Gweedore (Donegal) v Crossmaglen (Armagh) - AIB Ulster Senior Club Football Championship 1st Round
My Club and I: Kevin Cassidy
In this week's 'My Club and I', we speak to former Donegal defender Kevin Cassidy about his club Ghaoth Dobhair (Gweedore).
By Brian Murphy
Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Ghaoth Dobhair was founded in 1931 and is considered to be one of the traditional strongholds of Gaelic football in Donegal. With 14 Donegal SFC titles, they are the most successful club in the county and along with St Eunan's of Letterkenny, who have 13 county titles, are one of the 'Big Two'.
The parish of Gaoth Dobhair, as it is officially known, is the largest Irish-speaking parish in the country with a population of just over 4,000. Gaoth Dobhair is a vast parish of scattered settlements stretching 16 miles north to south and nine miles east to west and takes in the villages of Bunbeg, Derrybeg, Dunlewey, Crolly and Brinalack.
With the iconic, rocky peak of Donegal's highest mountain, Errigal, dominating the skyline and the pristine beaches on the notoriously wild Atlantic coast to the west attracting tourists from far and wide, Gaoth Dobhair is one of the country's most scenic areas.
Cassidy, an All Star in 2002 and 2011, represented Donegal for ten seasons, but missed out on the 2012 All-Ireland success following a falling out with manager Jim McGuinness.
A teacher based in Letterkenny, Cassidy still lives in Gaoth Dobhair and took over as the senior team's player-manager at the start of the season and is assisted by former Derry forward Paddy Bradley.
While Gaoth Dobhair won the last of their 14 county titles in 2006, the club continues to provide players to the Donegal senior team, including Neil and Éamonn McGee and Odhrán MacNiallais, who will line out in Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park.
The club's strength is also underlined by the fact that five members of Declan Bonner's Donegal minor panel, who also face Dublin in the curtain-raiser on Sunday, are from Gaoth Dobhair - Ciarán Gillespie, Cian Mulligan, Micheál Carroll, Niall Friel and Gavin McBride.
Q: Tell us a little bit about Gweedore and the surrounding area...
A: It's a massive area to be honest, and it's one of Europe's most densely populated rural areas. If you were to go from one end to the other you are probably talking the guts of 20 miles or so. The planning wouldn't be great because there are houses thrown in every direction you look! It's in a beautiful location by the sea and it's a Gaeltacht area so we are very proud of our language, our culture and obviously our GAA. The villages in the Gweedore include Bunbeg and Derrybeg and many more other small little pockets of houses. It's strange in that the area is so spread out but it's all the one parish.
Q: Where exactly is the football field and can you explain a little why its location near the sea makes it a notoriously tough place for visiting teams?
A: The football field then is in Derrybeg, which is a mile from the main beach in Bunbeg and is just off the main road, down by the golf course and the sea. You have Errigal in the background and with the sea so close it looks great on a good day, but on a bad day it's not as attractive. Even in the summer it's windy down there. Paddy Bradley, who is my assistant manager this year, can't get over it. He often says, 'Jesus, even when the sun is shining the wind is blowing a gale down here'. I think we are used to it and we tailor our football style and our game-plan to that - we are a ball-carrying team because we are facing the elements every week.
Q: What are the facilities like at the club?
A: We struggled for a while because we had just the one pitch and it was quite small compared to other pitches, but the committee did a lot of fund-raising recently and built a new Prunty pitch which has the same dimensions as Croke Park. It's brilliant, we have two fields now and we have indoor facilities and gym facilities for the young ones so we have come a long way over the last few years because in the past we didn't have a lot. It's great for the younger generation coming through to have that.
Q: Gaoth Dobhair is the largest Irish-speaking parish in the country, but is the Irish language still in everyday use in the community and do the club's players communicate on the field of play in Irish?
A: If you go down home now and order a pint or go into the shop and get a paper it's all Irish they will speak to you and I think that is very important that we retain that important part of our culture. When we are speaking on the pitch, in dressing rooms or in training it is all in Irish too. Poor Paddy is lost at the minute but I am sure he will come round.
Q: How did you end up taking over as player-manager of the senior team this year and how did you manage to convince former Derry star Paddy Bradley to join you as your assistant?
A: When I took over as player-manager I was still going to be needed on the field so I needed someone to take my place on the sideline. We also have Seán Diver, Micheál McCafferty and Colman McCool as selectors and I would have played with all three of them down through the years when we had a successful team. With Paddy, I felt he could take my place on the sideline but he also offers an outside view of things. I contacted Paddy and he was delighted to come on board. He's been great for the boys.
Q: How has your first season as player-manager been so far?
