Having spent the majority of his adult life away from his native Monaghan, Val O'Brien could be forgiven for losing touch with the fortunes of his beloved county on the GAA fields, but that is certainly not the case with this staunch supporter.

Monaghan GAA supporters are some of the most passionate in the country and despite the county going through some lean years over the last two decades; they have always had a loyal following.
The GAA has acted as a massive social outlet for all involved and people have made friends in every part of the country and indeed further afield.
Val is a practicising chartered surveyor for the past 21 years and he established his own business Val O'Brien & Associates in 1997. The Monaghan native has been living in Dunsany, Co Meath for 12 years now, and is a keen follower of the GAA.
We speak to Val about his passion for Gaelic football, while he also gives an insight into the success of his business.
Monaghan had been somewhat in the football wilderness throughout the 90's and early 00's, but the appointment of Seamus 'Banty' McEnaney in 2007 heralded a new era for the county.
This was the year that Monaghan emerged with a lot of credibility as they faced the mighty Kerry in the All-Ireland SFC quarterfinal. The Kingdom were massive favourites to go through to the semi final, but a workmanlike performance by the Ulster side almost brought about one of the biggest shocks of the decade.
Monaghan lost that match by a point, but they gained a lot of respect and more importantly belief in themselves that they could go and pick up some silverware.
However in recent seasons they have faltered to deceive and have disappointed their supporters when something big was expected from them.
"I suppose the supporters expected Monaghan to win an Ulster title in the last few years. But last year was a bitterly disappointing campaign and going into 2010 I think everyone knew that it was the last throw of the dice for many of those players and indeed Banty," said Val.
"I would follow Monaghan's fortunes very closely. The have given the supporters plenty to cheer about in the last few years and hopefully they can go on doing that for many years to come."
Hailing from Emyvale, Val played with the local GAA club at underage level and togged out on a few occasions for the adult team, before heading to college and then the U.K, which brought an end to his career as a player.
Nonetheless, Val continues to support the club to this day and is a member of an external committee set up to discuss ways of helping to improve the facilities for the club.
"The external committee consists of six or seven members that are from Emyvale originally, but don't live there anymore. We meet every few months or so, probably not as much as we should in fairness and we discuss the situation within the club and on how the facilities can be improved.
"I'd go to as many of the club's games as possible. It is an extremely well ran club and they were actually named Monaghan Club of the Year in 2005, which was a great honour for all concerned.
"There is a hard working committee in place and if they need any advice, we have no problem in offering that and hopefully we can be beneficial to the future of the club."
Since establishing his own business 13 years ago, Val O'Brien & Associates has grown considerable and having started with just himself in the practice, Val now employs 11 highly skilled workers and operates from their offices at the Steelworks where they have been located since 2007, having spent the previous ten years on Merrion Square.
As chartered surveyors, Val and his team offer a wide range of services and collectively they have many years experience. Indeed, Val himself is the longest serving building survey member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors. Val is an active member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors and is a past chairman of the building surveying division.
His area of speciality is in the field of landlord and tenant with a particular emphasis on the responsibility for repairs and the preparation and defending of schedules of dilapidations. Val is also a specialist in defect analysis and building pathology.
"I would have given a number of seminars over the years on dilapidations and building surveys. We are currently quite busy and are involved in a lot of private work. We provide residential, commercial, land surveying and project management services to a large customer base.
"We have completed work for the ESB, Eircom and G4S to name just a few of the high profile businesses that we are associated with and have built up a good relationship with all our clients. Basically, we offer the full range of services.
"We are quite pleased with the amount of work that we have on the books and we are relatively busy. Most of our work would be in the commercial sector as the residential sector has suffered in the past eighteen months or so."
Val has worked hard to establish the business and his firm is now regarded as one of the leaders in their field of expertise. Like the Monaghan footballers, Val O'Brien & Associates are set for a bright future. 
-Taken from Hogan Stand magazine Tweet

Most Read Stories