In this week’s ‘My Club’ feature, Dublin senior footballer Brian Fenton tells us all about Raheny GAA club.

By John Harrington

Raheny GAA club is located in the eponymous leafy north Dublin suburb that hugs the sylvan wonderland of St. Anne’s Park.

The club was officially founded in 1958, but underage teams had been representing the area for the previous two years thanks to the efforts of the local curate, Father Dick Ryan.

Fr. Ryan, a Limerick native, arrived in the area in October 1955 and immediately started laying the foundations that would lead to the club’s establishment.

In 1956, Fr. Ryan, along with Jim Donegan, entered teams in the Dublin North East Juvenile Leagues. Maroon was chosen as the club’s colours because Galway had won the All-Ireland in September 1956.

That same year, Dublin Corporation allocated a pitch on the old cricket-field used by the Plunkett family, the last private owners of St. Anne’s Estate, and by ’58 the club was fully established and quickly blossomed.

Junior and Intermediate Leagues and Championships were won during the ‘60s, and in 1970 Raheny won the Division 1 Senior League and were narrowly beaten by St. Vincetn’s in the County Senior Football Final.

The club contributed significantly to the great Dublin team of the 1970s that won three All-Irelands as All-Star David Hickey, Michael Hickey, Alan Larkin, and Paddy Gogarty were all Raheny men.

The Raheny clubhouse and dressing-rooms on All Saints Drive were built in 1981 and an extension that includes gymnasium, games room, club office, storage rooms, and a terrace was completed in 2010.

The club continue to play their matches in St. Anne’s Park, and field over 50 teams in Gaelic Football, Hurling, Ladies Football and Camogie.

For more information on Raheny, log onto the club’s official website - http://www.raheny.gaa.ie/

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Q: How would you describe Raheny for anyone who's never been?

**A: **So, Raheny, it's on the north side of Dublin. We're Dublin 5. We're sort of situation between Clontarf, maybe Donaghmede, and Howth direction. It's a lovely little spot, a really nice village. Great community feel to it. And obviously at the heart-beat of that is the GAA club.

We're very lucky to have it situated right in the village of Raheny. And then we play our games in St. Anne's Park which is a beautiful park. Anyone who knows it would know it's spectacular,  they've really done it up well. Yeah, just a little village on the north-side of Dublin where we love our football and hurling.

Q: How did you first get involved with the club?

A: We call it the 'Ogra', which is the Saturday morning U-4s and U-5s. It was always the plan to play football, but I remember someone came to the school and told us all about the underage games and gave us a letter to bring home to the parents and that was it.

So you're sort of brought along then and I can remember buying my  first pair of boots. My dad bought them, and I was asking him would they make the noise running out on concrete! I just wanted to get there. I was really keen to get out there.

So you'd come down Saturday mornings and it would go from there. You're taught hurling, football, and camogie for the girls. Saturday mornings would eventually grow in to Tuesday and Thursday night trainings. But, yeah, we're very lucky in Raheny, we have a great set-up.

Q: Your Dad is a Kerry-man, so I presume he would have been encouraging you to play football?

A: Yeah, definitely! He's a Kerry-man so football is in his blood and my blood. He was pushing me towards the GAA club but at underage you're playing everything because all the clubs are there in Raheny - GAA, soccer, everything to choose from. I played a lot of football and the people you train with become your friends for life. 
We were lucky to grow up with a successful age-group. We played Division One football growing up and we were hurling as well. Very lucky in that way.

Q: Did you win much coming up through the age-groups?

A: Yeah, as I said, we were lucky. We were successful for such a small club, I suppose. We were playing Division One football and I think we won an U-14 Championship when it went All-Dublin, North, East, South. And we won an U-16 Championship too. Probably left a minor Championship behind us. I know Ciaran Kilkenny in Castleknock won that one.

We won the Dublin Feile, Division One, and went to the All-Ireland Feile Final against O'Donovan Rossa from Derry and were beaten by a goal. Great memories. But, yeah, very successful and that kept us all together. Thankfully a couple of those boys have come onto the senior team now with the club.

Q: Were ye pretty much a Golden Generation for the club?

A: I don't know about Golden Generation. I know there's huge success there now, but at the time we seemed to be the team that were winning a lot. We had great management, the likes of Pat Ivory and Paul Dempsey, we had great managers there at the time. Thankfully we had a bit of a Golden Generational alright. We had young, keen footballers at the time and all of us loved playing our sport. We grew up knowing success. We're playing senior now and are still Division One, but we might be struggling.

Q: How many guys you played underage with are now on the senior team with you?

A: One of the lads is actually playing professional soccer in England, John O'Sullivan, he's in Blackburn at the minute. Lads have gone different directions, some of them play hurling. But there's a good group of us, about six, seven, or eight of us, who are on the senior Raheny team. So a good through-put of lads there, thankfully. That's just all down to the underage structures that are in the club.

Q: Do you play any hurling, or did you?

