Sean Brown was as much a part of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones as the iron gates, flagposts and signs he had made for the club with his own hands. There are echoes of him everywhere around the Bellaghy club and his memory has become part of its very being. After a committee meeting on the night of May 12th 1997 Sean Brown was murdered by LVF terrorists as he was locking up those same gates he had helped to make. His body was found beside his burning car an hour later.
Last Sunday in the cold gloom of Clones, Bellaghy, the team and cause to which Sean Brown had been devoted for most of his adult life, beat Errigal Ciaran to win the Ulster club championship. As the celebrations unfolded and Bellaghy cast a steely eye on a post-Christmas All Ireland charge, it was hard not to think of the man and his life. He would have enjoyed the occasion and its emotion.
Bellaghy, of course, have been down this road before winning three previous Ulster club titles. In 1972 they went on to win the All-Ireland title, an incredible achievement given the political situation in south Derry in particular and Northern Ireland in general at the time. But Bellaghy endured and, given the circumstances, that victory over UCC stands as one of the great performances by an Ulster club side. Then, as now, it was achieved on seemingly meagre resources and a core of players drawn from the small number of families who have established themselves as footballing dynasties in the village. The personnel may have changed over the past 30 years but the surnames on the team-sheet are reassuringly familiar.
There were two Diamonds on the side back in 1972 and last Sunday four more wore the blue and white of Bellaghy, with Peter turning in a man-of-the-match performance at corner back and Gavin chipping in with five points from corner forward. The Dohertys, the Cassidys and the Mulhollands also supplied players for the two teams separated by almost three decades. By now you might be getting the idea. Footballers in Bellaghy are bred, not made.
The Brown family may not have the same playing pedigree but it has provided backbone and continuity to the club just the same. There have been Browns involved in the administration and running of Bellaghy since it was founded in 1939 stretching through Sean's father, Jim, to Sean himself and then on to his son Sean junior. They knew nothing else really except to serve and everything they had was offered up to the common good of the club.
Bellaghy's recognition as one of the most progressive forces in Ulster football off the field is due in large part to the efforts and attention to detail of Sean Brown senior. That same insistence on excellence and thoroughness inevitably percolated through to the football teams themselves and they too have become a by-word for diligence and achievement.
There have been blips along the way. Bellaghy's last Ulster club title was back in 1994 and since then they have lost finals at two-year intervals - 1996 and 1998 - to the same indomitable opponents, Crossmaglen. For almost a decade the Armagh champions have provided a template for sustained excellence in Ulster. But when their bandwagon finally ran out of steam earlier in this year's competition, it was Bellaghy who picked up the baton.
In their semi-final against Gowna, Bellaghy displayed the same qualities of ruggedness and efficiency that have served them so handsomely over the years. Of course they have their forwards - even a half-fit Joe Cassidy would get the nod on to any club side - but the Bellaghy tone this year has been struck by the performances of their back line. Peter Diamond received many of the plaudits last Sunday but the rock on which this Ulster club title has been built is the renaissance of David O'Neill.
O'Neill signalled his arrival as an intercounty defender in the great Derry mould of Kieran McKeever and Tony Scullion three or four years ago. But a persistent, debilitating viral problem has left his career stuck in the starting stalls.
Only a few months ago at Casement Park as Derry came close to defeat by Antrim in the first game between the sides, O'Neill had to leave the field before half-time with the same recurring chest complaint. A visit to a healer seems to have addressed both the mental and physical problems and last Sunday was evidence of O'Neill's second coming.
The fortunes of a young and inexperienced Errigal Ciaran side, further weakened by the horrific eye injury suffered by Joe Lynch, rested squarely on the slight shoulders of Peter Canavan. He had been in imperious form as his team brushed aside the challenge of Crossmaglen's conquerors, Castleblaney, in the semi-final and the expectation last Sunday was that a repeat performance could prove the difference between two fairly evenly matched sides.
It was David O'Neill who was given the job of attempting to stymie Canavan's influence and he further enhanced his reputation as a big-time performer by restricting his man to a single point in the fourth minute. After that O'Neill fronted and harried Canavan to such an extent that he was forced to move further and further outfield looking for possession. With the influence of their talisman significantly blunted, the lighter and less imposing Errigal Ciaran team floundered for ideas in the mire of Clones and Bellaghy seized their moment.
Where they go from here remains to be seen. Having been put to the Crossmaglen sword last year, Na Fianna seemed emboldened by their conquerors' early exit this season and they will approach the All-Ireland series with a degree of confidence. They would do well, though, to be aware not only of the quality of the current Bellaghy vintage but also of their tremendous wealth of collective experience.
Bellaghy's return to the football big time is a tribute to the years and decades of work of men like Sean Brown and those who have come after him. It shows that a club unit, no matter how small or apparently limited it might appear from the outside, draws all its strength from within. The people of Bellaghy would be amused to hear about the debate currently taking shape on the letters page of this newspaper criticising the parochialism of the GAA. For them, that is its greatest asset.
