To the manor born
December 08, 2006
Whether it's as county board treasurer or chairperson of Emyvale, Marion Donnelly fits the bill when it comes to being a textbook hard-working GAA official. By Kevin Carney.
Christmas came early in 2006 for Marion Donnelly. In fact the Emyvale lady says it was a case of Christmas and a few birthdays arriving simultaneously.
The news in the first week of December that the Government would be handing out one million euros to Monaghan County Board to help cover the cost of the county's training complex at Cloghan was like manna from Heaven for Marion.
Such gifts (under the Government's sports capital programme) do make a difference, just a trifle, when you're the treasurer of the county board and the county board has committed itself to spending 2.2 million euros on the project at Cloghan.
An apolitical person, Marion just might have a kind thought or ten for Minister of Sport John O'Donoghue in the New Year. And the clubs of the county, of course, who have given generously to the cause since the idea of a training complex was first mooted by Liam Stirrat (Scotstown) when he was in the chair. His successor Gary Carville advanced the project and it has been brought to fruition by current Chairman John Connolly.
If the country's leading sporting organisation isn't laying blocks, it's employing coaches and if it isn't lighting up playing pitches, it's flying players around the world to reward them for their efforts during the year. Of course, all this money has to be looked after. At the higher echelons of the Association, there are professional, well-paid employees.
At grass roots level though, it is left to people like Marion to do the necessary. It's an onerous task but if ever the phrase 'a labour of love' was coined for a Gael, it was surely minted for Marion.
She acknowledges though that holding the purse strings in this day and age is a job you can't take lightly.
"It's a huge responsibility being treasurer, especially when you're dealing with other people's money. It's getting increasingly more expensive for county boards to run their affairs each year so it's very important that a firm grip is kept on monetary matters.
"Interestingly she has no truck with the idea of a cap being put on the amount of money county boards can spend each year on the preparation of its county teams. I think it (capping) would be very difficult to implement.
"Each county has its own training programme and you have to respect that. I genuinely don't think it would be workable nor would it be to anyone's advantage.
"I would feel that the GAA, at headquarters, just have to trust that the people looking after a particular county's finances and the county's management teams are all committed to doing their best with whatever funding is involved and that money isn't being used foolishly or money isn't being wasted.
"Certainly in Monaghan - and that's the only county that I can speak of - no money is spent without a full consultation process. Budgets are drawn up by the various county team managers at the start of each year but only after discussions with the finance management committee of the county board."
Are we not losing the run of ourselves in the GAA in terms of the massive monies expended on financing this, that and the other?
"I don't think so. I'm a great believer in spending every cent you raise wisely and getting as good a return on your investment as you can. "You've got to provide the best facilities that you can for players and spectators and proper facilities are what everyone expects nowadays, at both local and national levels.
"We're now providing the type of facilities and providing the sort of back-up that players deserve. We're treating players the right way and they way they should be treated and I think they (players) would acknowledge that.
"Personally I can't remember a time when Monaghan didn't look after their players. Certainly in my time, players have been well looked after."
2006 marked the completion of Marion's second full year as treasurer of the county board and she says it was yet another eventful and thoroughly enjoyable year in office.
It seems like it's very much a case of 'to the manor born' with regard to Marion's hands-on involvement in the inner circle of both county and club affairs.
A woman of many (GAA) hats, Marion has been an officer of the county board for more years now than your average Monaghan GAA club person could rightly remember.
When Liam Stirrat succeeded Paddy O'Rourke as treasurer in 2004 after the Inniskeen man's untimely death, Marion was the county board's assistant secretary during John Scully's tenure.
Stirrat's elevation left a vacancy for assistant-treasurer and, true to form, Marion stood into the breach and Monaghan GAA Inc. has never really looked back.
"Like all new jobs, it was a learning process as I set about helping Liam (Stirrat) and a lot of people at county board level helped me, including Liam, of course."
For Marion though, being engaged in looking after the pennies for Monaghan county board was a bit like gristle to the mill as she is a number cruncher by profession.
