Charlie Boyle's name is synonymous with Meath Hill. Here he talks about the past and the future. Organised by the Meath County Board, The Sean Gael Awards held in the Simonstown Gaels GFC clubhouse was one of the highlights of the local GAA year. Established to honour the contributions of veteran club members throughout Meath, the award ceremony brought together many of the greats of yesteryear for what turned out to be a fantastic fun-filled night. Charlie Boyle was the man nominated by his club Meath Hill. The Royal County caught up with Charlie in the week prior to the big night and found him in very good form, eagerly looking forward to the special get-together. "It's a great honour obviously but for me," explained Charlie, "the highlight of the night will be meeting up with many of the players I played against in the forties and fifties. You know, I haven't seen many of them since then so it will be a pleasure to meet them again and reminisce, swap stories." In his chat with The Royal County, Charlie talked candidly about the past, the present and the future, with great enthusiasm and insight. The simplicity of one of his first comments, this writer thought, summed him up: "You can't beat a good game of football," the former Meath junior said. During his playing days Charlie lined out for Meath Hill, Brian Borus (an amalgamation of Meath Hill and Drumconrath), Shale Rovers and Mayo club Castlebar Mitchells. Emigration to England effectively brought his football days to a close in 1957. He was 34. A fast man at 5' 11'' and not too heavy, Boyle's favourite position was left corner forward but he played "almost everywhere", he remembers, and was the man invariably called upon when a scoreable free kick was won. "Football totally dominated our lives. It was the thing we loved to do. Very seldom," Charlie recalled, "would you get to a match in a car. You'd usually have to ride the bike to Castletown or Killberry or wherever. If you went to a match in a car it usually meant you were playing in Navan and that was good news - it usually meant a semi-final or a final." Charlie remembered that in 1942, while war was raging across Europe, his late brother Packie, a sargent in the army stationed in Athlone, cycled home on the eve of Meath Hill's junior championship final clash with Kilcloone. "He played midfield and we won the match," he said. "That was a real heavy army bicycle too, Packie rode." And as for neighbour Jim Maguire, he rode home from Dublin. And they talk about levels of commitment nowadays. Most of Charlie's club success came when he was playing with Shale Rovers at intermediate level, a club formed by those who worked in the local brick factory. It was a good team which won divisional titles and almost secured championship glory on a number of occasions. But it was never quite to be and the club disbanded before that elusive intermediate title could be annexed. Boyle's club career though was not an unfulfilled one. In 1950 he was part of the North Meath divisional side which scooped the senior county championship, the winning team featuring players from such clubs as Kilberry, Castletown, Nobber and Rathkenny. There was always a great football tradition in the Meath Hill area, stretching back to Charlie's father's time in the early days of the last century. "I learned about football sitting around the heartstone, listening to my father and my uncle. You'd listen but you daren't open your mouth. My father could tell you everything about football." His father played in Meath, Louth and Monaghan and was part of a "hardy" Meath Hill side that was well known and equally well respected. Castletown were their main rivals back then. It an era when the county's best club team represented the county in the All-Ireland championship. One particular year, in the early 1900s, Castletown reached the Leinster final and, under the rules, were allowed to choose players from other clubs in the county. So they picked a group of lads from Meath Hill, including Charlie's father, the club captain. And off they all went to play in Jones's Road (before it became known as Croke Park). "That," said Charlie, "was the famous day the stand collapsed, the day Meath played Kilkenny. My father was there that day, a substitute. Fortunately there was nobody killed but there were a few injured. Anyway the game continued on and the Castletown/Meath captain Joe Curran got injured but he refused to come off the field. My father always maintained that if he been allowed on for Joe Meath wouldn't have lost that day. He really wanted to get on and I suppose his pride was hurt a little bit." How did Charlie feel the game had changed from his day? "Nowadays the players are a lot fitter," he said, "and that has changed the style of the game to a large extent. When we were playing we made the ball do the work. There was far less give and go in our day. A player would catch the ball and kick it straight away and then stay where he was. "To be honest," he continued, "I think the short handpass has the game ruined. It's a very laborious way to play football. Often a team will make five or six unneccesary passes and still get nowhere. It slows the game down an awful lot. "But I think it's often the case where teams without great individual talent will play that way in order to lessen the impact of their shortcomings. Even in recent years the likes of Meath and Galway have proved that the most successful style is the long quick pass into the forward line." Charlie considered Meath. "Meath have the maestro Giles who delivers magnificent pinpoint passes. And then in the inside line, there's the two boys who can anticipate these passes, Geraghty and Murphy. And I think Ronan Fitzsimons is one for the future; he's got what it takes to make it at the highest level." Looking at Meath Hill's fortunes in 2000, Charlie felt the club was unfortunate to lose a number of players to, well, life. "Between lads going to America and Australia we lost around nine players, many of them key ones - you can't expect success when you're without so many players. But sure you can't blame them for living life and experiencing different cultures. The thing is when we went away in our time it was generally for more than a summer. "Country clubs have a small population and that's always a problem. But we're fortunate at the moment in that we have more young players in the 16 to 17 year old age bracket than ever before. They're a bit too young to be making an impact on the adult stage but they appear very keen and give us great hope for the future." A healthy future to match a cherishable past, a past in which Charlie Boyle played a significant part. Tweet

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