The year 2001 will be remembered first and foremost as the year when the Foot & Mouth outbreak at Proleek wreaked havoc not just with the very livelihood of an entire community in and around the Cooley area and beyond but also with the Wee County's GAA calendar. In the year of 'exclusion zones', 'disinfected mats', 'restrictions' and 'mass culls', every GAA side in the county was adversely affected. Gerry Robinson reflects on the FMD crisis and its implications during Louth GAA's forgettable year. The county seniors Things were going just dandy. Louth began their 2000/2001 national football league campaign with a sensational win over All-Ireland champions Kerry in Killarney. Paddy Clarke and his boys couldn't have hoped for a better start to life in Division One. It couldn't get much better than this. And, to be honest, it didn't. Still, they picked up a draw against Offaly and were in with a pretty decent chance of avoiding the drop with two matches remaining against leaders Tyrone and fellow strugglers Dublin. They had two chances . . . then the Foot & Mouth struck. The entire league programme nationwide was suspended for the month of March - when it resumed, Louth were booted out. The GAC, in its apparent wisdom, decided that the Wee County wouldn't be allowed to fulfill their remaining fixtures and that the points would be forfeited, much to the obvious delight of the beneficiaries (although Tyrone, who topped the table, were also subsequently thrown out). Louth finished bottom but received a chance of redemption when playing the third-from-bottom team (Donegal) in a relegation play-off. The second-bottom side (Kerry) were automatically demoted. Now don't ask me where the GAA got these ideas from! In the meantime, Louth had to face Longford in the first round of the Leinster senior football championship. Normally, on the basis of their improvement in recent years and their performances against Meath in '98 and Kildare last year, Paddy Clarke's team would have been expected to progress but their enforced inactivity during the FMD restrictions severely hampered the team's preparations. They went in cold against the midlanders and, having started brightly, ran out of steam and ideas, their complete lack of match practice all too apparent against a side that had almost gained promotion to Division One. Longford won on what was an ignominious day for Louth football. Humiliated, they went into the draw for the new Qualifiers Group for losing teams. Tipperary - not a bad draw. But Louth's preparations for the championship had been worse that any other team's and it was showing. The Foot and Mouth had had a drastic effect on the team - they barely scraped past Tipp in Clonmel and, truth to tell, were decidedly fortunate to do so. And so to the next round... Victory over Offaly was followed by a creditable showing against Westmeath. It all finished with heads held high but still one can't deny that the FMD epidemic left an indelible mark. We'll never know how Louth would have fared otherwise. Minors The hammering inflicted upon the Louth minors by Dublin was extremely disappointing, but has to be put into context against the overbearing backdrop of the Foot & Mouth crisis. Due to the FMD outbreak and subsequent sanctions, the Leinster minor league - which was scheduled to take place in March/April - was scrapped, with Louth having only played one match. They could have been doing with more matches as part of their preparations and, in the final analysis, the lack of these games was a critical factor behind their mediocrity. The manager Jim McDonnell had started out with his initial panel back in January. He held a couple of training sessions and planned his preparations meticulously but the Foot & Mouth outbreak threw even the best-laid plans out the window. Suddenly, Jim and his selectors were facing an impossible task. He had his panel and he knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn't get working with them. Ideally, he'd have been using the Leinster league to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the team. But, no, this was out now - and so were the Louth minors. Vocational Schools Having won the previous year's B competition, the Louth Vocational Schools team stepped up a grade and performed quite brilliantly in the 2001 Leinster Vocational Schools SF A championship. They got to the final and were beaten by Offaly only after extra time. Once more the shadow of FMD raised its head and played a crucial part in the team's downfall. Having accounted for Dublin in the provincial semi-final, Louth were removed from the competition as FMD alarm bells sounded loudly across the land. They were later reinstated and played Offaly in the Leinster final, even though the Faithfuls had already beaten Mayo in an All-Ireland semi-final How far would Paddy Carr's team have gone but for that unwelcome interruption? It was definitely a major factor working against them when they had to play extra time against Offaly. (And, remember, they only received two days' notice that the game was actually going ahead) The uncertainty and delay between the semi-final and final was arguably the singlemost contributory factor towards the team's demise. The game had been scheduled to take place much earlier but the outbreak resulted in Louth getting the boot even though they had offered to field without players from the exclusion zone. An appeal was lodged and Louth were re-admitted. But damage had been done. The players didn't know if they were coming or going - hardly ideal preparation for a Leinster final. How the story unfurled It was at the beginning of March when the crisis began to deepen nationwide. There had been an