The club's name tells us a lot about their character. Fergal O'Hanlon's GAC deserve tremendous credit for flying the GAA flag with determination and resolve under the most difficult of circumstances. They may not have been regular visitors to the winner's podium in 2011, but Monaghan's newest club continued to fight the good fight in admirable fashion. They're hanging in there with gusto. But have they been fully embraced by the local GAA community? Could the County Board and other clubs do more to support one of their own?

Whoever said it wasn't going to be easy knew what he / she was talking about. The past eight years have been a long hard struggle for Fergal O'Hanlon's GAC, but they have rolled up their sleeves and refuse to lie down and die. Sometimes it would be easier to just throw in the towel. But the club committee are made of sterner stuff and they are hell-bent on one day providing their members with a club structure and facilities they can be proud of.
The Monaghan town club has done more than enough to prove its good intentions at this stage; now it's time for the rest of the county's GAA fraternity to get behind them and give them a helping hand. Bottom line is that Fergal O'Hanlon's are as much a part of the Monaghan GAA family as Scotstown, Clontibret, Ballybay or anybody else. We should be looking out for them instead of sitting by idly waiting for the club to go bang.
Club secretary Darren Doyle admits 2011 was a difficult year but he isn't going to let that deter him: "It has been a difficult year for every club. We had a very strong 2010 in underage, winning three trophies, and that was a very hard act to follow. But some of the teams did okay. The U16 team had to amalgamate with Tyholland and they were a decent side, while the U12s and U14s did well, too.
"As for the senior team, it's a long hard struggle every year. Just getting numbers is a big problem, and a few lads have emigrated, which doesn't help."
In the JFC, O'Hanlon's endured a torrid time, suffering heavy defeats to Cremartin at Clontibret on Friday May 27th and to Blackhill in Tyholland on Sunday July 3rd. They were really out of their depth in these games and the heavy beatings did them a lot of damage: "It was very hard to turn them around and to pick them up afterwards," says Darren. "Heavy defeats like that are no good to anybody. But until such time as we can field our own breed of players at adult level - rather than a lot of guys who have played with other clubs and are mostly over the hill - then it's going to be difficult to make an impression at adult level. We have to stick to our founding principles and bring through our own talent.
"The idea at the start, when the club was founded, was to just have underage teams and to gradually bring through our own players but we had to have a senior team to have a say at County Board level. It wasn't necessarily something we wanted to do and it's not great at the minute, but hopefully in years to come we will have a senior team consisting exclusively of players we have brought through ourselves from underage. That's what this club is all about, really."
How far are they from making this happen? "Our oldest set of homegrown boys would be the U16s who won the U16 Division Three championship last year. They are still too young for adult football, but they will hopefully start to filter through in a couple of years. We would hope to maybe put a minor team in again next year and see how it goes from there."
Though they are a member of the Monaghan GAA family, Fergal O'Hanlon's plough a lone furrow. "We haven't received one penny off anyone. We have generated finance by selling tickets in our local area and that's not easy to do in the present times. I know a lot of clubs are finding it hard but I thought somewhere along the line we might get some help or assistance. We got a pitch off the County Board but we haven't been able to finish the facilities. We have to do all the work ourselves and it's almost impossible. We're trying to engage in all aspects of the GAA but we have received zero and that's disappointing. If we could get some help with improving our facilities, we could move forward in a meaningful and positive manner."
Does Darren feel that Fergal O'Hanlon's get the respect they deserve from other clubs, considering how difficult a challenge they face? "Some clubs come in and tell us to keep going and to keep at it and we do get a fair bit of encouragement. We've been up over discipline and it has cost us and I suppose there's no excuse because referees have a difficult job to do. The rules are there for everybody. Naturally, we feel hard done by sometimes but I think every club feels the same."
What are the plans for the future, then? What's the best way forward for Fergal O'Hanlon's GAC? "We still have very good numbers at underage and that's where we need to continue developing. We have U8s and U10s involved in the Go Games, which I think have been extremely successful in the county. The Go Games provide all clubs with a chance to get very young guys to tog out and wear a jersey, rather than having to wait until they are twelve. It's great to see those wee lads wearing the jerseys and playing football. It's all very well organised by the development committee and it's very worthwhile. We've got good numbers out in our area and we feel we can build on that.
"We have a good crop of players from twelve down, so it's a matter of getting these players to stay at it. If we had better facilities, or if we had a few pound to spend on the facilities, that would be a massive help and would help us to cope with greater numbers and we might even be able to attract more players, maybe bring in more young lads from outside Mullaghmatt / Cortolvin. As it is, nobody wants to come and tog out at the side of the road."
It's a long-term project and the club committee knew this from the word go. They are braced for an ongoing battle against the odds: "People said we would be gone after two years but we are now into our eighth year and we had a very good 2010 trophy-wise. But we badly need better grounds and facilities where people can leave their children in comfort. So it's all going to come down to the help we can get and the effort of our supporters.
"We have more guys coming in and doing Level One and Child Protection courses and more parents are getting involved. It's good to get that help, but we could always do with more."
This was the Fergal O'Hanlon's team on championship duty against Blackhill in the 2011 Monaghan JFC: David Power; Patrick Joseph McQuaid, Charlie Connolly, Dylan Kivlihan; Shane Power (0-1), Daniel McKenna, Luke Murray; Charlie Cawley (0-4), David Ballintine; Kyle Byrne, Dean Jarmen, John McDonald; Niall Hamill, Craig O'Leary, Diarmuid McKenna. Sub: Francis McCaffrey for N Hamill. Tweet

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