When Michael Cusack and co. met to form the GAA in Thurles on November 1st 1884, they obviously had men like Willie Mimnagh in mind for there are few better disciples of the Gaelic Games gospel than the long-time Bord na nOg stalwart. Fifty years on and Willie Mimnagh's passion for Gaelic games is as intense as ever. The energy levels might be understandably dimmed somewhat with the passage of time but there's no mistaking the man's innate gra for all that the GAA stands for. A half a century on from the time he first kicked a ball in anger as a fourteen year old playing minor football with his native Clonquish club in county Longford, the well-known Cavan town-based businessman still has a lot of time for the GAA. One suspects that love affair will remain 'till he draws his last breadth. Born into a 'mad' GAA family, Willie was fed and watered on a diet of Gaelic football followed up by another serving of Gaelic football. All belonging to him were football fans. He was born into a very strong GAA tradition and the fact that he was part of the Clonguish team which won a county junior league and championship double in 1959 only served to fuel his inherited love of football. "Being reared on a farm in a typical rural area of Longford, we did practically nothing else but play football as youngsters. "We'd often have three games among ourselves on a Sunday, one after Mass, one after lunch and one in the evening for as long as the moonlight allowed. "If had your homework done and the chores finished you'd be away across the fields once you'd hear a ball being kicked. I remember the excitement there was when a new ball was bought. "A new ball was a rare thing. Usually we'd be almost full time fixing punctures on a well worn ball. We were stone mad on football," Willie admits. Not that Willie could rely on the cream of the football crop in Longford to fuel his ambitions. Footballing icons were, sadly, very thin on the ground in his native county back then. After all, success was conspicuous by its absence in the Leinster county during Willie's formative years and it was left to recollections by others of the county's 1937 All-Ireland JFC title win to stoke his burning passion and pride in his native county and its football tradition. "That's one thing that I don't think the GAA is given half enough credit for - the sense of pride in their townland, village, town or county that's instilled in a young person by the GAA. "I think it was very unfortunate that there was no underage football organised in Longford when I was growing up because over the years I can see how football can play such an important role in keeping youngsters on the straight and narrow. "Young people have a lot of energy that they need to burn off and playing Gaelic games is an excellent way of doing so. Those with idle hands and minds do tend to get into trouble whereas those who get involved in the GAA tend to stay out of trouble." Like so many other GAA die-hards, Willie has expended a lot of time, energy and money over the course of his involvement in the GAA, both in his native Longford and in his adopted Cavan. Like many another seasoned gael, he describes his time in the GAA as a veritable "labour of love." Willie arrived in Cavan town in 1963, taking up a position as a hardware assistant with the Gaffney and Smith-owned Providers Limited. During his adult football career, Willie played with Carrick-on-Shannon, Ballyhaise and Killygarry (as Chairman of the club's underage section after their formation in the late sixties). Sadly, however, Willie's career was interrupted by illness at various times. Somehow one suggests that Willie was fated to link up with his neighbours in Cavan in a big way. After all like many of his peers who were shorn of real footballing heroes - with the notable exception of Jimmy Hannify - the young Mimnagh was resigned to following the exploits of heroes from across the county boundary such as Mick Higgins, Tony Tighe and Peter Donohoe. "I remember the time of the 1947 All-Ireland final in the Polo Grounds. There was only one radio in the townland back home and there must have been nearly 100 people gathered around to listen to Micheal O'Hehir's commentary. "I had a school pal who was with me at the time listening to the match and we had a Threepence bet on the match. He backed Kerry so winning the bet endeared me even more to Cavan!" As for his own playing career, well Willie played in the left-full forward position on that aforementioned Clonguish minor team. Thereafter though he operated mostly as a back. Over the years however there has never been any demonstration of any backwardness by Willie in coming forward to make his imprint on GAA matters. Indeed in this last respect, one remembers when Willie was secretary of Cavan Bord na nOg at a time when Laragh clubman Michael Johnston held sway as chairman. It was the mid-nineties and coaching was the buzz word in progressive gaeldoms, most notably those up north where the work at football nurseries such as St. Colman's, Newry, St. Michael's, Enniskillen and St. Pat's Maghera was being embellished by similar work at underage by clubs across the board in Down, Fermanagh and Derry. Backed by the Peter Brady-led senior executive committee, the Mimnagh/Johnston axis were instrumental back then in seeing the establishment of selected panels of under 14 players who would be coached at St. Pats at various weekends. The system of coaching promoted then by Mimnagh and co. was ultimately seen to be the forerunner of the schools of excellence which have since been set up over the last few years in Cavan. Delighted at the time to witness the mini-revival in Cavan football kick-started in 1985 by fellow Longfordman Eugene McGee, the current Killygarry clubman says that football in Cavan has progressed at practically every grade in the interim though he does regret the failure of the Breffni County to make an impression at minor level. "Cavan's record at minor level since '74 has been a source of great disappointment and indeed frustration to a lot of people in the county but maybe we're at long last giving some consideration and putting in some thought into the appointment of our minor management teams," Willie says. Having been an officer of Cavan Bord na nOg since 1985 - he served as treasurer initially - Willie has seen a lot of underage football talent in the county over the years and therein lies the source of some of his most satisfying moments over the course of his time in the GAA. "It's great to see young fellas developing as footballers and seeing how their skill levels improve as they go up through the ranks. It was great to see that so many players from the senior Ulster title-winning Cavan team of '97 had emerged from successful underage club sides. "Clubs such as Knockbride, Drumgoon, Killygarry, Kingscourt and Cavan Gaels are just some who have benefited a lot in recent years from having good underage coaching structures in place. "I'm confident that as long as Cavan can count on men and women to voluntarily give of their time to promote Gaelic football among the youth, Cavan will unearth sufficient talent to compete with the best there is around. "I marvel at the amount of time given on a voluntary basis by people in the GAA. It's something you could never put a value on but the true gael talks in the same language and the GAA family is a close family. "If professionalism began to creep in though, I fear that the GAA would end up on the slippery slope. I think players shouldn't be out of pocket but I'd be dead against professionalism. Anyway I believe that most players simply want to play the game because they love it, end of story. "Similiarily, I wouldn't like to see our Association bend its principles because of political pressure, either from within or outside the organisation. "I'm not a sporting bigot but we must never forget just why the Association was founded by Michael Cusack and those other men who showed such foresight and idealism. We must be true to the ideals held so dear by the founding fathers of the GAA." For all his conservatism, Willie has a proven record in giving of his time liberally for the promotion and development of Gaelic football in his adopted Cavan. As to how long he can continue to remain at the coalface of affairs at Bord na nOg level is a mute point. For a long while to come, grass roots activists can be heard to cry. Tweet

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