outbreak in Tyrone and exclusion zones were set up. Extreme vigilance was called for and delivered. Louth was singled out as the most under threat county in the Republic. The borders were manned day and night as a blanket of security smothered the land. Farms in the county became virtual fortresses. At Richardstown in Ardee, there was a suspected outbreak. It proved all-clear but 280 sheep were slaughtered in a precautionary cull . . . the first of many such culls to rock the county's deep-rooted farming community. All sporting, social and community events were stopped and even the St Patrick's Day parades were called off. In Louth, pilgrims were urged not to turn up at mass for fear of spreading the disease. The situation was extremely volatile but asking Gaels not to attend mass was taking it too far - how were Louth going to win a Leinster championship without prayers??!! A letter from Croke Park instructed that there should be no games played in the month of March. All intercounty, club and schools fixtures were cancelled along with challenge games and training, until further notice. Clubs were asked to disinfect the entrances to their premises. The County Board meeting scheduled for Monday March 5th at Castle Roche was called off. Panic was omnipresent and all-encompassing. But all the stops were pulled out to try and ensure that the disease be contained. Extreme vigilance became the order of the day. Farmers were totally isolated and secluded as the crisis deepened and the fight against FMD intensified. The GAA shut-out continued unabated. Then tragedy struck. Even though the border had been sealed since February 20th, the outbreak at Meigh in Armagh was followed by one at Proleek, County Louth, four miles away. A corridor was set up between the two affected farms and every sheep within this was slaughtered. Soon, the 'firewall' corridor took in some 15 kilometres in total, from south Cooley. By the end of March, in excess of 20,000 sheep had been culled in the Cooley area. Livelihoods were smashed and destroyed. Talk of sixty "missing sheep" struck the fear of God into everyone. At times like this, it was criminal to even think of football. On the first weekend of April, the national leagues resumed. Louth were not allowed to participate but were promised they'd be let determine their own fate on the field of play. The county's hurlers had also been excluded from the remaining rounds of the national league which were scheduled to be completed before the four-week restriction period on Louth had elapsed. But, reportedly, there were no real regulation issues to be decided here because of the change in format due to come in for 2002. Still, the Wee County stickmen had been progressing nicely and their genuine prospects of winning the All-Ireland junior hurling championship were smothered in the cradle. Early April. And widespread relief when final tests on sheep at the Keenan farm in Piedmont farm prove negative. Still, the cull of all sheep in the Cooley peninsula continues and an entire county holds its breath, anxious and terrified of a second outbreak before the April 19th deadline, when the Ring of Steel will be lifted and life will get back to something approaching normality. With the May 6th championship date with Longford approaching, the county seniors' preparations are totally inadequate. Four of the players are living in the ten-mile exclusion zone and cannot train with the panel. And they've had no competitive games for months. By April 10th, the number of sheep culled had risen to over 40,000, with in excess of 200 farmers drastically affected. On the football front, GAC Chairman Pauric Duffy confirmed that Louth will be given a chance to retain their Division One status with the play-off match to be played "as soon as possible". Unfortunately, Donegal's protracted involvement in a championship saga with Fermanagh as well as Louth's own championship commitments meant this was put on the long finger. Meanwhile, the county's VEC team received only two days' notice that their Leinster final meeting with Offaly would now go ahead. On Sunday April 22nd club action resumed with games in the ACC Cup and Divisions 2A and 2B of the league. At the April meeting of the Louth County Board, delegates voiced their unanimous disenchantment at the way Louth teams had been so insensitively treated during the crisis. They were particularly aggrieved by the poor treatment of the Louth Vocational Schools team but also said they felt Louth should be allowed to play both their suspended NFL fixtures against Dublin and Tyrone, rather than just one against Donegal. And Donegal also objected, understandably claiming they should be safe as they finished third from bottom. Central Council ruled against both counties and insisted that the relegation play-off would go ahead. There was an unreal atmosphere in the county prior to the Longford game and, not surprisingly, Louth were beaten. Oh, and let us not forget in our haste to meet the deadline the debacle that arose when Louth's delegates weren't allowed to vote over whether or not Croke Park should be opened to other sports. The Wee County delegates were in favour of moving forward but their voices weren't heard. Their votes could have been crucial and could have been part of history in the making. For some unknown, probably political reason, they were gagged. The official re-opening of Louth was marked by the Maytime Festival in Carlingford on the final weekend of May. The crisis was over but the spectre of Foot and Mouth would never go away. And now we have the prospect of World War III to contend with. Isn't life great? Tweet

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