No ordinary Joe soap
December 31, 1998
The glimmer of hope which existed in the eyes of Simonstown Gaels GFC founding member Joe Clarke in 1965 has fertilised into a bright shining light boasting one of the top GAA clubs in the county. Members of the north Navan club owe a lot to Joe.
Where football wasn't the topic of conversation in Simonstown during '98, it almost inevitably meant that talk revolved around the club's ambitious development plans and their mould breaking 'Draw for a House'. Swimming pools, gymnasiums and leisure centres occupied much of the minutes from the various executive meetings.
When all this is taken into account, it's difficult to believe that at one stage Simonstown had to borrow a set of jerseys from the neighbouring Gibbstown team or that weekly meetings were held in the #A.O.H hall on Navan's Watergate St.
Founding member Joe Clarke remembers these days as if it were yesterday. He also vividly recalls meeting up with Jim Lane Snr. (RIP) in John O'Loughlin's pub (formerly Brassils who donated a trophy for an early Simonstown tournament and now O'Malley's) one Sunday night in February 1965 and setting the wheels in motion for the foundation of one of the biggest clubs in the county.
He takes up the story: "I had gone around a few lads who had retired from playing football with the surrounding clubs asking them would they play if I organised a team. They gave a positive response. The last night for affiliation was a Sunday night in February and I met Jim Lane in John O'Loughlin's and the two of us headed over to Liam Creavin's house."
He continues: "We told Liam what we were planning and paid our affililiation fee of 2 shillings and six pence. He gave us a receipt and the next thing to decide was what colours we would wear. We eventually settled on sky blue. When we went back the lads wouldn't believe what we were after doing but I had the receipt to prove it."
Joe handled a lot more receipts over the next seventeen years in his role as treasurer. The late Jack Callaghan was the club's first chairman while Loman Fagan was secretary. Other prominent members of the initial committee included Jim Lane, the late Paddy Flood and Joe's brother Mickey - well known throughout the county as a former Simonstown chairman and current delegate to the Co. Board.
"We got a great response from the lads who had promised to play with us," remarks Joe. "Our first meeting was held in the A.O.H hall on Watergate St. and membership cards were 2 and 6 pence. The money we raised from membership paid for a new set of jerseys."
The next problem facing the fledgling committee was the small matter of a playing field. That was quickly resolved with the Clarke brothers' mother, the late Mrs. Julia Clarke (the club's first jersey washer), coming to the rescue by offering the use of one of her fields down Simonstown lane. The first game played by Simonstown Gaels GFC (who incidentally wore the Gibbstown jersey) took place on that field against a team from the Commons in 1965.
Five years later, the north Navan club qualified for their first ever final, the Junior decider of 1970, where their opponents were none other than Navan O'Mahony's. It was an unhappy final debut for the poor footballing relation in Navan at the time.
Frank Carberry (who later transferred to the other side of town), Eamonn Kearney (father of current Meath panelist Ned), Val Devlin, Pat and John Lynch, Dick Stapleton, Jimmy Fitzsimons (Meath ladies senior selector), Phil and Mickey Hegarty, John Carroll (RIP), Victor McCullagh, Tommy Lynch and Ollie Plunkett wore the sky blue jersey on that occasion.
"Myself and Mickey were subs that day. He came on and missed an open goal and I haven't let him forget about it since!," laughs Joe.
There wasn't much success to write about during the early seventies but the initiative of a group of people in 1976 would ensure that Simonstown would evolve into a force to be reckoned with in Meath GAA. The setting-up of a juvenile section that year sowed the seeds for their progression up the ranks.
"It was hard to keep things going at that time because we weren't winning anything so the interest wasn't as high as it should have been. The start of the juvenile made us the club we are today. Myself, Mickey and John O'Hare set it up and then in later years fellas like Tommy Clynch came in. Once we started winning underage titles things began to pick up on the adult side of things."
Needless to say Joe has a story or two to tell about the early juvenile days. "I remember travelling to a U12 match in Ballivor. Colm Keys would have been playing while Mickey was the referee and I did linesman. Young Johnny Cantwell - who would only have been about nine or ten - was the first aid man that day. That goes to show you the kind of help there was at the time but we won easily so it wasn't too bad."
