Seventeen years of service is a pretty lengthy stint in anyone's language. Camogie personality Philip McDonald reflects on his time in the game with Kevin Carney. When Philip McDonald exited, stage left, from the cockpit of camogie in Cavan last Autumn, he did so with a heavy heart. The decision to bow out after seventeen consecutive years as Public Relations Officer of Cavan County Camogie Board wasn't something Philip took lightly. A member of a well-known Gaelic games-friendly family which includes Paddy (Treasurer Bailieboro Shamrocks GAA) and Bernie (Chairperson, Cootehill Celtic Juvenile Committee), the now-retired Army physical education instructor put his heart and soul into promoting and developing camogie in his native county. His departure from the coalface of camogie affairs at county board level may not quite guillotine his involvement in the sport though. There are rumours that his native town of Bailieboro and his adopted town of Cootehill will, ultimately, be major beneficiaries from McDonald's abdication of the PRO crown. Philip was inveigled into getting involved at county board level by army colleague and former county board chairman Hughie Murphy. The bold McDonald entered the fray (under the chairmanship of John Hayes) as assistant to then Treasurer Ann McConnell (Castletara) and proceeded to stick the pace like very few others at county administrative level. Reflecting on his time as an officer with the camogie board, Philip has no hesitation in singling out Cavan's double Ulster championship victory in 1994 as the highlight of his 17 years on board. In that year, Cavan scooped the minor and junior provincial titles. Prior to '94, Cavan hadn't won the minor title since '82 or the junior since '84. Cavan beat match favourites Down by 4-6 to 2-7 in the minor final and defending champions Antrim by 4-10 to 4-7. "Both of them were great to win but the minor title success was the biggest surprise. "We definitely didn't expect to win that one but the girls did brilliantly to beat Fermanagh and Antrim on the way and then played some great stuff to win the final." Unsurprisingly though, the popular Cootehill resident fingers Cavan's junior triumph the same year as the most memorable, most prestigious achievement. "It had obviously a higher profile. Antrim had reached the All-Ireland final the previous year and were hot favourites to go through as Ulster's representatives again. The girls gave great commitment all year though; training two nights a week and then a game at the weekend. The two panels, junior and minor, trained together and the management team of Pat Ryan, Seamie Clarke and Maureen Sullivan had a great spirit in the camp." Anything that sticks out in your mind about the game itself? "It was nail-biting stuff. We were winning well for most of the game but Antrim came back at us and scored two goals in injury time which left us hanging on at the end. "I remember Ita Kiernan from Laragh being a key figure on that team and having a great game that day." Philip doubled up as trainer of the Cavan minor and junior squads in '94 by acting out the role of team-manager of the Bailieboro senior team. He acknowledges though that most of the all-conquering Cavan players hailed from Castletara, Laragh and Lacken. Did he find it difficult to motivate the girls under his stewardship? "Not back then. It's got harder over the years though as other sports have come along to distract girls away from playing camogie." Sports such as ladies football? "Yes. Since the end of the nineties, camogie has lost out a bit because of the popularity of ladies football. "Some clubs in Cavan have insisted over the years that the camogie players decide which game they want to play but I don't see how dual players can't be accommodated fairly easily by playing, say, football on a Saturday only and camogie on the following day. "I don't go along with the notion though that camogie clubs have struggled because of direct competition with ladies football. "The clubs that have struggled in recent years struggled before ladies football came about. "I don't see why ladies football and camogie can't co-exist and grow stronger, side by side." Still, Philip has been known to call a spade a spade in his time on committees. As such, his view that the standard of camogie at senior level isn't as good as it was back in the mid-nineties warrants respect as does his view that much more encouragement from parents needs to be forthcoming if camogie is to continue to hold its own in Cavan. That said, he's ultra positive about the health of the game at primary schools level; citing the introduction of the indoor leagues as a great asset to the game in Cavan. On a whole range of matters, Philip is unequivocal. For instance, to the uninitiated, the situation whereby camogie lies on the same bed but doesn't get under the clothes with the GAA is a peculiar one. Does he feel the relationship should be consummated once and for all? "I personally think it would be good for camogie if the organisation and the game itself were to come under the auspices of the GAA. "There's always been a very close relationship between camogie and the GAA and the sooner they come under the same banner the better in my view." Has he been surprised that the two haven't amalgamated before now? "Yes and no. I'm surprised that there hasn't been a greater interest shown by the GAA in a coming-together of the two organisations. "But, I'd have to say, there seems to be a definite unwillingness on the part of some people within camogie to go for change." Now running his own successful sports injury clinic in Cootehill, Philip is looking forward to having a bit more time on his hands now that he has parted ways with the camogie board. He re-iterates that he enjoyed working with the various officers of the county board over the years saying that "there was a great sense of determination and commitment among a small number of people to keep camogie alive in Cavan." Interestingly the 40-something reckons that if everything about camogie in Cavan was as solid and secure over the years as the county board's finances, Cavan would have added All-Ireland titles to their provincial crowns! "Money was never a problem over the years. "Thanks to the work of the treasurers, Cavan VEC who gave generously and healthy enough gates over the years, the county board always did well financially. "The general public in Cavan and especially the GAA sector always showed a lot of goodwill to the sport as well." The former long-time county board officer saw a lot of camogie players in action in Cavan over the course of his involvement in the sport. One wonders did any in particular stand out above the crowd? "I thought Margaret Carroll from Kingscourt was an exceptional player back in the early 'eighties. "She would have gotten her place on any county team at that time. Ita Kiernan was another fantastic player. I remember the two of them playing for Cavan against Kilkenny in the national league and we beat them in Kilnaleck. The sad thing about it was that the game had to be played again because the referee made a mistake in the timing of the game. He played just 25 minutes instead of the new time of thirty. And we lost, second time around." Trainer of the Cootehill team which won the intermediate championship title back in 1989, Philip married local lass Martina (nee McDermott) has little or any regrets about his time to date in camogie circles save the fact that he "was involved in three losing senior finals, two with Bailieboro and one with Cootehill." In more recent times, Philip has been focussing on camogie in arguably a more concentrated way than ever in his role as chairman of the sub-committee of the county board charged with documenting the history of camogie in county Cavan as part of the sport's centenary celebrations. In the course of such work, he has travelled the length and breadth of his native county, interviewing people and collecting newspaper cuttings etc. A body would travel quite a distance to discover a man as committed to his sport as the self-same McDonald, methinks. Tweet

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