Athletics may be Mick Heery's abiding passion as far as the world of sport is concerned but there'll always be a place for Gaelic football in his heart. That said, all matters pertaining to Ballinacree are very dear to him in fact as we found out in chatting to him. Want someone to talk up Ballinacree and all that goes with that tiny north Meath Gaelic football outpost? Wish to get a feel for what good grass roots public relations gurus are all about? Then look no further than Mick Heery of Ballymanus. Mick isn't that long retired. Physically he has given of his best to his family, the homestead and Ballinacree GFC. His brain is far from being superannuated though and, in fact, if anything his cerebellum has, of late, gone into overdrive as he thinks and dreams of ways and means by which the sporting lives of his fellow parishioners can be improved and bettered. To coin a phrase hatched by another hack, Mick is a decent skin. The salt of the Earth-type. Best of all though, he makes for a good interviewee. His mind appears uncluttered like the street of his well-kept farm and his memory is vivid and lucid. For the most part, times and dates from even thirty years ago lie in-waiting on the tip of his tongue ready to be sprung by invitation. The annals of Mick's recall straddle the very beginning of the reformed St. Brigid's GFC in the early sixties right through to modern times. In the beginning he was a decent player. Later he became a coach and manager, chairman and in more recent times a stalwart supporter among a legion of hard-core 'Brigid's fans. When one thinks of stereotypical GAA country, Mick's home territory immediately springs to mind. He lives in county Westmeath, barely more than a well-lofted '45 from the Meath county boundary yet is a fellow parishioner of the rock-solid gaels of Mountnugent in county Cavan. In the part of Ireland that has been Mick's homeland for 60 years, the GAA is not just woven into the fabric of society, it is the fulcrum around which everything in the community revolves. The GAA presence in Ballinacree and surrounding areas is as much a part of the landscape as the horizon itself. Like many another of his generation, Mick had to make do with spectating more so than playing competitively in his youth. Structures at underage levels were practically non-existent in the Ireland of the early 'fifties. "I can't honestly say I played much football other than a bit at minor level with Moylagh. It was only 'till the Ballinacree club reformed in 1962 that I played football regularly because there was nothing organised at underage level back then. You found yourself just playing for the national school against Mountnugent national school - that's about how organised it got." Of course, things did change fairly radically during Mick's coming-of-age as an adult footballer. When he was a gasun, for example, there was only one club within sight in his neck of the woods. Millbrook was THE football citadel back then with disciples coming from all parts of Moylagh, Ballinacree and Oldcastle to do their damnedest to uphold the good honour of that part of north Meath. There was nothing impoverished about the football played by the Millbrook men either but Mick says that there wasn't quite the affinity among the players for Millbrook that ordinarily pertains at a local club. "Back then clubs didn't have their own grounds and it was very difficult to put a team together because of the lack of numbers around. That was why Millbrook was so strong," the current Ballinacree club trustee comments. But how then did the idea come about to reform Ballinacree in 1962? After all, it had been dormant for more than 30 years. "I remember that a public meeting was called in 1962. Fr. Michael Troy had been organising sports days over the years and he'd invite a team from Mountnugent to play a game. The next logical step was to get the lads from Ballinacree to form a team to play them. "Fr. Sean Connaughton was a student priest at Dalgan Park at the time and he was also instrumental in getting St. Brigid's up and running. Seamus Maguire - one of the Maguire brothers who played for Meath and Cavan in the 1952 All-Ireland - was the club's first secretary while Paddy Connaughton, Sean's father, was St. Brigid's first treasurer. "There was very good men in charge on the committee right from the start which meant that the club was in good hands as it attracted more and more players to play. It's good to see that St. Brigid's has gone from strength to strength ever since." For his part, Mick played for St. Brigid's right up to the early seventies. He says he enjoyed every moment of his time on the football field. So what was the highlight for him of his time with the sky blue and navy-clad outfit? "I think the time we played against Moynalty in Kells in May of 1963 was really special because that was the club's first competitive game since it was reformed. I felt really proud to be part of things that day." A then team-mate of former county under 21 and junior star Oliver Gilsenan, Mick bemoans the fact that Ballinacree were never quite able to avail of the sort of pool of players that may have seen the club climb into the winner's enclosure more often. Mick has just one junior league medal to his credit but he was never a medal-hunting defender anyway. Still, the constant fight for enough resources to make an impact is as frustrating as being a manager - well almost. "I can tell you that I found my time as a coach of the team very frustrating at times because you'd have fellas under your wing who'd have all the ability in the world but just wouldn't apply themselves in the way they needed to realise their potential. "I think it's possible that the club could have won more games down the line if more of the players had been fully committed. I always impressed on the players that it would be a pity for them if they looked back on their career when they hit their thirties and regretted that they hadn't put more into the game," adds the outgoing national president of top athletics body, NACA. Mick recognises that all has changed, changed utterly in the way players prepare for, and play, the game of Gaelic football nowadays. He used to love training and didn't at all mind cycling the few miles for matches. He understands though that players in these times are faced with a lot more distractions than heretofore. "There's not so much a problem now of emigration thankfully as there was years ago but the problem of migration still remains." In this respect he thinks of former star player Ronan Hennessy who migrated to Galway for work purposes. St. Brigid's, he assures us, can't afford to lose players of the calibre of Hennessy. However the bones of the 1994 Junior Championship-winning crew are still in place, he enthuses, and the promise shown by those who won Under 21 Division Three souvenirs in '93 and Division Four runner-up mementos in 1994 remain on tap. Meanwhile on the athletics front, the promise offered by the coming together of athletic bodies NACA and the BLE - which will see the setting up of a new Athletics Association of Ireland organisation - is something which excites Mick in the short term. If, as expected, the new association comes into being, Mick is likely to be elected as deputy president. "We're hopeful that the IAAF will sanction the amalgamation of the two bodies because they have already intimated that they are in agreement." Looks like there's not going to be a dull moment around the Heery household for quite some time to come! Tweet

Most Read Stories