   
Vivian puts the success thus far down to the commitment shown by the players and their mentors, as well as the structures that have been put in place for the juvenile teams in the club:  
"I'd say at Under 13 training we would have anything between 17 and 20 players for 13-a-side and there is a tremendous set-up in Castletown at present.   
"Our Fun-do programme is brilliant because it caters for all underage players on a Saturday morning. The Under 10s and Under 12s set-up has the club thriving and it's going on for the last three or four years now.   
"There are separate structures for Under 10s, Under 12s and Under 14s and we have some tremendous players coming through," he added.   
There is one man in particular though that Vivian lauds for the turn around in fortunes of the club's underage footballers over the last few years. It's no big secret that Pat McMahon has been doing superb with the Castletown club since his first days of involvement and he comes in for praise here as well.  
"Without the system and the driving-force of Pat McMahon the club would not be doing what it's doing at underage level at the moment," enthuses Vivian.   
"Pat is assistant secretary and PRO of the adult club and is also chairperson of the juvenile committee. He lives for it and is at the club five or six nights a week. Hopefully he will stay on for many years to come.  
"We both love Castletown football club and the club are setting a precedent here now at the minute in what's being done at juvenile level."   
We couldn't let Vivian shy away without giving his verdict on the Meath senior team's 2010 season and what he thinks of the new team management, which is sure to draw much attention next year as the Royals bid to retain their Leinster title and perhaps even go a few steps further than that.   
"I love Meath football," Vivian assured us. "I thought it was a good year, but maybe in the championship we were a bit delayed in our decision-making on the line. I have the height of respect for Eamonn O'Brien, but overall delayed decision-making I think might have cost us.  
"It was great to win a Leinster title though and there were definitely a couple of new players that came in and impressed like Graham Reilly and Seamus Kenny.  
On the new management, he commented: "A change is always good. We need to step out of the box and we need a manager that is up to date with the current style of play. I hope that's Seamus McEnaney." 
For over 20 years now Vivian Hoey has been working as Clerk of Work with the Meath County Council. Having initially started in the roads and planning department, he went into the housing section in 1994 and have been there ever since. His primary function at present with the council is supervising capital projects.             
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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