A: Yeah, I always played hurling, it was week on, week off with the football. I played hurling until I was minor and then when things were coming good with the football I just kept at the football. It's very much a dual-club. I know in many clubs in Dublin lads aren't allowed to play football and hurling, but we're a dual club. Lads play both hurling and football and you just train away and everything seems to work, thankfully.

Q: You have a strong background in swimming too, which at an elite level is a sport that requires a lot of dedication. Did that give you a good discipline and ethic for training?

A: Yeah, definitely, that sort of hard-work ethic. Now, we were lucky in a way that the swimming club I was involved with didn't do early mornings and I know that's usually a thing in swimming that you do early morning training sessions. But we didn't do that.

I was doing a bit of everything, really. It was swimming, soccer, basketball in school. I think I even played badminton in school just to get out of class. It was a culmination of all of those sorts of sports. It was bringing it all together then and they've definitely helped me in my career to date.

Q: Another Dublin midfielder, Ciaran Whelan, is also a Raheny man. I presume he was a role-model for you growing up?

**A: **Yeah, though I probably wouldn't say it to him now! He was our club manager there two or three years ago. But, yeah, the role-model was Ciaran and the likes of David Henry as well. Those older lads who were in with Dublin, Donal Ryan was another. You're always looking at the senior team in your club and seeing who the top players are and who can you idolise. Ciaran was flying high with the Dubs at the time, and, yeah, he was our idol growing up. Thankfully we're still friends.

Q: You're the only current Raheny county player. Does that put extra pressure on you to perform for the club?

A: Yeah, and you'd love to get back and play even more for your club. I wouldn't say it's pressure, though. You're always looking forward to getting back to playing with your friends and trying to do the best you can with your club. That's all it boils down to.

The Kilkenny lads went back to their clubs (after the Leinster Hurling Final) and I'd love that. I love getting back to my club. Even if we have a night off training I'll walk my dog around the pitches and watch an U-12 match, and U-14 match a girl's football or camogie match, whatever's on, just to be around the club. I'd regularly after matches pop back to the club even if it's just for a pint or two just to be around the club. Because that's where it all began for me and I owe them all my success. A lot of people have helped me along the way. It all begins in the club when you're four or five and you're training with your best friends.

Q: The Dublin football championship is a hugely competitive one. What sort of a realistic chance do Raheny have of getting to the business end of it? I believe you won the first-round match and are playing Parnells next?

**A: **Yeah, correct. You're always looking to go as far as you can in the Championship and you look at the likes of Clontarf last year and how well they did by getting to a semi-final and lost to 'Boden by just a point or two. You look at the likes of that, so as much as you want to perform consistently in the League, the Championship is what you really judge yourself on.

We beat St. Mary's of Saggart in our first-round, thankfully. We got a good performance there so I'm really looking forward to the game against Parnells the next day. Hopefully we'll drive on from there because it hasn't been the most successful League for us this year. But we're always looking to do well in the Championship because when you look back and if you've done well in the Championship then it's always counted as a good year.

Q: This is a young Raheny team, isn't it?

A: Absolutely. There were three Raheny lads on the Dublin U-21 team this year who got to the All-Ireland semi-final, so there's a good bunch of us and it is a young team. As I said, thankfully in Raheny there's great underage structures, great management, great parents, great volunteers. The players coming up behind you are used to winning games and used to playing in the top Division. We're lucky there's a good young group there and there's a lot to build on for the future.

Q: When people talk about 'Pride in the Parish' the image that's usually projected is of a rural club that's at the heart of their community. But even though Raheny is in the city, it sounds like it has a similar role at the heart of the community?

A: Definitely. We don't have any county players from outside of Dublin that have come up and joined us. It's a great place to live, but they might go and play with St. Vincent's or St. Sylvester's or someone like that. Every one of our players is born and bred Raheny and it sort of adds to the atmosphere. You know everyone and people around the area base themselves on how the team is going and it really brings pride to them. 

Yes, we're in a very busy suburb of Dublin. But there's definitely that brilliant feel of belonging, community, and parish in Raheny. So we're lucky in that way. Our rivals Clontarf are next door, I know they're in Division Two, but we'd always compare parishes and make sure that if we play with them we don't lose.

Q: So would Clontarf be the biggest local rivals then?

A: Rivalry, yeah, probably Clontarf. You'd have rivals like Vincent's too who are nearby, but they're flying high and are very successful. If we were playing Clontarf I think both parishes would be out on the sideline and it would be the be all and end all.

Q: What would it mean for you to win a County Senior Championship with Raheny?

**A: **That would be literally sensational. It would be as good as an All-Ireland. I know everyone says it, but you're literally playing with the lads you grew up with. You went to school together, everything like that. And for it to happen in such a small club, it would bring such pride to people who have gone before you. The volunteers in the club and that sort of hard work paying off with the underage structures that are there now.

To win a County Championship is something you can only dream of I suppose and something you have to really work hard at to succeed. We'll definitely keep working. There's a good, young group of players there. The hurlers seem to be going well too. So things are coming good in Raheny. To win a County Final in Raheny, I think I'd retire after that! It would be brilliant! 

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