A: The Donegal Senior Championship hasn't started yet, but with regard to the other competitions it's been a mixed bag really. It's been particularly difficult this year because we have three on the senior Donegal panel this year and six with the minors, which effectively means we have been down nine players all year - I think they have only played one game for us out of a total of 18 this year. We are sitting third or fourth in the league table and it's a good opportunity for us to try and not rely on the main players and to see if young lads can step up to the mark. In some games it worked and in others it didn't but we are learning and once we get our county men back we will be in a position to put a strong team forward for the championship.
Q: Is the fact that you have very little access to your inter-county players for most of the season a source of frustration?
A: Definitely. We are one of the worst hit in the county because we have the nine lads involved between the minors and seniors. When I came in this year, I took the decision - because I know myself from playing county that you have so much to do and so much to prepare for without your club manager asking you to attend training, and nobody wants to be the boy who doesn't want to show up for the club - to speak to the lads and told them they had enough to do and to carry on with Donegal as long as they rowed in with us when they came back in. I didn't imagine the two teams would go this far but I trust those lads will all come back after the inter-county season and give me a hand out because they haven't been at training or games and their team-mates are looking forward to having them back as well.
(Pic: 29 October 2006; Gweedore (Donegal), squad. AIB Ulster Senior Club Football Championship First Round, Gweedore (Donegal) v Crossmaglen (Armagh), Ballybofey, Co. Donegal.)
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Q: You have been quoted in the past as saying that there are not enough coaches in the schools in the area and that participation amongst the younger generation is suffering as a result. Is that still the case in Gaoth Dobhair?
A: Yes. I teach in Letterkenny, but my wife teaches in Gaoth Dobhair. One coach would do. I remember when we were young there was a coach in the area and I would say that's what got us all involved. We went on to win a minor championship and two senior championships. You have to have someone driving you.
You can't just depend on a schoolteacher who already has enough to do in the class to be looking after kids after school or at lunchtime because you are simply not going to get the same commitment. Rural areas like Gaoth Dobhair should be able to start some sort of scheme to get coaches in every school - there are only six or seven in the area - so even one would do. You would see the benefits straight away.
While kids are encouraged to play all sports, Gaelic football would be seen as he number one, but I already see that the FAI have coaches in the schools and already we are starting to lag behind. Gaoth Dobhair is a proud GAA community with the most Donegal SFC titles in the county so if we start to let soccer take precedence in the schools it will only be a matter of time before that turns. We don't want to discourage kids from playing any sports but we need a level playing field in order to give them a chance to choose what they want.
Q: How important is it to have three Gaoth Dobhair men involved with Jim McGuinness's senior team on a big day such as Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin?
A: It's massive. Every club needs county players because it gives young people something to aim for. At the moment, with three on the senior team and six involved with the minors it's a carnival atmosphere there, with paintings of the players on walls, and all the young lads know them and look up to them. They want to be the next Neil McGee or the next Odhrán MacNiallais and you can see them practising the skills knowing that they all came up through the underage ranks in the club so it's a realistic target for them.
(Pic: 17 July 2011; Kevin Cassidy, Neil McGee and Eamonn McGee, Donegal players from the Gaoth Dobhair club, along with the Anglo Celt cup. Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship Final, Derry v Donegal, St Tiernach's Park, Clones, Co. Monaghan.)
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Q: You played on the last Gaoth Dobhair team to win a Donegal SFC title in 2006. Given the club leads the roll of honour with 14 titles, does the eight-year gap back to the last success weigh heavily on you and the club members?
A: I won county titles in 2002 and 2006 so you're right, it's eight years since we last won it. That's massive. It's an incentive now for all the young lads coming through. It's a great thing to do with your club and it's a wee bit of a regret for me that I didn't give as much time as I could have due to my commitments with the county. We left a few more county titles behind us but that's life and I suppose that's why this year I decided, before I go past it and finish up, that the boys should have the best possible chance and are coached well and have everything they need in order to succeed. If it doesn't happen then that's fair enough, but we'll give it our best shot.
Q: St Eunan's, the county champions in 2012, now have 13 county titles and are just one behind Gaoth Dobhiar in the roll of honour. Does that make them your big rivals?
A: Given they are just one behind us on the all-time list, yeah Eunan's would be the big rivals alright. Down through the years when I was speaking to my father in law, he won five or six county titles and it was all about St Eunan's-Gaoth Dobhair and the great rivalry they had. We are best of friends off the field but we always want to stay ahead of them because they are the town club in Letterkenny and we are the rural club. It's a nice, friendly rivalry and I am sure they are mad to catch us as well.
(Pic: 30 July 2011; Kevin Cassidy, Donegal, celebrates with his Gaoth Dobhair club-mate Tom Mike Gillespie, after the game. GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final, Donegal v Kildare).