Who were the best juvenile footballers Joe saw play with Simonstown? "There have been so many but fellas like Colm Keys, Philip Traynor, Paul O'Brien, Hank Traynor and Ned Kearney stick out in the memory," the affable Clarke replied.
As of yet the underage winning teams of the eighties and early nineties have failed to manifest themselves into a Keegan Cup winning side. They came close in '97 before exiting at the semi-final stages when Navan O'Mahony's got the better of them. In 1998, a year in which they started the campaign as favourites for outright honours, surprise package Oldcastle proved to be the rock on which their championship aspirations perished - again at the penultimate stage.
"Losing to Oldcastle this year was very disappointing. Not many of our players could say that they had a good game. Des Lane was the best of them while Ned Kearney was a big loss. He would have taken some watching by Oldcastle and probably would have scored at least a point which would have made it a draw.
"But Oldcastle were very good and they deserved to win. I saw them against Kilmainhamwood in the previous game and they showed then that they would be no pushovers. They have quality players and an abundance of determination, and were always going to be a difficult team to beat."
When I talked to Joe about organising a chat for this article his reply was "the office will be open tommorow night from seven to nine". Joe Clarke's office is located at the end of the counter, to the left as you enter the door of the Simonstown bar, and if the truth be known - his office is always open.
He's always in that seat, except on Sunday nights when he moves closer to the larger television to catch up with the latest going-ons in Glenroe. He's a man of habit. Other habits include cutting the Simonstown pitches, lining the field for games and officiating as an umpire at all Simonstown games, U12 - Senior, home and away. He was once compared to a Duracell battery (because he keeps going and going and . . .).
"I enjoy looking after the grounds and doing the umpiring. I've been doing it since the start so I'm not going to stop now. Colum Cromwell once told me that he thinks I may hold the record for umpiring at the most games."
As an Honorary President of Simonstown (the other is Robbie McCullagh), Joe is an ever present at the executive meetings and during this time of continued expansion and development he openly admits that it has surpassed his wildest expectations.
"The facilities we have here at the moment are absolutely brilliant. The pavilion is a great achievement and it provides a place where club members can come and meet, and have a bit of craic. When I think of the old shed down the corner of the field we used to have as changing rooms I can't believe it. I never thought I'd see the day where it was like this.
"The executive committee are doing great work, you couldn't ask for more of them. The draw this year was a great success and the additional land is a big bonus for the future."
He concludes: "but while the development is great and all that, I'd me more interested in the football end of things."
Tell us something we didn't know Joe!
The inaugural Simonstown team which easily defeated Kilmainhamwood in the Junior 'B' championship of 1965 was as follows; Benny Gartland; John Callaghan, Tony Sheridan, Joe Clarke; John Lynch, Dick Stapleton, Tommy Lynch; Mickey Clarke, Andy O'Halloran; Mickey Wogan, Pat Lynch, Phil Hegarty; Tommy Clarke, Ollie Plunkett, Robbie McCullagh.
The Simonstown team which contested the 1970 Junior 'B' final against Navan O'Mahonys was; Frank Carberry; Mickey Hegarty, Pat Lynch, Derry O'Brien; Collie O'Brien, Dick Stapleton, Leo O'Brien; Val Devlin, Eamonn Kearney; Mattie McGoona, John Carroll, Victor McCullagh; John Ratty, Jimmy Fitzsimons, Phil Hegarty.
The unpassable Lane
Des Lane is an immovable object at the heart of the Simonstown defence. Here the full back talks to Paul O'Keeffe about the club's curious season.
A disappointing year for Simonstown seniors, or was it?
Des Lane, at 32 the patriarch of the team, sits at the kitchen table and tries to take stock. Dissect an uncertain championship season which began in May with faltering victory over Dunsaughlin, and finished, to the downfall of a thousand prophecies, with fumbling vanquishment to Oldcastle at the penultimate - the most painful - stage. Underdog Oldcastle.
