If they are to end the frustrating barren spell plaguing them of late, St Marys must place their faith in young blood. The 1995 side has virtually disbanded at this stage and a new crop of heroes waits in the wings, hoping to one day restore glory to the Deeside town. Gerry Robinson speaks to Darren Clarke, one of the club's most promising young prospects. Even with recently-appointed Louth boss Paddy Carr in charge, St Marys had little joy in 2001. Okay, they reached the ACC Cup final . . . but they were unable to reproduce their early-season form on the day and fell to Roche Emmets. So, ultimately, it was another fruitless season for the once domineering Deesiders. But light threatens to burst through from the tunnel's end. There is some good talent coming along and one has every reason to suspect that - given the right grounding - these players could re-establish the Marys as a force to reckon with some time in the not-too-distant future. Attacking sensation Darren Clarke is one such man. The youngster had a busy 2001: not alone did he get his first steady run in the club's premier team, he also found time to represent the county at minor level and was one of the stars of the Louth VEC side (also managed by Paddy Carr) that covered itself in glory early in the year. Quite an eventful and successful year from an individual perspective - just a pity it was tinged by the disappointment of St Marys' failings: "It was my first time to get a decent run on the team. I was 16 in 2000 and togged out a few times but wasn't really getting regular games," he reflects. The Marys were expected to at least progress to the knock-out stages of the race for the Joe Ward Cup, especially bearing in mind the perceived strength of the backroom team. But it wasn't to be. They were bitterly disappointing, losing all three matches in a section containing Clan Na Gael, St Patricks and eventual county finalists Mattock Rangers. "Obviously the championship is the big one, so we were very disappointed," Darren notes. We had been expecting to do well, especially with Paddy coming in as manager, but things just didn't develop for us. We made a good start to the year but then lost our way for a while. Once we lost one game, the heads seemed to drop and we went on a bit of a losing streak. The championship came in the middle of that bad spell and it was a real blow to lose all three games. "Looking at the teams in the group before the competition, we had expected maybe ourselves and the Pats to come out of it, but it didn't work out that way. We had a bad run. But fair play to Collon for what they achieved, not alone coming out of the group but going on to reach the county final. They played with great spirit all year and were a fine example to everyone." The use of the word 'spirit' in this context is interesting - is that something that has been missing in Ardee recently? "I don't know really. I certainly think we've been lacking in confidence and belief. I don't think there's a huge difference in the calibre of player available to any club in Louth . . . I honestly believe it comes down to who has the most spirit and the most confidence." Darren has no doubts whatsoever with regards to the capabilities of the players at St Marys' disposal: "The players are there and we have a good young team with lots of potential. We had as many as nine or ten under 21s playing senior in 2001 and the year will have brought them all along. They'll also have benefited from playing alongside the more experienced players on the team. "What we have to do now is get the blend right. The team is in transition at the moment. A lot of the '95 team left around the same time and it's almost like we're starting over again. There are a lot of young players just coming in and finding their feet so I suppose in that context we shouldn't be too disappointed with last year." A worrying trend of late has been that Marys players have become conspicuous in their absence from the Louth senior panel, with Brian Keenan the only notable exception. "Hopefully we'll get a few more players in there within the next few years," says Darren. "Paddy Carr has had a good chance to assess the players at the club at first hand so he should know which players are worth a try." Clarke himself will almost certainly come in for consideration at some stage over the course of the new manager's three years in charge. Carr knows all about him, having managed two teams he played on in '01 - and he wouldn't have to worry about the Ardee attacker turning down the opportunity to wear the red jersey at senior level! "It would be a massive honour," he beams. Difficult to believe that Darren Clarke only turned 18 in June 2001, a year in which he played at all grades for the Marys. He won everything in mid Louth at U10 and U12 levels. The U14s won the mid Louth championship and reached the county final, losing to the Tones. At minor level, he collected two county leagues and was the star of the team pipped by the Clans in the 2000 county final. He was on the minor team again last year but things didn't quite go according to plan - he broke his arm during his team's first round defeat at the hands of eventual finalists Sean Traceys. Darren has also played with Louth at all levels from U14 up to minor and was on the county minor team for each of the past two seasons. He is sure to feature for the county under 21s and will perhaps one day line out for the seniors too. A young man who plays anywhere in the forwards (mainly in the corner), Darren is already looking ahead to the 2002 club season: "Hopefully, whoever the new manager is, he'll build on what we learned in 2001 and we can use it as a stepping stone. I think what we learned under Paddy Carr should stand to us. We'll be hoping for a good run in the championship and I think we're capable of that with the right attitude. "In the long term, it would be great to win a championship with my home town and I'd like to do that inside the next few years. We've been struggling to get it going but we have the ability to win a senior title. "As a young team, we can take a little bit of encouragement from reaching the ACC Cup final. I felt that if we'd managed to actually win that it would have given us a great lift because the year had been so disappointing up until then. We led for a lot of the game but they [Roche] finished stronger which was a pity because it would have been something positive to take from an otherwise disappointing year. Even if it's not the major competition, it's still a senior county board trophy." Football is very much in Darren Clarke's blood. His maternal family are from Syddan in Meath and his grand-uncle Tommy Farrelly was one of the stars of the Royal County's first ever All-Ireland success in 1949, while his uncles played