The Athlone side, formed in 1981, will be outsiders in tomorrow's final but are one of the most consistent teams in the province, writes KEITH DUGGAN
IT DOESN’T have the winding tradition of many Irish GAA clubs but Garrycastle has hardly put a foot wrong since its foundation in 1981.
Many clubs get to celebrate a title of note about as often as Halley’s Comet comes around but the Westmeath champion’s history reads like a blueprint for how to set up a successful club. They will be outsiders against Dublin champions St Brigid’s in tomorrow’s Leinster final in Tullamore but they have become one of the most consistent teams in the province over the past decade. They started life out as the second club in Athlone but are now the leading light of Westmeath football, winning their third county title in succession and their fifth in 10 years.
“They are a good, clean team and I think St Brigid’s are going to have their work cut out,” says Ray Smyth, whose Mullingar Shamrocks team almost beat Garrycastle in the county final – they were caught with a late 45 in the drawn match and then lost the replay in terrible conditions.
“We lost last year’s final to them as well and they are just very solid and dependable. They work for each other. David O’Shaughnessy is back playing terrific football. Dessie Dolan is still incredibly consistent in place-kicking and he will punish mistakes. Seánie O’Donoghue is playing great football. They’ve a good bench.
“People had thought they’d go away after they lost a few semi-finals but they are just really good at digging games out. I saw them playing against Longford Slashers and Athy and they are playing extremely well.”
Although tomorrow’s Leinster club final places the Westmeath champions against one of Dublin’s most traditional urban clubs in St Brigid’s, this is hardly the classic match-up of town against country.
Garrycastle’s foundation was a direct response to rapid development on the periphery of Athlone in the early 1980s. Its story is the opposite of the traditional parish club where player lineage can be traced back through generations. Instead, GAA people who had relocated to Athlone through work recognised that the established club – Athlone GAA club has a history dating back to 1885 – couldn’t realistically cater for the numbers interested. They were fielding three under-12 teams to try to cope with the numbers showing up for training, many of who were now coming from Garrycastle in the east of the town.
The late Dan Hogan, originally a Toomevara man, was instrumental in getting a new club up and running, along with Jack Veale from Waterford. Dermot Ryan came to live in Athlone in 1977 and recalls that while there was no objection from the town club, some of the clubs outside the town had reservations that a second team in Athlone may cause them to lose players.
“So we gave assurances that that wouldn’t happen. The area of Garrycastle is very much part of Athlone town now,” says Ryan, who has been involved with the club since its early days and whose sons played on the first senior team to win a county senior title in 2001.
“But when we started, there was still a small bit of countryside between it and the town. It felt like a separate place. And when we were trying to get on our feet, we got a lot of assistance. Athlone had no problem in allowing youngsters from Garrycastle to transfer to play on our underage teams.
“We had no full-size pitch so we either had to borrow a field – Marist College and the local VEC were really helpful – or cede home advantage. Athlone and Castledaly were also really good to us. Maybe they are sorry now that they were but there was an enormous degree of goodwill involved in helping us to get going.”
The establishment of Garrycastle gave the developing community a focal point. As Ryan recalls, housing estates shot up and new industries came into the area: the commercial development seemed to happen overnight and there was no social dimension to match it. The GAA club helped provide that.
“We didn’t even have a pub here until 1994,” Ryan says. “But before that time, it was only our underage teams that were winning so we didn’t need it for celebrations anyway.”
When Garrycastle decided to field a junior team, they recruited useful Gaelic football players who, as Ryan, recalls “had gone off playing soccer or playing nothing at all”. Freddie Hewitt from Moate and Jim King from Rosemount, both of whom had lined out for Westmeath, were living in the area and recruited in those early years. The club immediately won the 1982 junior championship, debunking the myth that parish and tradition means everything when it comes to club success.
The principle of parish pride is all very well but as Garrycastle illustrated from the beginning, the real secret is to be found in underage coaching.
“A really significant thing was the arrival of Michael Lydon from Galway (later a selector with Luke Dempsey’s Westmeath Under-21 team) and he brought a whole new level of coaching to the local national school at Coosan,” Ryan says.
“We won an under-12 county title in 1985, our very first underage success and that was the start of it.”
And just like that, Garrycastle began producing players who not only pushed the club towards prominence but also played an instrumental part in the progression of Westmeath football. Dessie Dolan and David O’Shaughnessy emerged from Garrycastle to become household names. The club marked every year with a significant achievement on either the playing field or in grounds’ development. They won their first minor championship in 1999 and that quickly translated into senior success. When the club won its first county title in 2001, only two players were over 23.
“And every single player from that team is still involved, except for my own two sons,” says Ryan. With good reason. Ciarán is in South Africa and Donal in London.
Recruiting Anthony Cunningham from St Brigid’s, the dominant team in Roscommon, to manage the team has been the latest smart move by the Athlone side. They had lost two county semi-finals and were in danger of slipping back into the pack.
“We actually beat them in the preliminary round of the championship last year,” Ray Smyth says. “But it was no surprise that they were there by the time the final came around. And I was involved with The Downs team that beat them in 2005. Dessie Dolan was held scoreless that day. People thought that might be the end of them for a while but they have kept on coming back.”
Since Cunningham took over, they have won three county titles on the trot. Now, they face a second attempt at a first provincial championship in three years; they lost the 2009 final to Portlaoise by 1-09 to 1-05.
“Anthony has won three titles since he came here so he must be doing something right,” Ryan says. “But no, he was a new face and a new voice. He has had a lot to juggle and has given us a full commitment. And he has an outstanding selector there in Aidan Dunning, who does great coaching.”
Cunningham’s recent appointment as Galway manager means he will step down from Garrycastle once this campaign ends.
But everyone in the Midlands is optimistic that they will still be training until through next spring. The last 10 years have been hugely promising for Westmeath football, with the county team winning its first Leinster senior championship in 2004. But recent years have seen a return to leaner form. That is why all of the county will be behind Garrycastle tomorrow.
Ray Smyth was part of The Downes team that played against St Vincent’s in the Leinster club final of 1973. He found himself marking Tony Hanahoe. Thirty four years would pass before another Westmeath club even made it to the Leinster senior final – Tyrrellspass showed up, only to find St Vincent’s awaiting them.
In between that gap, Garrycastle was founded and grew until it became one of an integral part of the Westmeath football story.
Athlone remain the historical powerhouse in Westmeath football, with 18 titles to their name. But it is hardly a coincidence that their rate of progress has slowed remarkably since the foundation of Garrycastle and that their last title was in 1991.
Since then, Garrycastle have led the charge. Now, they have a chance to win a first provincial club title for the county.
“Winning a Leinster championship would be brilliant for the club,” Ryan says. “But it would be a huge fillip for Westmeath football too. There has been a lot of goodwill towards us. Hopefully we can help to put Westmeath football back on the map.”