For the North Navan Gaels, the nouveau riche of the Royale game, it was a season so two-faced as to make the most two-faced person in the world go green with envy-on all four cheeks
Their summer was mostly about isolated hours of ambiguity; in football parlance, playing in patches, frustratingly. Irreproachably, they possessed the talent, almost in enviable amounts, but the general consenus is curious as to whether they possessed those less discernible qualities, the commitment, the deep covetessnous for glory, that even the uninterested would deem essential. To this question, no unarguable answers exist
There were moments throughout their chalk and cheese season when Paul Kenny's team burned bright with luminous, rhythmic play, when they appeared imperious even, switching surgically from defence to attack, long ball or a short, sweet ball or incisive. Sometimes they would convoy a necklace of passes through a series of flailing defenders, Brady feeds Kearney finds McGrath, and it would make for invigorating football. When they found the mainline vein, Simonstown could simply accrue scores with dazzling briskness, and arrears, if they existed, could be diminished immediately. Or supremacy reinforced.
When the patches were good, they were deep purple
The problem was - and how recalcitrant it became - they weren't always good or rather, good often enough ...
As for instance, in the critical game against Oldcastle, a game they were ubiquitously tipped to win but which resulted in the club's second semi-final defeat in as many years. The result 0-11 to 1-7 was generously labelled a 'sensation' by the local papers but was tailored undeniably by Simonstown's inability to score more than one point in the second half. Conversely, the second half display against Dunderry in the quarter final was highly admirable; but then, one supposes, it had to be. The Gaels had only registered one point in the first half. All season, throughout a league section that included Ballinlough, Dunshaughlin, Skryne, Kells and Moynalvey, Simonstown alternated deceptively, between the abysmal and the sublime. Until the semi-final, inconsistency was sufficient.
"Inconsistency," is the word Des Lane uses, but the full back who is renowned equally for his forthrightness as for his fortitude, is unwilling to pour fuel on the recriminatory flames.
"In the last two years, it could have happened," he says with regard to Simonstown's Keegan Cup quest, "but it didn't. They weren't unsuccessful years. You know, a lot of people have come down hard on Simonstown, saying they should' have won a championship last year, and they should have won a championship this year, but there's no guarantee that we would've.
"This," he continues "is only our third year senior. In the first year we didn't qualify; in the second, we reached the semi-final; and in the third, we reached the semi-final, which is not bad by any standards. There's not many established teams that would have done that."
The former Slane clubman speaks with the pragmatism that is fostered by experience. Lane played with Meath during Meath's greatest days. He made his senior debut for Sean Boylan's team in 1985, aged 19, having been part of the first Meath U21 team to win a Leinster title and he remained on the panel for four seasons, collecting two senior All-Ireland medals. Great times, fondly remembered.
Later, in '92 and '93, he was Slane's player-coach, bringing them to a senior championship quarter final in his second season in charge. Hardly unfair to assume, then, that Lane knows his good teams and, since transferring to Simonstown in 1995, knows he's part of one now.
"In fairness, we feel we have underachieved," he allows, " and that we haven't played to our full potential. Probably our lack of consistency is the main reason why we didn't go further this year. "In our second game we were beaten by Moynalvey and that was the only match they won. We played for ten or fifteen minutes in all the matches, max. And we managed to win mostly by playing only ten or fifteen minutes."
Which was probably the problem. But why, over the duration of a long season, when so many other changes and mini-revolutions are viable - such as the switching of Gareth O'Neill from centre back to full forward - was this inconsistency not eradicated. Or at least curtailed substantially?
"We sat around and spoke about it," Des sighs, "but couldn't put our finger on it. It wasn't anything lackadaisical on the part of the management or players; everyone was keyed up, everyone trained hard. Everyone wanted to win. It just didn't work out for some reason. I don't think there's any scapegoats, or anybody to blame for it."
Lane comes to a halt and seems to reflect. Then he adds in revision. "Ultimately the buck stops with the players on the field."
Evading blame would not be Des Lane's style, but then, he would rarely have to.
Throughout the county, he is regarded in the highest esteem, as a player with character and self possession, with qualities to cajole the downhearted and to lead by example when the downhearted seem irretrievable. A player who never abdicates his responsibilities, which at full back, of course, are considerable. PJ Carroll, the former Leitrim manager and one of the most respected figures in the game, took charge of Simonstown for the 1997 season. Lane was one of Carroll's most consistent performers. "Des is one of the best full backs in Meath," Carroll says, "and had he been in any other county but Meath over the years, would have been a regular on the county team. He is one of the few full backs that I have come across that has really adopted to the modern, running style game. That's one of Des's great qualities, his adaptability. I'd say he could make a fair fist of playing full forward as well."
