The mushroom effect
November 27, 2011It would be no exaggeration to say that Martin Doyle is football mad. He may be living in Longwood for the past 19 years but he has lost none of his passion for his Ballivor homeland. The roots run deep and Martin will be an ardent Ballivor man until the day he dies. Nobody was more delighted to see Ballivorbounce back from the disappointment of losing the previous year's decider by defeatingNavanO'Mahonys in the 2011 Meath junior football championship final at PaircTailteann late in September.
"My father was heart and soul a Ballivor man and as long as I'm able to drive a car I will continue to go to their matches," Martin notes. "Seeing them win the championship this year reminded me of the one big regret from my own playing days: that I never won a championship medal with the club myself."
It certainly wasn't for want of trying as Martin gave tremendous service to the club over the years, as a player and latterly as a fundraiser. He won two All-Ireland colleges medals with Warrenstown Horticultural College - featuring on a side trained by the legendary Sean Boylan and captained by former Oldcastle and Meath footballer John McEnroe. "John captained us to the All-Ireland in 1981," the Ballivor man reflects. "He was without doubt the best captain I ever had the honour of playing under and he is a good friend, too."
After studying horticulture at Warrenstown, Martin had a stint in Holland, travelling in the company of well-known chef Richard Corrigan. "Richard was a next-door neighbour of mine and we had a great time in Holland. The Corrigans involved in the Ballivor club at the moment would be nephews of his."
Martin's wife Rosemary is an avid Meath GAA supporter and her father Tom Joe Geraghty was a legendary Longwood and Meath hurler.
Outside gaelic football and other sports, mushrooms have been Martin's great passion in life and he has become one of the leading lights in the Irish mushroom industry. So much so that Martin set up his own mushroom consultancy two years ago. Doyle Mushroom Consultancy is an outstanding success story.
"There were 1,900 mushroom growers in Ireland in 2000 and there are only 89 left now, but they are all big growers," the Meath man explains. Indeed, in 1998, Martin was instrumental in pioneering a massive overhaul of mushroom growing in Ireland when he successfully encouraged the company he was working for at the time to mechanise its operating system by introducing automated shelving etc. He worked with that company for 27 years before branching out on his own in 2009, having helped set up companies as far afield as Kuwait and Norway.
"Monaghan Mushrooms asked me would I be interested in providing a consultancy service and I just took the bull by the horns and set up my own company. At the moment, I'm a consultant for Monaghan Mushrooms and CMP (Commercial Mushroom Producers) and that work takes me all around the country, which I really enjoy. You get to know all the growers and I can honestly say it was the best move I've ever made. I'm very passionate about mushrooms. I've been on every mushroom farm in Ireland and I enjoy the work thoroughly.
"Having gone out on my own, I would strongly encourage other people to consider doing something for themselves. I know people might be reluctant to take the risk, they might feel intimidated or nervous, but believe me most people have the ability to run their own business and there are plenty of opportunities there if people just go for it…"
A superb athlete with FrMurphys AFC, Martin's GAA career was all but ended by a bad back injury sustained when he was 25. He continued to play through the pain until he was 33 but it was never the same. "The injury was a major blow to me and not winning a championship medal with Ballivor is one of the biggest disappointments of my life. That still haunts me. From U16 up to minor, we lost finals to Navan De La Salles. In 1981, when Ballivor won the intermediate championship, I was playing junior that year, having broken my collarbone. I played senior the following season but had missed out on the intermediate win. Two years later, the juniors won the junior 'C' championship but I was on the first team and missed out again!
"While I enjoyed great success as an athlete and in schools football, my failure to win a championship with my club is a source of much annoyance because I think deep down that's the one I wanted most. Having said that, you have to let it go and to see Ballivor run out in the Leinster club championship for the first time in Crettyardthis year gave me great pleasure."
Martin Doyle also featured on a Meath Vocational Schools football team beaten by Offaly in the Leinster final - a combination that also included then Royal County minors John McEnroe and George Clarke from Castletown. The decider was staged in Tullamore and the Ballivor clubman missed a penalty two minutes from the end, where a goal would almost definitely have resulted in a Meath win. But it wasn't to be…
Today, Martin knows the GAA inside-out. He could probably take my job if he wanted! He reads the local newspapers from every county he visits and follows the club scenes closely not just in Meath and the neighbouring counties but also much further afield. He was probably the quickest man in Ballivor to assess the club's prospects of winning the Leinster and All-Ireland junior club championships as he had an inside line on their prospective opponents from up north, Galway and Kerry. He reads all the GAA autobiographies, listens to Newstalk, goes to games every weekend without fail - a veritable encyclopaedia of GAA knowledge.
The Ballivor sports fanatic also played pitch & putt and tennis at a high level but he says athletics and boxing are the two sports he'd recommend young people to get involved in - as well as the GAA of course! "Tony Ennis from Athboy came to Ballivor and he was my first athletics coach and a fantastic man. He had me in good shape and I actually ran the first Dublin City Marathon," Martin reflects.
"Sport is my life and it's just amazing to see Ballivor going so well. Killyon and Kildalkey hurling clubs are in the same parish and they've had great difficulty over the years trying to align the two hurling clubs with the football club. But there's more harmony now than there has been in the past. Pat O'Halloran has done a great job over the past two years and it's not by chance that Kildalkey have also won three SHCs - Pat is the common denominator.
"Jimmy 'Spider' Kelly, who has been club chairman for I-don't-know-how-many years, and MJ Gearty are two others who deserve great praise for the work they've done for Ballivor over the years. MJ started the ball rolling way back 50 years ago when he and my father Joe - a brother of the famous 'Black' Doyle - used to bring me to training." Tweet
