Padraig Pearses won their first ever Roscommon SFC title at Dr Hyde Park last month.
By Cian O’Connell
It has been just one of those thrilling journeys for Padraig Pearses stuffed with memories and a first ever Roscommon Senior Championship title.
Next on the agenda is a Connacht Club decider against standard bearers Corofin at Tuam Stadium on Sunday, but that is merely part of the story.
Just over a week ago Aaron Clogher, Pearses’ Football Chairman, watched in McGovern Park, Ruislip wondering about what was happening.
Only seven days previously Pearses had overcame Tourlestrane at Markievicz Park and Pat Flanagan’s team then had to embark on a trip to London.
“We are in bonus territory really,” Clogher admits. “To get over Tourlestrane and getting the trip to London was a big bonus. I couldn't believe it. We brought about 400 people to London.
“It was phenomenal, it was at a week's notice. The whole logistics of planning to get the teams, management, and officers over there I thought it was going to be enough.”
Ultimately, the travelling party was much larger in the end, but Clogher will always recall what happened in Sligo and London.
“You had 100 people outside the dressing room in Sligo asking what time we were flying on Saturday so they could book the same flight,” Clogher says.
“There is a euphoria after winning your first one and it couldn't have panned out better. If you were travelling to London after winning your fifth or sixth county title it wouldn't have been the same at all.
“People are just madly enthusiastic to get behind the team, to support them. We went out to warm up in London last Sunday week, an hour before the game you had 150 or 200 people of ours in the stand.
“They got a standing ovation and a player came down the tunnel crying. I had just heard the noise, I met him coming down the tunnel after the crowd.
Padraig Pearses players, selectors, and supporters pictured at McGovern Park, Ruislip.
“It cost us 22,000 euro with flights, hotels, bus transfers, a bus with a ferry getting gear over there, but you couldn't buy it if you were trying to develop that sense of pride, community, and enjoyment. You couldn't ever buy it, so it was well worth it.”
Throughout the past couple of decades underage promise has been evident in Pearses. Silverware has been accumulated. Growing up Clogher was part of a particularly gifted crop.
“I'm 30 and lads my age would have played up along at underage and only been beaten once between Under 10 and Under 21,” Clogher states.
“We won every Roscommon League and Championship, we went to Feile, won an All Ireland Feile so there was a sense that there was a group that were going to do it and that it was a matter of time.
“Just after a number of near misses there was fear, I suppose, that it just mightn't happen. Thankfully we got over the line this year.
“That group in their late 20s with the elder of the Dalys, Niall Carty, who captained Roscommon to two National Leagues in 2013 and 2014 in Division Three and Four.
“Those lads were backed up by younger lads, who not so much from winning county titles, but more from making county teams in Roscommon at minor and Under 21. On our starting team you probably have 11 or 12 that played county minor, maybe even more.”
Despite different setbacks at the highest level in Roscommon, Pearses stayed defiant. There was a conviction within the club that glory would be attained.
“It was always a belief simply because of the success,” Clogher remarks. “We won a minor again in 2015, the likes of Hubert Darcy were on that team, probably five of that team start now on the senior team. No more than most clubs when they have success they refer back to where it came from at minor and Under 21.
“It is just the work that has gone in throughout the club. The belief is important, but the hard work was done too with the groups up along to bring them where we are.
“We were always competitive at Division One level, you only have six clubs in Division One so you'd know from that alone you were never far off really.”
It has been a hugely successful campaign for Roscommon champions Padraig Pearses.
Still different parts of the jigsaw had to be stitched together. Clogher acknowledges the pedigree and good habits brought by Pat Flanagan. Having managed Westmeath, Sligo, and Offaly, Flanagan quickly bought into the Pearses’ project.
“Yeah, it was probably the right place at the right time for Pat to come in,” Clogher acknowledges. “Obviously he was sought after having been with three different counties in the past decade.
“I came in as Chairman as the same time as our last management team stepped aside so I would have been heavily involved in the recruitment process, interviewing and all the rest.
“At club management level, especially around the midlands, there is lots of really good people out there. Pat is definitely one of them and he brought something which appealed to us.”
Delivering the Fahey Cup in Roscommon was the chief target and there was a sense that Flanagan could help to realise that burning ambition.
“He had worked with a couple of clubs around Westmeath and Offaly over the past 10 to 15 years and he never managed a club team that didn't win a Championship,” Clogher comments.
“Us being a team that had never won a Championship were looking for somebody who had that track record, that confidence. Number one he wouldn't get involved with a team who hadn't got potential. Number two he is fairly bringing something to the table himself in terms of getting teams over the line.
