Margaret Conlon covets silverware
December 31, 2007
New T.D. Margaret Conlon says the experience garnered by Aughnamullen and Monaghan senior football teams this year will hold both in good stead during 2008.
Former Corduff stalwart John Gartlan partook in many a game of cards with Jay McEnaney, late father of current Monaghan supremo Seamus McEnaney.
How appropriate then that John's grand-daughter Margaret Conlon T.D. should proffer the notion that McEnaney jnr could be Monaghan's ace-in-the-pack in the coming year.
The rookie member of Dail Eireann has great faith in McEnaney's motivational ability and his tactical nous and believes that winning the All-Ireland SFC title in '08 is a realistic goal.
"If you were to offer me the Anglo-Celt Cup now, I don't think I'd take it and I don't think Seamus McEnaney would either," the wife of Aughnamullen stalwart Seamus Conlon avers.
"He (McEnaney) got them into such a positive frame of mind for the championship and playing with such conviction that supporters genuinely felt that Sam was within our grasp.
"At the end of the day, winning the All-Ireland is the more ambitious goal, represents the bigger picture and I'm sure what's what Monaghan will be aiming for next year.
"Winning the Ulster title next July would be wonderful but I believe that the team-management and the players would look on that achievement as just a stepping stone.
"Given what the panel achieved during the past year and the way they played, I'm sure everyone will want to go that bit further, especially when it comes to appearing at Croke Park."
Margaret is convinced that Monaghan will be a force once again next year but confesses that every other county will be forewarned and, consequently, well-warned.
She remembers during the early part of last Summer speaking to some friends in Dublin and they were running scared of meeting Monaghan in the championship.
In the 19th century Otto Von Bismarck claimed he was a Prussian first and a German second. One gets the feeling that it's the Sarsfields first and then Monaghan with Margaret.
Either way, there's no ambiguity about her passion for Gaelic games though. The popular Fianna Fail leading light has great time for our native games and for the GAA itself.
Married to '05 Club Official of the Year winner and current Aughnamullen Development Officer Seamus Conlon, Margaret says it's a long time since she first caught the GAA bug.
"My grandfather John was a mad GAA supporter who unfortunately died in the mid-nineties but over the years he attended around sixty All-Ireland finals.
"It was said that the only one he missed down the years was the 1947 final that was played in New York so I got a lot of my interest in football from chatting to him.
"And then when I married Seamus, it was a case of going to matches almost every Sunday throughout the year. So, overall I was well tutored."
Apart from supporting to her spouse's passionate involvement with the Sarsfields, Margaret is only too glad to see her sons Shane (14) and Ciaran (11) play at underage level.
Needless to say young Shane and Ciaran have quite a GAA pedigree themselves what with their father Seamus sporting IFC medals from '72, '73 and '78.
Then there was Seamus's father Jim who featured on the Latton senior team that annexed the championship title in 1939 alongside Seamus's uncle Patsy.
By dint of her own experience of the nation's biggest sporting organisation, Margaret is all too well aware of the value of a GAA club to the rural and urban fabric of Ireland.
"I remember my grandfather used to say that if a young person sticks with sport, he or she won't go far wrong and I can verify that for myself.
"The discipline instilled in juveniles by the GAA is great and it's very important that players learn to play as part of a team and learn how to lose as well as win.
"Really, in my experience, GAA clubs are the glue that knit a community together and it has been plain to see that throughout the county.
"Obviously Aughnamullen is the club I know best and the support that the team got on their way to winning the championship and in the Ulster club championship was incredible."
Margaret confesses that Seamus's work on behalf of the club has given her a deep insight into the time and energy given to the GAA by so many people at local level.
Still, she jokes that rather than her being a GAA widow, Seamus acts out the role of a politician's widower.
"When Seamus decided to step down from the position of chairman, he said he'd take on a less onerous role so he became the club's development officer.
"The funny thing about his new role is that he's probably never been busier! Getting the social centre up and running was a big interest of his in recent years."
The opening of the club's social centre (a 750,000 euros project) some three years ago ushered in a new era for the parish of Aughnamullen east, Margaret suggests.
"And now with plans for an extension to include a fitness suite and gym and other facilities, the centre will see its place as the focal point of the community strengthened even further.
"It's been an incredible effort by so many volunteers in the club and I'm glad that the Government has recognised the importance of rewarding voluntary effort on the ground.
"It's only right and proper that such projects benefit from grant aid, if only to provide the impetus for the realisation of the project because fundraising is a thankless job.
"The centre is very much the centre of the community and all sorts of functions are held there which is great because heretofore, we had to go outside the parish to attend functions."
Of course the great hope when the centre was established was that success on the playing field would be complemented by on-field joy.
2007 marked the Sarsfields' seventh successive year competing in the junior ranks and die-hard fans like the Conlons were desperate to see the club win the JFC last autumn.
Certainly after losing the junior finals of 2001 and '05, the Sarsfields' hunger was bordering on desperation and the proverbial monkey was becoming somewhat overbearing.
Aughnamullen's JFC final victory over Eire Og in mid-October last is a memory which Margaret says she will treasure for ever, for a number of reasons.
"The one moment that sticks in my mind was when Mark Meegan went forward to lift the cup with his cousin Thomas nearby watching on.
"Thomas had earlier undergone a serious operation and I don't think there was a dry eye among the parents present. It was a very emotional moment."
And what of the cup success itself? Just how was it received in the locality?
"It has been a brillant boost to the club and the entire parish and couldn't have come at a better time because of the near-misses in recent years.
"There's some great potential within the club and they're all getting great opportunities now to demonstrate their skills in the county and in the province as well.
"Thirty or forty years ago, there was little in the way of coaching but that has all changed and talent at all ages is being readily identified, nurtured and developed.
"Players are coming forward now with great belief in their own ability and with great confidence and ambition and that was evident in this year's county final.
"The commitment and pride of the likes of the older players like David King and Philip McCaul was terrific and the younger fellas responded in kind, showing a lot of character."
What was the difference between the sides in the county final?
"Aidan Flanagan fully merited his man-of-the-match award but every member of the team played terrificly well, especially in the second half when they played out of their skins.
"Eire Og were tipped by a lot of people before the match to be crowned champions but I think we were worthy winners because we took our chances better.
"When the heat was turned up in the second half, the fellas really dug deep to carve out the win and even the most partisan Eire Og supporter would hardly begrudge us the win."
Margaret is looking forward with no little excitement to the 2008 season when she fully expects Aughhnamullen and Monaghan's premier sides to consolidate their burgeoning c.v.
She believes the Sarsfields can acquit themselves well at intermediate level and reckons McEnaney and Co. can add to their '07 momentum.
"It was a great past few months on both the club and county fronts as far as supporters from Aughnamullen were concerned.
"We had such wonderful success in the junior championship and Monaghan's trips to Croke Park helped light up an otherwise dull summer.
"Hopefully next summer's weather won't be so bad but if it is I think we can be sure both Aughnamullen's players and the county team will once again brighten up things for us."
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