Having been at the coalface of the club since it's genesis, long-time Doohamlet treasurer Eamonn Connolly is well used to seeing the club face new challenges and overcoming them too.

Eamonn Connolly admits that relegation from senior ranks is not what the Doohamlet faithful wanted to happen four decades on from the club's foundation.
Forty years ago, he was at the vanguard of the movement which led to the establishment of the O'Neills. Sadly, 2009 proved to be a real let-down.
However, the club's inaugural chairman believes the club's premier team is capable of taking one step back and two forward.
"To be honest, I'm not sure we'd have been fit for senior football next year considering how we got on over the past season.
"We lost a few players, like Paul McArdle and Greg Duffy, to emigration and injuries and we just hadn't enough in the tank to do without them.
"I think we'll be more at home, with the current squad, playing intermediate football and then we can build things slowly back up again."
Despite his concern regarding the resources Doohamlet possess at present, Connolly remains upbeat and says the team wasn't out-classed in '09.
Indeed, he reckons that emigration, injuries and ill-luck - more than the potency of the opposition - conspired to make it an annus horribilus.
"Apart from the other things that upset our year, we didn't have an awful lot of luck in some games 'cause we lost a lot of them by narrow margins.
"Most of the games slipped by us in the last five minutes or so with the other team getting some late scores to put the game beyond us.
"Ballybay got a goal in injury time and 'blayney got a late point to get a draw. They are two games that stand out in my memory looking back."
Shorn of the talents of the aforementioned McArdle - dynamic midfielder and principal free-taker - Doohamlet faced steepling peak all season.
The team's mountainous challenge in the league was mirrored by their travails in the senior championship which compounded their sorry season.
A convincing defeat to Truagh in the first round was added to when Latton handed the O'Neills their walking papers in the back-door system.
Eamonn concedes there was a certain sense of predictability and inevitability attached to the club's championship campaign.
He admits though that he was more disappointed by the club's league results but from the darkest days . . .
"I think we have enough good players to come back stronger next year," he enthuses. "They'll use the experience this year to their advantage.
"We've done well over the last few years to stay up senior and Dessie McBennett did a great job as manager but it's time to re-group now."
Described by some as the heartbeat of the club and others as one of the engines that keeps it going forward, Eamonn is an optimist at heart.
He believes experienced players like Ollie Hughes, Shane McManus, Darren Connolly and Ciaran McManus can propel the club back up the ranks.
While of course the club is extremely proud of Colin Walsh, who captained Monaghan to All-Ireland Vocational Schools honours with a series of outstanding performances from centre back.
A new man will be at the managerial helm in 2010 and Eamonn is convinced that "he will have a lot of good material to work with next year."
The clamourous cockpit of intermediate football will offer a stern challenge to Doohamlet's finest and only hard work will win the day, he surmises.
The club's current treasurer and groundsman believes the experience of playing senior football in 2007, '08 and '09 won't, in itself, guarantee a return to the top flight.
"When you look back at how we got to the division one league final in 2007 and to the semi-final the following year, after beating 'blayney in a play-off for the last four, so everyone knows see how well we did and the sort of talent we had at the club.
"There was no big shame losing out to Clontibret ('07) and Carrick ('08) in those times but we'll have to find that kind of form again for next year.
"The club has come a long way since winning the junior championship in '99 and 2001 but intermediate football is tough - you don't get anything easy.
"Before 2001 when we were down at intermediate level, it took us four years to get up so anyone who remembers that will remember how tough it is.
"They say it's harder to get out of intermediate than to stay up senior so we will have to pull out all the stops to make a quick return (to senior ranks).
"I think, after losing out on our place at senior level, we'll have to hit the ground running in 2010 and regain the confidence we had in recent years."
Doohamlet sport a good consistent record of achievement though over the last ten years or thereabouts and they're not a work-shy group of players.
Indeed, the character and ambition shown by the club's players in putting one-point IFC final defeats in 2003 and 2005 behind them tells a tale.
There is a huge commitment to the cause of Gaelic football in Doohamlet and Eamonn Connolly's personal involvement is emblematic of that spirit.
He was one of a number of young men in their early 'twenties from the Doohamlet area who formed the O'Neills in the spring of 1969.
All those engaged in the formation of the club willingly paid a pound to the county board to have the club affiliated. Eamonn was one of those donors.
Those in the club who remember those early years will doubtless hope that the passion and pride evident back then will be rekindled in 2010.
"Nobody gave us much of a chance in 1974 but we won the junior championship by beating Tyholland, after a replay," Eamonn recalls.
"That win was like winning the all-Ireland. We were the underdogs. They had the Donnelly brothers and a few other very good players.
"I think that county (title) win really put the club on it's feet," added the then champions' team-captain and right-half back."
Apart from that momentous '74 triumph, he has some other great memories of times past when characters and wise-cracks abounded.
"I remember one time we were playing on Liam Keenan's field. He was a very good player and a very witty man at the same time.
"On one occasion, the ref blew him up for something or other and the usual argument started about who was in the right.
"After a minute or so, Liam gave it one more go to overturn the decision against him and told the ref 'a man can do anything he likes on his own field!"
Over the years, Eamonn has morphed from player to key administrator and has been chairman (1969), secretary and treasurer at various junctures.
"I wasn't that good of a player so I thought doing something as a member of the committee would suit the club best," he modestly professes.
Eamonn is looking forward to seeing the club's current development work on a new training ground being completed in the coming year.
Renovation work on the club's premier pitch will mean that home games may be off the agenda 'till next summer too, he suggests.
"It's not the ideal thing to have to play the first few games of the new season away from home but I'm sure the players will rise to the challenge.
"I see no reason why we can't give as good we get with the likes of Inniskeen or Emyvale and the rest of the top teams next year.
"We've never won the intermediate championship and I'm not sure whether we'll be good enough next year to break that record.
"We beat Latton at home though and drew with Scotstown in Scotstown over the last few months so if we can reproduce that sort of form, we'll not be that far away even if it means getting promoted back to senior through the league."
Eamonn has a soft spot for keeping the production lines operating at full tilt at underage level. He is adamant they're the font of future success:
"Underage success is very important to us. The junior championship wins in 1999 and 2001 were born out of county winning juvenile teams.
"So we have to keep the feeder system working and if we keep the conveyor belt working, we should be able to make it back up to senior sooner rather than later."


Colin Walshe Captains Monaghan VEC to
All Ireland Title


In 2009 Doohamlet GFC and all Doohamlet Gaels were very proud to witness the achievement of Colin Walshe who Captained Monaghan VEC to Ulster and All Ireland Titles. Colin now joins other star players Ted Duffy and Niall Connolly who also achieved All Ireland success in 2002 at this level.
Colin made his Senior debut for Doohamlet in 2006 when Manager Dessie McBennett introduced his young protégé at just 16 years of age and is now a regular first team player. A student at D.I.T. Colin has represented his County at Minor level and has ambitions to play for Monaghan U21's and indeed represent Monaghan at Senior level. Colin has a bright future ahead of him and everyone in Doohamlet wish him well. Tweet

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