To the manor born
November 29, 2002
The football pedigree is there. The willingness to put her shoulder to the wheel is obvious. Little wonder then that Pamela Coyle's stint as secretary of Ballybay Pearse Brothers has been roundly applauded. Kevin Carney reports.
Her grandfather was a provincial championship medal winner with Cavan and her father represented the Breffni Blues at underage level. Both also served their native Cootehill Celtic club with distinction as players, mentors and administrators. But Pamela Coyle is all Ballybay, all Monaghan.
The Pearse Brothers club has a young, vibrant and enthusiastic team competing at senior level right now. Off the field of play, their line-up ain't half-bad either.
Pamela Coyle is one of the more high-profile members of the club's backroom team. As the club's outgoing secretary she has been a stand-out figure at the coalface of club affairs over the past year but is at pains to point out that just like those donning the club colours week-in, week-out at Pearse Park, she is just one of a team.
Pamela has pitched her best for the Ballybay club on the administration front over the course of the last five years. During that time she has seved the maroon and whites with aplomb in the roles of secretary and treasurer. Local gaels baulk at the rumour that Pamela may be taking a sabbatical from high office in 2003.
The dedicated 27-year old club stalwart may well be missing from the front bench in the coming year due to time constraints but it's very doubtful that she will be posted missing entirely. Given her football pedigree and her self-confessed gra for her native club and Gaelic games, one cannot imagine Pamela cutting her ties completely.
Ironically, like many another would-be member of a club's inner-circle, Pamela was initially an unsuspecting target of an ad hoc Ballybay Pearse Brothers' recruitment drive.
"The first time I was elected to the post of secretary, I hadn't even been at the club's AGM. It was only after the meeting that I was approached and informed that the club wanted me to fill the post. I hadn't much choice in the matter really!"
As anyone with even the most vague insight into the workings of a GAA club's parent committee, the job of secretary is inarguably the most laboursome, time-consuming and perhaps responsible of all positions to be filled at the top table. Like a seasoned veteran though, Pamela coped remarkably well when thrown in at the deep end in '97 - so much so that she was inveigled to stand again, and again, and again. Very much a case of the lady to the manor born, one suspects.
So is it the filthy lucre, the never-ending perks or the carrot of a golden handshake down the line that appeals most about the job?
"If only. No, it's a job that you really have to enjoy to do it all right. Being secretary puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and a lot of work on your plate but once you have a good working committee to support you, the workload becomes a lot lighter and you're not under that much pressure."
And how did things pan out for the club secretary in 2002?
"I was lucky in that we had a very good committee in place. Everyone on the committee worked hard and did their bit which made my job a lot easier. Once the workload is divided up, it's not that difficult a job to do. I enjoyed the past year and enjoyed working with the rest of the people on the committee," the personable club officer explains.
Interestingly, Pamela admits that she was somewhat happy to take hold of the secretary's reins in 2002 as the previous year, she acted out the part of club treasurer which, she confesses, was a whole different ball game. In weighing up the delights and travails associated with both jobs, she unhesitatingly plumps for the secretary's job as her preferred role. Thus, her stint holding the purse strings for Ballybay Pearse Brothers lasted just one year.
Despite her tender years, Pamela can be considered a seasoned GAA administrator at this juncture. Unlike some of her peers, she doesn't believe that a club secretary's lot is any more arduous than in times past. Talk of more paperwork, the complexities of new technological demands and increased club activities hasn't, Pamela argues, necessarily increased the workload. She returns to her basic point about the nicieties of a division of labour ethos within an individual club.
"A lot of it boils down to how much assistance a secretary gets in trying to do the job as efficiently and as speedily as possible. I don't think the workload in 2002 was any heavier than it was in 1997. Once you get all the work involved in registrations and affiliations out of the way in January and February, the workload eases a lot."
A bank employee based in Monaghan town, Pamela's grandfather Paddy and her father Dermot were born and reared in Cootehill and were integral members of the successful Celtic teams there for many years. It's not surprising that their offspring would inherit a liking for Gaelic games.
"I never played much sport but myself and my sisters Lorraine and Evonne were aware from a very young age just how sporty our family was. I don't remember that well the time my grandfather and father were involved with Cootehill but I remember the time my father was a selector with Ballybay. Football matters were a regular part of the conversation at home when we were growing up and we were always brought to a lot of matches which would have stimulated our interest in the GAA."
While Pamela contemplates whether or not her forthcoming bank exam studies will guillotine her work as secretary in 2003, she looks forward to seeing the completion of the construction of a new training pitch sometime in the coming year. It's a facility which will give the club a great boost, she maintains.
"It will be sited adjacent to our existing pitch at Pearse Park and will be a big boost to all the players as something like it has been badly needed for quite a while.
"Putting the training pitch in place is a big enough undertaking and will cost a fair bit of money but the sale of the club's hall on the Monaghan road will go some way to financing the training ground. And then we have the annual golf classic which is our major fundraiser plus the weekly blotto and a racenight."
And the income generated at the 'gate'?
"Our income from matches wouldn't be that great, compared to the other fundraisers. Some of the matches against the likes of Latton, Clontibret or 'Blayney would attract large crowds though and bring in quite a bit of money. We don't get that many county matches though."
What about the support garnered by the club from the people of the town?
"The club is well supported by the people of the area. Obviously when things are going well and results are good, the support is at its height. That was the case when the club won the senior championship in 1987, the junior double two years ago and then the intermediate championship in 2001.
"Overall though, the club receives a good deal of support from the townspeople, in good and bad times. And even the success at underage level in 2002 with the victory by the under 15s creates a bit of hype and generates renewed support.
"The GAA is by far and away the biggest organisation in Ballybay and if somebody isn't a member then more often than not someone else in their family is involved or a relation. The football club in Ballybay is at the heart of the community, just like so many other clubs in the county and around the country."
Mention of the aforementioned under 15s and Pamela is encouraged that there are more talented, young players emerging up through the ranks of the club.
"Most of our current senior panel are still young and the best has yet to be seen from them at senior level. I think the prospects are very good for the senior team even though with so many of them away-based, it will be difficult to keep them together.
"There's not that much employment around Ballybay so it may be that a lot of the current senior squad will have to leave the town permenantly to get work which is something the club will have to put up with but it will make for difficulties with collective training and preparing for the big matches," Pamela opines.
Still, Pamela is convinced that the maroon and whites will have a significant part to play in deciding the destination of the major honours in Monaghan in the coming year.
"It won't be for the lack of hard work or dedication," she assures us.
Certainly hard work and dedication are the operative words in Pamela's case. Lucky Pearse Brothers.
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