In order to grow a beautiful flower from scratch, first find a good seed and store it somewhere dry. Then, but only when the time is right, plant it tenderly in a pot of rich and fertile soil. Place the pot in a warm, bright setting, keep it watered and then stand back and wait. Before too long a green shoot will push through to the surface, ambitious for growth and success. Transplant the seedling to a deeper pot then stand back again.
The seed of David Gillick’s career as an international athlete was first sowed in the rich and fertile soil of the community of Ballinteer in south Co Dublin. This was where his growth and talent were nurtured to a level that won him two indoor European sprint gold medals, a sixth place in the world championships, and saw him compete at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Now retired from competitive running, Gillick (40) has channelled the drive he learned in his childhood environment into his work as a wellness advocate and in building an increasingly impressive presence in Irish sports broadcasting.
He speaks positively and appreciatively of his community’s role in his athletic successes, and of the importance of sponsorship initiatives such as the Flogas Energy docuseries The Energy Behind The Athletes and The Energy Behind Team Ireland, which bring the vital role of community support into the spotlight.
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“When I look back, I see that the community was pivotal in terms of my future in sports,” says Gillick. “In primary school I was very, very lucky to have a teacher, Olive Horgan, who loved athletics. Every spring she’d bring us to a field beside the school to run races. Then, off the back of that, you’d get picked to go to represent the school in competition and, if you were any good, you’d join the local running club.”
As it happened, Gillick was good and was soon a regular at Dundrum Athletic Club which he sees as a model institution for the selfless volunteerism found in every community in Ireland.
“Dundrum Athletic Club was the brainchild of a couple called Liz and Eddie McDonagh many years ago,” Gillick explains. “Every weekend, almost without fail, they would have a bus full of kids and athletes heading to a meeting somewhere or other.
“Without having the volunteers, without having the people that are the backbone of sport in this country, I wouldn’t have got to the level that I got to. That’s what community means. The people who put in the hours – unpaid hours – they nurture the kids, motivate them, inspire them. And these are the people that are going to represent the country in the Olympics.”
Gillick speaks of the people who spend frosty winter weekend mornings on sidelines while peeved parents look daggers at them for not giving their child enough game time. Or who spend interminable hours at committee meetings searching for creative ways to stretch a meagre budget even further, or packing bags in the local supermarket in the hope that customers will throw enough coins into the charity bucket to fund the majorettes’ troupe in their next international excursion.
But why on Earth do they do it?
“Obviously they have a passion for that sport. They don’t look at it as a hindrance to their time. It’s something that they get a lot of joy out of, a lot of empowerment and self-fulfillment from. There’s no physical reward, no money. They want to give back and they want to encourage. It runs deep. It’s something that’s within a lot of people’s souls.”
Helping plants grow tall and strong is another thing that is within a lot of people’s souls – preparing the seedling for its final move, to the garden proper. But it still needs to be acclimatised to a harsher outdoor climate. It must be, as gardeners say, hardened off.
Jordan Conroy had been hardened off by the time he was 10. Now aged 30, and a key member of Ireland’s rugby sevens panel for the upcoming Olympic Games, Conroy spent the first decade of his life in Germany in one of the harshest climates possible for a child: as a victim of cruel domestic abuse by his stepfather.
His courageous mother, Jennie, eventually extracted Jordan and his sister from their nightmare and fell into the safety net of her sister’s home in Offaly. The family initially shared a box room, with two cases of belongings they had managed to carry from their life in Germany.
Conroy says he was “a troubled child” back then, but one who had been gifted with outstanding athletic ability. He excelled at sprinting and soccer, and dabbled with hurling and football, before eventually finding a pathway to the garden proper of Tullamore Rugby Club. Now, at last, his roots could deepen.
There is almost a sense of relief in Jordan Conroy’s voice when he describes the immediate sense of inclusion that he experienced in his newfound community.
They taught me that when it came to sport I was representing myself but that I was also representing something bigger
— Jordan Conroy
“I felt like I belonged somewhere,” he says. “I wanted to continually come back, make more friends, build more connections. The critical point was when I turned 18 and joined the senior lads. They took me under their wing and brought me into what I always called a ‘brotherhood’. I felt like I was going into a team with a bunch of older brothers. And they saw something in me that I never thought I’d have in rugby.”
Conroy admits that he was “no saint” as a teenager and his immersion with the senior team was exactly what the doctor ordered at that point of his life. While he emphasises that all newcomers were made to feel welcome, the embrace he received seemed particularly warm and tight.
“Maybe because of my situation they may have thought I needed a little bit more support. Maybe they thought I was a lost cause because there was so much support given to me,” he chuckles. “They wanted the best from me and if I ever started to act the bollocks they were there to discipline me almost. They taught me that when it came to sport I was representing myself but that I was also representing something bigger.”
When Gillick won his European gold medal, the welcome home party to Ballinteer was thrown by the local GAA club, St Johns. Conroy similarly recognises that community support for a local sporting talent is a cross-cut feature of Irish life.
“After every game we’d always go into the clubhouse with the opposing team and their supporters,” says Conroy. “And then one of them would say ‘Jesus, you have some talent, you’re heading for a green jersey. Then I’d tell them that I was worried about my catching and passing ability, but they’d say – ‘Don’t worry, that will come.’
“I gradually realised that they were seeing something in me that I wasn’t.”
Gillick and Conroy are brand ambassadors for Flogas. Rita Kirwan, marketing and communications director for the company says the Energy behind the Team initiative is a way of celebrating “the communities, coaches, friends and families whose unwavering energy and support fuels our athletes’ success. We aim to celebrate the energy that communities provide to uplift and inspire our athletes.”
- David Gillick and Jordan Conroy are brand ambassador’s for Flogas
A special two part series on Virgin Media One, “The Energy Behind Team Ireland” will air on Thursday, 18th of July and Thursday, 25th of July at 8:30pm.”