minor football for Meath. Looking at the bigger picture, the young Ardee sharpshooter concludes by sending his best regards to a man who has already been a big influence on his career: "Paddy Carr did a great job with the Vocational Schools team this year and I'd just like to wish him all the best during his term in charge of Louth." Bit of a Barney Gerry Robinson talks to St Marys legend and club stalwart Barney McCoy about the good old times . . . and there were plenty of those. Ardee St Marys have produced some tremendous footballers over the years. The club has also given rise to some terrific characters. Barney McCoy - a fully-paid up member of the Marys' time-honoured Hall of Fame - fits neatly into both categories. Barney served the Deesiders well on the field of play and, incredibly, over 60 years since first pulling on the club jersey, he's still involved on the committee. His passion for the Marys and Louth hasn't diminished the slightest bit over the years; indeed, if anything, it has strengthed. And that's saying a lot, considering how strong it was to begin with. Barney was born in 1929 and began to play for the Marys as a young lad around about 1941/42. He played for the county minor team in 1948 and represented Louth's juniors the following year. From there, he moved onto the Louth senior panel where he was to remain for a decade, 1949-59, collecting three Leinster championship medals in 1950 (when defending All-Ireland champions Meath were sensationally defeated in the decider after a replay thanks to Nickie Roe's last-minute free), '53 (Wexford provided the final opposition) and '57 (against the Dubs). Of course, he also won an All-Ireland as a sub in '57 and points out that he "should have had two", referring ruefully to Mick Flanagan's contentious winner in the 1950 decider when - en route to goal and a 1-6 to 2-5 win - the Mayo attacker took somewhere between eight and 28 steps, depending on who you listen to. Barney also won three senior county championships with St Marys - in 1955, '56 and '60 - as well as a number of Cardinal O'Donnell Cup medals (the Ardee club invariably won at least one of the two major competitions back in those days). "Those were the Glory Years for both the club and the county," he recalls fondly. These were times that the Ardee man will never forget for as long as he lives (and perhaps even beyond that!): "The biggest thrill I ever got out of gaelic football was when we went to New York and marched around the Polo Grounds as All-Ireland champions in 1958," he says. Barney is still a very close friend of the famous Patsy Coleman, a former team-mate with both club and county. His great pal and accomplice on the Louth team of the '50s was none other than the 'Red' Meehan, a man whose reputation as a top class footballer always preceded him. "I was just looking at an old photograph from the 1950 All-Ireland against Mayo and I counted seven Marys men on the panel," he notes. "The Marys had a really strong team back then and I was on and off for a while . . . it was nearly easier to get a game with the county!. We had five intercounty players in the backs and then Paddy Smith came from Cavan and he got my place so I eventually went to Hunterstown for a while. "It was while I was with Hunterstown that I played for the Louth juniors. I had played nearly all my football either at left half back or left full back but it came to the stage where the only way I could get on the Marys team was to play at full forward." Barney McCoy has always been a man of much colour and, to this end, his love of gaelic games and indeed sport in general was never confined to football. He was a better than average hurler with Naomh Colmcille and collected five or six county championships with the now-disbanded Ardee club. Then he went to the dogs! As he explains: "When I stopped playing, I trained greyhounds. I had three track record holders in Dundalk and Navan and Joey Maher was a good pal of mine. Joey went on to get his greyhound licence." Still involved with his beloved club at committee level, Barney attends every single Marys and Louth match and it would be no assumption to suggest that there's no greater knowledge on those two teams anywhere in the Deeside town. What does he think of the present Marys team? "They're very weak. I think they badly need to bring four or five strong players into the team. They certainly have the footballers but they're a bit young and not strong enough physically at the moment." What about Louth? "They were very unfortunate against Westmeath and could well have beaten them. The goal that beat them was caused by a misunderstanding in the goalmouth and only for that they probably would've won. With a couple of changes and a bit of fine-tuning to the panel, I think they could go well in Leinster next year. I'm not necessarily saying win it, but they could go well. "Louth were also very unlucky against Meath in Croke Park in 1998 when they did everything right but lost by a point. The referee didn't help us that day either." Barney's whole family is steeped in GAA. His brothers Patsy and Eugene played alongside him and another brother, John, is currently on the committee. His nephew David has a son, Brian, on the present team and another nephew, Vinny McCoy, is a well-known Marys activist. Barney has two daughters, Audrey and Shirley, who are married and living in Meath and Tipperary respectively. Shirley lives in Clonmel and one of her three sons has just been selected to play for the Tipperary U16s. I couldn't let Barney go without asking him to share with us one more time what it was like to be involved with the history-making team of 1957: "It was just unbelievable. I was on the bench for the final, ready and willing to go. The selectors told me that if any of the backs went down to get up and run on, which thankfully I didn't have to do. In the Leinster final against Dublin, Ollie Reilly was only on about five minutes when he had to go off and I went in and played the rest of the game. "I was put on Ollie Freaney and he ended up being substituted in the second half. Freaney had a big reputation but to be honest I thought his mouth was the biggest part of him. But Tom Conlon, our full back, used to mind us and he told us to be on our guard and not to fall for any of that intimidation." Having played there himself, Barney has great admiration for some of the backs who were doing the rounds in the Wee County back when he was in his prime. He makes special mention of Eddie Boyle, Tom Conlon, Johnny Malone, Tom Mulligan from Dundalk and Jimmy Tuft from Haggardstown. Not to forget his old partner in crime Red Meehan - "the Daddy of them all". As I said at the off, Barney McCoy is quite a character. Tweet

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