“He has definitely been good from that perspective and has brought a level of professionalism that the players in our club have craved for and demanded in recent years.
“So many of them have played at a high level, we have seven lads who played senior for Roscommon, it is a high level they expect in terms of training and preparation.
“To be fair the three lads from within the club - Niall Murray, Aidan Fallon, and Gerry Kelly that Pat brought in with him, Pat has internally said within our own group that he has never worked with fellas as professional and as prepared ticking all the boxes any county team would be ticking in terms of analysis and preparation and the quality of training.
“We are lucky to have really high quality people from the club interested and willing to get involved along with Pat.”
Pat Flanagan has made a significant impact with Padraig Pearses.
Football and hurling always mattered deeply to Clogher, who accepts that six years spent in DCU brought joy, while plenty of valuable lessons were also learned.
“Absolutely, I went in there in 2008 as a first year and straightaway was secretary of the club,” Clogher replies. “DCU had won the Sigerson for the first time two years previously in 2006 so there was a buzz in DCU around the GAA at the time. It was still growing throughout the time.
“I studied in DCU for four years and then worked for two years when I was SU President and Vice President. So I was there for six years and I loved it, the admin side of it.”
Pearses, though, always remained a firm focus. Even while a student at Garbally College in Ballinasloe Clogher commenced his off field duties with the club.
“I was Coaching Officer of the Ladies Board in the club when I was still in secondary school and I got involved in the Minor Board then as secretary and vice chair,” Clogher reveals.
“Adult Board was then a natural fit because all the lads I grew up with were all playing senior football. It was back to that thing, the sense of what was coming. Not a cockiness, but a hope and a belief that we could get over the line at senior level to win the first one.
“When you are involved in the club all your life, you want, if you can be, to be involved when it happens. That was the driver for me getting involved.”
Senior success has been sampled in the most delightful manner in recent months, but Clogher is encouraged by what is happening far from the glare of the Roscommon and provincial stages. “I annoy some people because I have strong views on participation, we went from fielding two teams to three adult teams since I got involved,” Clogher stresses.
“We fielded a Junior B team for the first time in a long time. While it is all about the senior team when it comes to profile and attention, sponsorship, and public goodwill, but we had 100 players play adult football with the club last year.”
Clogher estimates that between Taghmaconnell, Creagh, and Moore, Pearses have a population between 3,000-3,500 to pick from.
“Everybody is interested in the senior team doing well and I very much got involved to help with whatever I could do for the senior team,” Clogher comments. “I'm equally as happy that last year we won the Division Six League which is the lowest tier of competition in Roscommon with a team of lads who had given up on football up to 12 months ago.
Former DCU Gaelic Football Club Chairman Aaron Clogher pictured with Fiontan O'Curraoin, Jonny Cooper, Dean Rock, Eoghan O'Gara, Paul Flynn, and Philly McMahon in 2012.
“We won a Division Four League with our second team and we stayed in Division Three, retaining that status this year. When I give a speech at the AGM this year it will be as much about them as winning the Senior Championship. That would be my own level of playing football.
“It is very important. As part of that commitment to that standard of player, I put myself in that category. We organised an internal club tournament last year, we named it after a senior player who died 15 years ago, a young guy in his late 20s of sudden adult death syndrome.
“We had more than 100 different players participating in that which probably fed into us being able to field three teams. People saw there was a social, fun aspect to playing. Every club has a senior team, who trains hard two to three times a week. That is not for everyone.
“There is a growth in lads playing for fun. We have a ban on training with our third team, the only sessions they are allowed are different type of sessions to training sessions. That is important too.”
Undoubtedly it has been a busy stint for Clogher, who also referees in both codes in Roscommon. There is little time to rest.
“For my sins I'm on the National Support panel for the hurling,” Clogher laughs. “I have been on it for six years.
“No more than Pearses when I took over as Chairman the only trophy we hadn't won in the club was the Senior Championship. The only final I haven't refereed in Roscommon is the County Senior Football Final.”
Considering Pearses are now champions it is surely a refereeing honour Clogher is happy to avoid for now. “When I came in I said I'd quite happily not referee this for the next four or five years, as long as we are winning them,” he responds.
“It is hard to keep it up, it is a balancing act. You are trying to see your own games, especially when we have three teams on the go and also trying to keep referees administrators in the county happy, not turning down games every Sunday either.”
When Pearses are performing into the winter months it is a new and nice problem to have. Tears of joy and pride have been shed during the past month. A daunting challenge awaits against Corofin, who remain so adept in these type of November matches.
Pearses monitored these occasions for so long, planning and plotting to be involved themselves. That is now happening and Clogher is thoroughly enjoying doing his bit for Pearses cause.
