Peter Farrelly represented Meath and London in championship football, but his priorities always lay with St. Brigids. Royal County talks to the affable football-aholic St. Brigids, Ballinacree will always rank amongst the underdogs of Meath club football. Sandwiched between Meath clubs Oldcastle and Moylough, Cavan outfit Mountnugent and Westmeath side Castletown-Finea, it is not hard to understand why silverware has generally eluded them. An Under 21 'Special' League success against Longwood in 1993 followed by victory in the Junior Championship the following year are the only tangible rewards for their endeavours in the 90s. Battling against the odds is part and parcel of GAA life in Ballinacree. GAA folk in this part of the world are made of stern stuff. Our Royal County correspondent spoke to former stalwart player Peter Farrelly and learned that the club is going from strength to strength off the field, despite the lack of success on it. "It's always a numbers game. We have a small pool of players and it's a struggle competing with the bigger clubs. However, there is a great spirit in the club. We've owned our own pitch for many years and last year we acquired additional land which enabled us to lengthen and widen the pitch. We've also drained and re-seeded the playing area." An undertaking of this magnitude doesn't come cheaply ! Peter added: "We have spent in the region of £40,000 in the last year and everybody has been really busy getting the job done. It took us over 12 months to complete the job and we are now back playing on the pitch." Delighted with the re-developed pitch, Peter is fulsome in his praise for the committee which put the finance in place and got the job done: "We have an excellent finance committee (headed by dynamic club Chairman Hughie Gilsenan) and they deserve special praise. We have a very successful Lotto going and have raised most of the money needed through this." Reluctant to single out individuals for fear of leaving somebody out, Peter added: "Benny Briody (owner of Katsie Brownes) has been our main sponsor and has been very good to us." Excellent dressing-room and shower facilities were already in place; the re - development of the pitch was the final piece of the jigsaw. The infrastructure is now in place to see this progressive club well into the next millennium. All that's left to do is officially re-open the grounds. " We hope to officially re-open the grounds with a game here next Spring. We are hopeful of getting Meath and Cavan to play." Given the club's position on the north Meath/south east Cavan border and the great rivalry between the neighbouring counties, a bumper crowd can be expected. The mouth waters at the prospect. Peter, of course, is no stranger to intercounty fare, having donned the famous green and gold of Meath in the early seventies. Gifted with a sweet left foot and an uncanny eye for goal he was a member of the Meath under 21 panel which was beaten by Offaly by a single point in the 1970 Leinster final. His memories of that day are vague but he recalls: "The Fays, Mickey and Jimmy, and Ken Rennicks were on that team. Murt Connor and Kevin Kilmurray were on the Offaly team. I think they just about deserved their victory ". He hung up his boots in the mid-eighties, but not before giving over 20 years of service, man and boy, to the St. Brigids club. Togging out mostly at right half forward, he was noted for his style and accuracy. In '74, Peter and his younger brother Gerry went to work in England and after settling they affiliated with the Parnells club in London, one of the stronger clubs in the UK at the time. In '75, they helped their adopted club reach the London senior football final. "We were beaten by the Kingdom who had a very strong team at the time," Peter recalls. The brothers' footballing exploits across the water didn't finish at club level. Both were picked to represent London in the Connacht Championship that year. "Both Gerry and myself were picked to play against Mayo in the Connacht Championship. Mayo beat us well. As far I can remember, it was the first time London ever entered the Connacht Championship," Peter recalls. More recently, Carnaross flyer Ollie Murphy and Moynalvey's Adrian O' Halloran have donned the London jersey. Peter looks back on his sojourn in London with fond memories but admits he has lost contact with the GAA scene there. While based in the UK, Peter and Gerry missed out on Meath's National Football League success over Dublin. A case of 'Que Sera, Sera'' for the Ballinacree boys! On returning to Ireland in '75 the brothers joined near neighbours Moylough who were operating in the senior ranks at the time. Peter recalled his time with them " We played with Moylough for four or five years and although we didn't actually win anything we did have a very useful team. As far as I can remember we came close on a few occasions and had a couple of near misses. Joe Brady, Paddy Traynor, Pat Cooke and Kevin Hanlon were all on that team and they were all very good players ." Peter and Gerry however, rejoined their beloved St. Brigids in 1981 but silverware again proved elusive. Peter ruefully recalls: "We were a good enough tournament team, I suppose. It was always a numbers game here. It was always hard to keep a group of lads together" In the mid and late 70s Gerry went on to represent Meath at senior level in what was to prove a particularly barren spell for the Royal County. But what of the current crop of talent in the club? "I always thought we'd struggle this year because the lads are so young. You need a mix and we lost some very experienced players like Thomas Briody who is working in Holland, Eunan Timmons who is working in the Isle of Man and Ronan Hennessy who is working and playing in Galway. However, there are some very talented players at underage level coming through. Raymond Heary, Donal Fanning and Paul Farrelly (a son of Gerry) are all good young players," Peter points out. The step-up in class from junior to intermediate ranks has proved a bridge too far for the ambitious club but Peter remains optimistic for the future: "Keeping the young lads together is the problem. Kilmainhamwood did it and look at what they achieved. They had a great bunch of talented players and kept them together. That's what we have to do." Acting as a selector on various teams, he is well placed to judge the talent coming through the ranks. With a steady stream of talent on hand, prospects of an intermediate football success are more than a pipe dream. 'The Wood' have shown what can be achieved with a small pool of talented players. A rural outfit not unlike St. Brigids, they have put down the benchmark. Battling St. Brigids have what it takes! Tweet

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