Want to hear someone talk up the job of GAA club secretary? Cue Glen Emmet's officer Patricia O'Brien. Patience and frustration has been the name of the game for Glen Emmet's since the halcyon days of junior championship title-triumph in 1997. Five years and more ago, the Tullyallen-based club were ranked as one of the most up-and-coming outfits in county Louth. And while locals still believe that the future of their club is far from grey, dank and dour, they do admit that it'll take quite another bit of work at the coalface to chisel away at the gap that appears to opened up between them and those parked at the peleton of junior football ranks in the county. Hope springs eternal among Glen Emmet gaels however and in the likes of hard-working secretrary Patricia O'Brien, they have just the foot-soldier needed to spearhead another charge at the winners' podium. 2002 marked Patricia's first year in the high-profile role of club secretary but as the previous year's assistant-secretary and a long-time worker at the close-knit club, she was well acclimatised to life in the club's fast lane. For her, the advisory notes delivered to her door from the county board in early November may have been less than palatable but yet served as meat and drink to her learned eyes. Perusing her way through the advisory notes detailing the hierarchy's rules and regulations regarding administration affairs for clubs, Patricia was like a Lady to the Manor born. That said, she's not enamoured by the seemingly never-ending volume of paperwork that is increasingly being generated within Association circles. "Reading all the correspondence is not too bad but I'm not in love with all the writing that a secretary has to do," she admits. As they say around down around the midway point between Drogheda and Slane, 'she's sticking it rightly.' But to Patricia the old cliche of a 'labour of love' does indeed ring home when her dedication to the Glen Emmet's club is squared off. "I do it because I love it. If I didn't enjoy doing the work, I wouldn't do it, simple as that. "It's a while now since I got involved in the football club and, to be honest, I don't know what I'd spend my time at if I wasn't involved as much as I am. While a lot of my weekends are taken up by football, except when matches are played on a Thursday or Friday, I hate Sundays when there's no matches on and at this stage I can't imagine not having some work to do with regard to the football club." Born Patricia Keogh of Curraha, Co. Meath stock - where her family is still very much involved in local club affairs there - the popular Glen Emmet's official says that like many another club official around the country, she was 'roped' into taking on a position in high office. She was more than a willing 'victim' though she confesses. "My son Mark's involvement with the club as a juvenile footballer a long time ago was what helped kick-start my interest in the GAA locally. " I was a blow-in from Meath but I found the club very receptive to new members helping out and so I was soon helping transport the kids to matches, travelling to support them and generally doing what I could to help them out." And her initial view of the Glen Emmet's set-up? "My insight back then into the club would have been confined to what the juvenile section were doing. I saw that they were doing great work in catering for the sporting needs of so many youngsters in the area, that the club was doing vital work in keeping them off the streets and giving them an interest and something to do other than just watching television or playing with their computers. "There was a great social scene attached to the clubs which was great for parents too and that appealed to me also." So has things changed much about the club since those days, ten years and a few more besides, when the rookie club worker threw in her lot with the Emmet's? "Not a lot, although there are a few more options for kids around the area who want to take part in sport. "There's still a great spirit in the club and there's a solid core group of people who do a tremendous amount of work for the club. They're part of the club because they want to be and they get great support from others who are parishioners but who mightn't be directly involved in the club. There's always been a genuine goodwill shown by the parish as a whole towards the football club and the community, by and large, is totally behind what we're trying to do. " No concerns at all then? "Of course, like every club we could do with more help in different areas. As they say, the harvest may be rich but the labourers can be few. Like other communities too, there are a few people outside the club who might like to criticise those the work that we're doing but I think it would be much better if they used their energy to say something positive, to enlighten us as to how we could do things better." Honest and forthcoming in her views on life in one of the hottest seats any sporting organisation boasts, Patricia says that the onus is on her adopted club to do everything it can to maximise talent that is at its disposal, on and off the field of play. In this respect, she reminds all and sundry that Glen Emmet's operates within a small pocket of land which dovetails between Louth and Meath. "We're only a small parish," Patricia assures us, "but it's an expanding area and the good news from our perspective is that there are a lot of new families moving into the parish. Having said that, the children from those homes mightn't want to play or have any interest in Gaelic football, so as a club we still have to work hard to get them involved. Thankfully there's a good juvenile committee in place and our club remains the hub of the community and generally draws everyone to it at some point or other." A member of the club's parent committee since she was co-opted four years ago, she has no regrets about allowing herself to become inveigled in the hard slog that goes with being at the coalface. "I went into the job with my eyes wide open because I had been assistant-secretary last year and I got a good grinding during that time. Overall though, I've been involved in the club in some shape or form for the last ten years so I had a fair idea of how much work the officers did in the club. I've been fortunate in that I've been able to work with a good chairman and a good treasurer and a good working committee also which helps make things run a lot smoother. Also, last year's secretary Sean Neilan acted as assistant secretary in 2002 which was a big help too," adds Patricia whose husband Dermot is also on the executive committee of the Cusack Park-based club. Reflecting on the championship season just gone by, Patricia doesn't begin to try and paint a picture of roses and blue skies."Expectations and hopes were pretty high at the start of the year but the championship didn't go well for us unfortunately. I was surprised we didn't do better because attendances at training all year were good and the players showed a lot of enthusiasm and seemed to be enjoying their football." So how many pieces are missing in the jigsaw? "Well after we won the junior championship in 1997, we 'lost' quite a few players including three key players from the same family which set us back. And we've sort of been rebuilding the team ever since with mixed fortunes. But it's not all doom and gloom and we've a young team that I'm sure will rise to the challenge in the next couple of years or so." So how did the post-mortems after the championship exit pan out? "I don't listen to post-mortems. Once the match is over, it's over - that's my view. No amount of talking in the pubs, street-corners or anywhere else will change the result. That's my view." Club players, mentors, committee people countrywide please take note! Tweet

Most Read Stories