Gerry Soden took leave of his 11 year role as Secretary of Cavan GAA County Board at the 2004 county convention. In the company of Kevin Carney, he looks back on a long and fruitful county administration career Forever the team man, Gerry Soden harps on and on about the support rendered to him in his time as the Secretary of Cavan County GAA Board. The letter 'I' doesn't seem to be part of his lexicon. Modesty personified, the Laragh United clubman says his "limited abilities" made the help afforded him by everyone he's worked alongside over the years all the more invaluable. But now that he's no longer County Secretary, Gerry says he'd "like to do other things in life", like things that his all-consuming erstwhile GAA role hampered him from pursuing in times past. His 24-7 GAA job is no more. One suspects our man Soden will hardly know himself in time. But for now it's a case of adjusting to a whole new way of life really. More time with his wife Maura (a native of Carrickaboy) and two children Peadar (11) and Grainne (8) will be the richest dividend from his departure from Cavan Football's top table. The county board's 2004 convention saw Gerry lose out to Belturbet's Liam McCabe in the election for the post of Secretary. There and then a 23 year stint in county board administration was summarily guillotined. The records show that from the time he joined the Cavan Minor County Board as Assistant Secretary in 1981 (to Secretary Tomas McDermott), Gerry beaverishly worked away at the coalface of county board affairs, at one level or other, 'till his aforementioned "democratic defeat." It was a defeat which engendered the natural human emotion of disappointment, nothing more, nothing less. Without committing himself to a return to the fold in some guise or other in the short term, the vanquished GAA officer believes that "the rest might be a good thing for me." Fact is though, Gaelic games in Cavan can ill afford to be without Soden's expertise and experience for too long though. Administrators like him don't grow on trees after all. The man himself says that he was fortunate in that during his stint as Secretary, the Breffni Blues reached three Ulster SFC deciders, winning one of them. Needless to say the twin defeats to Tyrone in 1995 and 2001 have been relegated to the back of his cerebellum where the low points reside. Cavan's triumph in '97 is, predictably, the stand-out moment for him. "I remember standing out on the pitch at Croke Park before the throw-in for the Kerry semi-final match and then the ground shook as 40,000 Cavan supporters cheered the arrival onto the field of the Cavan team. That was a moment I'll never forget." In addition, Gerry says that the drama and excitement of the Ulster SFC success greatly embellished what was destined to be a memorable year. "Looking back on it, after Anthony Forde got us out of jail by scoring the equalising point in our championship match with Fermanagh I felt that something was in the pipeline. "Maybe that was the time we got the slice of luck that all champions need." Was the ending of Cavan's dismal days from 1969 inevitable though? "I don't know whether it was inevitable but having made the '95 final, the '96 semi-final and reached the '96 All-Ireland Under 21 final - a game we could have won - winning the championship in 1997 was no more than the county deserved. "All the experience gathered by players like the two Reillys, Dermot McCabe and Anthony Forde was invaluable by the time '97 came around," Gerry suggests. In tracing Cavan's purple patch back then, the former Secretary says that Martin McHugh's ensconcement in Cavan from August 1994 onwards "brought a whole new impetus to football in the county, a real kind of professionalism to things and he (McHugh) had a genius of a physical trainer in Joe Doonan alongside him." For Gerry his elevation to the post of Secretary - as successor to Tony Looney - the previous February couldn't have been more timely. Even though he had followed up his initial role in the minor board with a stint as Secretary (1983-'87) and then as Assistant Secretary of the senior board from '87-'94, he maintains he couldn't have been prepared for the workload inherent in the post of Secretary of the senior board. "Tony Looney had organised an office in Breffni Park which made Cavan one of the very few county boards in the country to have such a facility and it was a great help to me in finding my feet as was Bernie (Lynch) in the office over the years. "Year after year the workload increased with a lot of it revolving around the implementation of the newly-established Players' Injury Scheme. "And then when we reached the Ulster final in 1995, for the first time since '83, things got even busier. "1995 was an all-ticket affair and that was new ground for a lot of people in Cavan," adds Gerry who says the banter with former Cavan star and Department of Agriculture work colleague Danny Finnegan over the years has been a real treat. Needless to say, Gerry's 'apprenticeship' at minor board level over the years stood to him superbly. But the Stradone native is at pains to put out that that grinding really began as a mentor at underage level in Laragh during the early seventies under the stewardship of Dermot King. Minor county titles collected in those days, in tandem with neighbours Lavey, laid the foundations for the great Laragh senior teams of the eighties. It was with his good friend and fellow club delegate Dermot that Gerry got his first taste of minor board affairs. In later years, Gerry went onto learn a lot about club and county administration matters from the late Frank Reilly. Despite his lack of a footballing c.v. it turned out to be a case of 'to the manor born' for Gerry as his involvement in the GAA became more and more intense. Son of Drumgoon native Mary (nee Rice) and Peter Soden, the bold Gerry boasted a good GAA pedigree. His Stradone-born father won an Ulster JFC medal with Cavan in 1938 from the centre-back berth and a Cavan JFC medal - in the company of the great PJ Duke - with the then Stradone club in '44. Peter was later to become chairman of the Stradone club. In addition, Gerry's uncle Pat also figured on that Stradone team of '44. So there was no doubting that Gaelic matters were in his blood. It was as if Gerry Soden was fated to become totally immersed in the GAA. That immersion would manifest itself most conspicuously of all during his 11 year term as Secretary of Cavan GAA County Board. And, of course, being in a position to orchestrate the coming home trip (replete with a Garda escort) from Clones of the Ulster SFC-winning Cavan squad of '97 through Leggykelly and onto the Carrick Springs and back to Cavan Town was a dream fulfilled for the approachable and personable Laragh clubman. Such halcyon times made all the hard work so worthwhile. And, it must be said, all the close relationships he was able to build up over the years helped lighten the mood also. "I couldn't over-emphasise the help that I got over the years from the likes of Dermot King and Frank Reilly at club level. "And at county level, Mickey Reilly took a lot of weight off my shoulders as far as the county teams go as did Tom Boylan with regards to county board affairs and I enjoyed working with Tom, Barney Cully and Phil Brady, all three of whom were in place for the whole time I was on the county board. "Of course, there were a few low points along the way and, like a lot of other county board officials, I got abuse from supporters during Cavan's lean times. "But that didn't bother me once I knew that I was doing my best." Over the years, Gerry delighted in getting to personally know a string of GAA Presidents from Jack Boothman, Joe McDonagh and Sean McCague right through to Sean Kelly. He enjoyed his stint at close quarters with Cavan County Chairmen Brendan Keaney and George Cartwright too and his interaction with the Ulster council's Danny Murphy, Aogan Farrell and Micheal Greenan. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since he jumped out of his seat as a teenager at Croke Park when Gene Cusack smashed in a great goal against Offaly in the 1969 All-Ireland SFC semi-final. Gerry insists that he was lucky to have been given the opportunity to play a supporting role in helping Cavan recapture some of the its lustre of '69. Lucky Cavan, more like it, to have had Soden on board. Tweet

Most Read Stories