Many would indeed argue that Lane's intercounty career - albeit gilt-edge with glory - failed to bloom in proportion to his talent, but one could almost take for granted that his modesty, allied to with his satisfaction at how things went, would probably reject such a notion. Maybe, maybe not.
He made his competitive debut, he remembers, in Navan against Kildare playing in a half back line that featured two other debutantes: Ferguson and Harnan. A year later, in 1986, he was part of the Leinster winning panel; in 1987, he was part of the team, corner back. Big year, but on the day of the Leinster final, he was left out. O'Connell was switched from half forward to half back, and Ferguson from half back to corner back. Lane was displaced and it hardly needs stating here, hugely disappointed.
"Not only did I miss out on a Leinster final, but an All-Ireland final as well. And with the calibre and quality of players Sean had in there, it was very difficult to break back in. The team remained the same for more or less the two years."
Boylan was "very likeable" and "very good with players"; he has always had time for Des and family since he left the panel.
"What impressed me about Sean was that he did all the training himself," says Des. "He'd say 'right lads, this is what I want' and nobody would be able to do it, and then Sean would pull his legs apart and put his head on the ground and the players would look at each other with disbelief and say 'we can't do that Sean'. He could do things we couldn't do."
Training was tough. "Running around the Hill of Tara in the dark to the sand dunes of Bettystown." Thanks to Scups White from Stamullen, Lane knew exactly how tough.
"Scups was the Meath driver in '87; he had been driving Meath players to training and matches for over 30 years. Just picks you up at your house and brings you along. And then he brings you home. He'd have a pile in the car by the time he got to training; he'd pick up O'Malley in his house, Flynn in his, go to Balbriggan to pick up Mickey McQuillan and then come back to collect me in Slane. Then he'd go into Navan. He'd do that for all training sessions and matches and in 1987 he worked out that being involved with the Meath team was the equivalent of a 40 hours working week for 26 weeks. Not only for him but for some of the players as well. But it's easier when you're single."
Which Des was until 1990 when he married his wife Karen Clynch, his leg in plaster of paris. He broke it playing soccer, quite badly, and it effectively ended his chances of returning to the Meath panel. He was in plaster for 20 weeks. With replenished hunger, he returned to renew his quest for a Keegan Cup medal, but with Slane the good times of 1987, when they nearly humbled the team of the era, O'Mahony's, in the semi-final, were beyond emulation.
Living in Navan, working in Dublin and finding it increasingly difficult to attend training with Slane, he eventually switched his allegiances to Simonstown whom he soon helped claim Intermediate glory in 1995.
So then, fourteen years playing senior football. At this stage, it's not difficult to guess Des Lane's overriding ambition. For quite a while, or at least as long as it takes, it will scupper with ease all notions of retirement. Ignore the fact that he has just moved back into coaching (he brought the club's U21 team to the county final); as long as there is a Keegan Cup medal up for grabs, the playing career will remain in the fast lane.
And for optimism, abundant reasons exist. "I think another year will bring this team on a lot." he declares. "This year we had a number of new players, like John Lunney, Paul Reilly, Ronan Brady, Seamus Kenny; lads who last year were playing junior football. They will have benefited greatly from the experience of this season.
"I think next year, if we can iron out and get rid of the inconsistencies, then we'll be a major force I've no doubt about that. I remember somebody saying, if we could just play for three quarters of an hour ..."
He stops again and wonders if this sounds a little facetious or arrogant. It probably does. But on the evidence of last season, we know he is quite right.
Simonstown Gaels GFC would like to thank all those who made the club's 'House Draw' such a resounding success.
Chairman John Howard: "We would like to extend our appreciation to Kingscroft Developments, John Farrelly, the local community, the people who sold tickets and obviously the people who bought the tickets. Also, a special word of thanks to our other sponsors, Malone's Garage and Navan Travel. Without their help, the unique fundraising endeavour would never have been possible."
Most Read Stories