By Cian O’Connell

“Our club is for the whole of family for the whole of life,” Cumann Pheadair Naofa Warrenpoint secretary Donal McCormack says.

Undoubtedly pride is associated with the senior football team in Warrenpoint, who are preparing for another Down decider against Kilcoo, but the manner in which the club is flourishing at every level is a source of optimism.

Matches matter, but the different strands of the club make significant contributions to the everyday lives of people associated with Warrenpoint. “We cater for the fathers and mothers of children, both male and female.”

Reaching a Down SFC final is certainly a boost, but McCormack stresses the importance of the initiatives that are currently being carried out.

“It is great, at the end of the day we are a club for the whole of life - that is how we operate,” he says.

“We are a club for the whole of life from child to death. We have a senior section, we cover every single sport that there is in the GAA - from ladies football, handball. We also have a thing called GAA for ALL - that is brilliant. We have children who might be slightly physically disabled or slightly mentally disabled, they take part in football every Sunday morning. It is a great thing.

“We also have football for mothers and others. Again that has been very successful, those are two new innovations in the past four years. So it is not just football, the hurlers won the junior championship in Down last Friday night.

“Our senior ladies footballers were beaten in a county final last weekend. The club is going well, going extremely well.”

During this interesting and exciting time for Warrenpoint, McCormack acknowledges the contribution made by others throughout the decades. “We lost Barney Carr at the end of last year on November 30,” McCormack says. “Barney Carr was the manager of the first Down team to take the Sam Maguire across the border in 1960.

“It would be lovely if we could win in this particular year because he played on the last team that won the county championship in 1953.”

Shane Mulholland’s promising team are making progress, but Kilcoo, a successful and seasoned outfit, will provide a demanding test at Páirc Esler on Sunday.

From an early age McCormack was passionate about Gaelic Games, and subsequently served in a number of roles for both Warrenpoint and Down GAA. “My father was captain of the Down team for 15 years in the late 1930s and 1940s,” he recalls.

“It was only natural that I would be interested. My first time in Croke Park was when I was seven years of age at the Down versus Galway All-Ireland semi-final in 1959. I became involved in the Down Youth Board in 1973, that was really started by Seán Ó'Neill.

“I have been involved in administration every since, I have been county chairman, secretary. I was chairman of the hearings committee for 10 years, I have been assistant secretary, league secretary for 12 years. So I held senior office for 35 years in the county. I'm now chairman of the referees committee.”

The McCormack family connection with club and county remains healthy. “Fergal McCormack, my brother, has been very deeply involved,” he adds. “Fergal has been chairman of the club, he is deeply involved at county level.

"He is an accountant and he is on the Ballykinlar development committee. He was also chairman of the audit committee in Croke Park for six years. We have a fairly strong GAA connection.”

Since 1961 McCormack reckons he has only missed four All-Ireland SFC finals, the game and sport always brings possibilities. Ultimately that is one of the chief reasons McCormack highlights what the GAA can do for a community.

“What you do see is the camaraderie that is in the GAA,” he reflects. “When somebody is in trouble the GAA comes around like a family, they really do. You will see that in any situation. It keeps people out of trouble, that is a big thing, it keeps them out of harm’s way.”