In reflecting on his days with the Harps, Hugh Kearns conjures up a picture of great, enjoyable times. The bonhomie which existed within the club some half a century ago was magical, he suggests, and he takes immense pride in saying that he enjoyed every moment of his football career with the county town club. Hugh Kearns is pleased that the playing and watching of Gaelic football still generates tremendous excitement and pleasure for a whole host of people, not only in his adopted town but also wherever gaels congregate around the world. "People say that young fellas haven't the same interest as people had years ago but I wouldn't agree. I think Gaelic football is as popular as ever and I can only see the game going from strength to strength." Of course, one has to understand that Hugh played most of his football at a time when the Harps were going good guns, as they say in the vernacular. There were very few teams who could outclass the county town side when they were at their best in the late forties and early fifties. "We had some very good teams but we didn't always get the sort of results we should have had. We had a lot of very talented individuals playing with us and we really should have won at least one senior championship title back then." And the missing pieces in the jigsaw? "I don't know where we fell down. I think there were some very good other teams around - like Donaghmoyne and Inniskeen, for instance. "We had a lot going for ourselves but maybe the luck wasn't on our side though at times when we needed it most. In some cases there was only the bounce of our ball between us and the other team but it didn't fall our way." Hugh is a veritable mine of information about Harps teams from yesteryear that he was involved in. He is sad that so many of those he did battle alongside have since gone to their eternal reward. He notes also that a lot of his adversaries are also no longer with us. But at 70-something, the Castlebellingham, Co. Louth native realises that time waits for no man. Not even well-decorated footballers. Not surprisingly, Hugh is unequivocal in fingering the club's brilliant successes of 1949 as the highlight of his playing career. Being able to attend a recent reunion of that all-conquering panel brought back many fine memories. "The club brought us all together at the beginning of 2000 and treated us very well at a very nice function. It was great to reminisce and great to see that the club has some very competent people running things at the present time." Beating all and sundry in 1949 with a panache and poise seldom seen at junior level in the county, the Harps crew of 52 years ago was one with very few weak links, Hugh claims. It was very much a united panel too, he adds. "There was a great spirit in the camp. There were no stars although we had a couple of fellas on the team from Cavan like Barney McKiernan from Mullahoran and Tom Reilly of Cornafean. They added a lot of quality to the side. They were tough players and added steel too. "I remember that the line-out rarely changed which helped too. It was nearly always the same fifteen which started and I don't think there was ever more than 18 players used at any time during the year. "It seemed that the first choice players were good enough to hold their places on the team. The Harps always had plenty of fellas interested in getting onto the first team but nobody on the team wanted to come off it so they trained and played to the best of their abilities." For his part, Hugh was only too glad to be part of the Harps first fifteen back then. He was light (never anymore than around 11 stone) and small at just 5'8". He was whippet-like but made the most of the opportunities which came his way. "I usually played at either corner-forward or on the 40. I preferred playing in the corner though because I could nip in behind the full-back line and take my score if I got a chance. On the '40, you had to mix it a bit and I hadn't really the physique to do that well in that department," adds Hugh whose brother Jimmy won an All-Ireland JFC medal with Louth in 1960. Hugh did his fair share of the scoring for the Harps. Like a thief in the night, he was liable to race goalwards - chasing after a long delivery - and either score or be fouled. The personable Harps old boy had a good tutoring though before he was asked to stand up for himself at adult level. Like many another budding star, he learned the rudiments of Gaelic football at the excellent Christian Brothers school in Monaghan town. Others did likewise, would-be teammates like Mickey Treanor and Harry Hughes. In truth, Hugh and co. needed the best apprenticeship they could garner because of the strength of club football in Monaghan in the forties and fifties. Apart from the fact that Clontibret, Ballybay, Donaghmoyne and Inniskeen were there at the top of the pile, Gaelic football back then was the archetypal 'man's' game. "It was tough but not dirty. There were very few fellas out to try and do you damage but you had to fight your corner nonetheless. Anyway, no matter how the game went, everything was forgotten about at the end of it all and I'm glad to say that I made a lot of friends from my time playing football." Son of Hugh Kearns snr (who moved to St. Patrick's Terrace after moving to Monaghan with his family from Castlebellingham when young Hugh was just 13), the would-be Harps flyer combined what he learned from the football fields at the Christian Brothers with what the tips and skills he picked up as a minor under the wings of Harps legend Rock Treanor. "We had always good men over the teams. Rock Treanor and Paddy McLoughlin were there in '49 and were great fellas." So what was the training like in those teams for the Harps teams of the forties and fifties? "I don't think it was as tough as it is these days but coming up to finals, we'd be up at Oriel Park about four times per week. We'd mostly train with the ball though. There wasn't much running done, just a few laps at the end of the training after all the ball work. "The lads playing at club and county levels now would be a lot fitter than we were back then. We were probably stronger but not as mobile, fast or as fit as the present-day players." But is Hugh - a brother of long-time Harps committee man Patsy - a fan of the modern day style of Gaelic football? "I like it most of the time but not when the players overdo the short-passing game. A lot of teams don't believe in kicking the ball at all and that's a very messy game, especially when moves break down. "I can understand why there's so many people going to the big matches now though. It's a very attractive game but I'd still like to see more of the catch-and-kick style game being used by teams and managers." Remembering the Hackett Cup intermediate success of 1950, Hugh says that it was expected that the Harps would advance to win the blue riband of Monaghan football championships but it wasn't to be. But is Hugh bitter? Not a bit of it: "I must say that I have no regrets at all. I quit playing in 1956 after enjoying every moment of my days with the Harps. I played against some great players like John Rice of Clontibret and Pat Finnegan of Killeevan. I look back on those days with nothing but fond memories. I have no regrets." Oh, that we could all say the same. Tweet

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