Financial Director of Emyvale-based Silver Hill Foods, Marion is well-accustomed to looking after income and expenditure accounts and balancing the books.
It's no co-incidence that she served in the role of treasurer of Emyvale for a 14 year period. These days she is chairman of the north Monaghan club.
Given that she is a busy business executive, involved in the Credit Union and a runs a busy household to boot, nuclear fission rather than ever-ready batteries would seem to be her energy source!
So how was her passion for the GAA conceived?
"I've always loved the GAA but it was down to my father's influence mostly that I got hooked on Gaelic games," Marion explains.
Benny Connolly, Marion's dad, was a member of the all-conquering Monaghan junior football panel of 1956 , her brother Francie played County Minor and Marion grew up following Gaelic football affairs at both club and county levels.
The love affair with the GAA can be put down to genes, she suggests. Marion has passed on her gra for the GAA to her son Colin and daughter Aoife and both are regular attendants at Emyvale and Monaghan GAA affairs.
"I can't imagine my life without some GAA input," Marion tells us. But was there never a time when she felt like chucking it in and taking a break from the coalface?
"Giving it up has never crossed my mind," comes the succinct reply. "There's nothing more enjoyable than watching Gaelic games on either the club or county stage.
"Also, there's a great social aspect of being involved in the GAA with the friendships you make and the amount of people you meet.
"There's no organisation like the GAA. Being involved in it is like being part of a huge family, especially, I think, when you're involved with a rural club.
"Where would Ireland be without the GAA? I dread to think what the country would have been like if there had been no GAA to provide a forum for people to meet, to promote our games and to provide an outlet for the youth of the country."
Typically, Marion plays down the massive contribution she has made to club and county over the years since "walking down the street in Emyvale twenty years ago with a friend and deciding to go into the club AGM."
And ever since that club AGM when she was elected to the post of assistant-secretary, Marion has been an officer of some shape or form at club or county levels.
The year after she became assistant-secretary of her native club, Marion graduated to become treasurer, a post she held for 14 years before becoming vice-chairperson and then chairperson.
Yet for all the energy and time she puts into the nation's biggest sporting organisation, Marion swears she gets as much out of her involvement in the GAA as she puts into the organisation and "that if you decide to get involved just to receive bouquets for your work, you're doing it for the wrong reasons."
Marion appeals as someone who would be capable of gravitating to one of the most prestigious, high-profile roles in the GAA, nationally.
She explains that for one fleeting moment when descending the Hogan Stand after a championship match there some years ago, she wondered what it would be like to be the first lady President of the GAA.
"A couple of steps later and I woke up," Marion quips.
Any ambition to move up the pecking order closer to home though?
"No, I think I've found my niche as treasurer - I've no ambition to be chairman of the county board. I did go forward at one stage for the position of vice-chairman before I became assistant secretary but I lost out to Liam Stirrat.
"To be honest, I initially said I didn't want to go forward after being nominated because Liam is a friend but then I heard words to the effect that the county board was no place for a woman and I thought 'I'll waken this lot up' and decided to allow my name go forward."
Mna na hEireann?
"You could say that. I firmly believe that more women should step forward and get involved in the GAA and, if that was the case, the GAA would be better off.
"I would urge more ladies to get involved at the heart of the decision making process in the GAA and that was my motive for standing for election during Liam (Stirrat's) tenure. It wasn't personal.
"I was delighted at our convention this year to see that all three Corduff delegates were ladies and, overall, there definitely seemed to be far more ladies at county convention than any other year.
"Thankfully the GAA has moved on and women are not taken for granted nor are they seen as token representatives."
A straight talker, Marion says she is determined not to outstay her welcome at the top table either in Emyvale or at county level.
She maintains she's as enthusiastic about her work on behalf of the GAA as she's always been and staleness is not yet part of her lexicon.
In the light of that assertion and in the wake of the windfall for Cloghan, it seems that it's a case of good news all round then for Gaels right across Monaghan in this the season of goodwill and joy.
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