IN the small Offaly village of Rhode, Gaelic football has cast a lasting spell on its people. Legends enrich the place with their presence; giants of the game walk the streets, All-Ireland winners and All-Stars. Here, in the home of enduring figures like the Iron Man, Paddy McCormack, and Séamus Darby, and seat of the current county champions, Pascal Kellaghan grew up.
There was no escaping football, and Kellaghan happily submitted to the full life sentence. His brother, Shane, made the All-Ireland minor final team of 1989, and later played for Offaly seniors, mostly through times of recession. Eleven years later Pascal got his own chance, introduced on Darren Fay in a famous dethroning of the All-Ireland champions, Meath.
It was a flying start and a false one. The momentum quickly stalled and Kellaghan has fought against numerous bad currents since. There have been harrowing defeats, driving them back, crushing their hopes. Yet he'll protest: "I have been lucky." These aren't meaningless words. Life, like football, has taught him to appreciate whatever good comes his way.
Kellaghan isn't the prototype modern inter-county player. He married at 24 and has kids aged five and one
"Over the years I have lost a lot of people close to me and it brought it home that there are more things in life than football. But it's a great bonus to have it there, just a great privilege that you can play. I'm 26, have good health, and can still play for Offaly and I cherish that a lot."
These contemplations emerge when he's asked if he still appreciates playing for the county. "You appreciate every day you're alive at this stage," he states in reply.
He was two when his mother, Sadie, died from cancer in her mid-thirties. A few years later his father remarried, to Geraldine ("they've done a wonderful job with me") and there have been other more recent family hardships. "I lost two aunties, Rosie and Carmel, with cancer, within a month of one another last year, and a very close personal friend, Paddy Smullen, whom I looked up to a lot."
Paddy's wife and Pascal's father were first cousins, and he hangs around with Paddy's son Brian. Another of Paddy's sons, PJ, is a jockey for Dermot Weld. The families were close. "I spent a lot of time in that house over the years. Paddy and I had great chats, he was a great character.
"I've my own two little lads now (Aaron and Ross) and my wife, Martha - ah, some day please God we'll meet (his mother, Sadie) again. Bu it's hard when you're growing up not to have known her. Sometimes that drives you on to keep going as well, her looking down and different stuff like that."
Kellaghan isn't the prototype modern inter-county player. He married at 24 and has kids aged five and one. He recently opened his own auctioneering business, with a partner Barry Cowen, in Edenderry. Trying to keep all the plates spinning isn't easy.
As a further deviation from the prevailing trend, he admits that he's religious and that it has helped him over the years. "I'd have great faith, yeah, I'd have strong faith. And my wife would have strong faith and we'd bring our kids to Mass. We love going to Mass. I've great belief that we will all be going to a good place - without being over fanatical about the whole thing.
"It's not a complete hard luck story; I'd wonderful people around me. I married a great girl, we've our own family which is great. She understands the demands, she has a wonderful interest in sport. She is a part of the deal (laughs). We all go as a package. It suits me down to the ground, I'm more than happy."
This is Offaly's best run in the province since he arrived on board. Many of the defeats have been agonising, marginal calls. Three of those lost summers brought replay defeats and last year's last-minute goal capitulation to Laois, then the beating by Carlow in the qualifiers, saw them having to scrape themselves off the floor.
The constant strain of defeat has seen managers come and go in quick succession. Since Tommy Lyons, Kellaghan has worked under Pádraig Nolan, Paul O'Kelly, Gerry Fahy and now Kevin Kilmurray. There has been a players' strike and ongoing changes in playing personnel. But they persist.
The situation has vastly improved since their woeful defeat to Dublin in the league at Parnell Park
"We put the sacrifices in because we know we're good enough, we know we have the players and the set-up to do it. We're starting to get a bit more confidence in ourselves. Same as any part of life, you get a few knock-backs and you have to get up and go again at it. We just love playing for Offaly and we know it will come."
Why? The record says otherwise. Offaly haven't contested a Leinster final since 1997. They were relegated from Division 1 and reports from within the camp didn't speak of model stability. But the situation has vastly improved since their woeful defeat to Dublin in the league at Parnell Park. After the match they had a meeting and ironed out many problems.
"The Dublin game was definitely the kick in the arse we needed. It was a combination of things (that were wrong) but since that night the management have been brilliant with us, the players have responded and in fairness the county board have come in, and anything we've looked for we've got. It's smelling of roses at the moment.
"It was a humiliation, our own performance; we went up, brought a large support and we just let ourselves down. We just knew coming out of there, we can't be doing this, cos we have the players. I suppose it was the turning point.
"I can safely say that from that night on, from the Dublin game, in training players have put in an absolutely massive effort. On Sunday we go out against Wexford knowing that no stone has been left unturned. Every player is on the same wavelength. A lot of work has been done."
The temptation to dwell on their misfortune is also given a firm boot. "I can just see light at the end of the tunnel basically, that's why we keep going. We don't like this thing of being an unlucky team, we'd like to bury that, you make your own luck. We have a good bunch of honest guys there now who have worked their arses off. They reckon what you put into it you get out of it, we definitely deserve to get something out of it after this."
Rhode has been a happier hunting ground. He was on the senior team at 16 and in 1998 featured when the club ended a barren spell of 23 years to land the senior title. Eugene Mulligan, another All-Ireland medal winner from the village, was in charge. They trained like demons. When Offaly won the 1998 All-Ireland hurling final they went to the match on a team bus and drove straight home to a two and a half hour training session.
The work paid off. Though they have lost three finals since then, the last two seasons have brought successive titles and in the overall honours' chart they lie second behind Tullamore. Stephen Darby is now in charge. The McNamees and Shane Sullivan are also part of the Offaly set-up with Kellaghan, Niall McNamee playing alongside him.
"Niall's a great fella, works very hard on his game, off the field he's an absolute gent. Thomas Deehan is another great fella in beside him. They're young guys, mad keen on playing for Offaly and hugely talented."
And so, to Wexford. Offaly haven't been in a Leinster final since '97; Wexford have waited since 1956. "There's a super team in our way. We have seen them (Wexford) in the last three years getting to provincial semi-finals and reaching the league final last year. We studied them very carefully against Meath and they blew Meath out of the water. Even last year they went very close to beating Dublin."
Do they feel a little left out? "Ah yeah, a small bit. When you see yourself running all these teams close and being pipped at the post, you definitely wouldn't begrudge them, but there would be frustration that we are probably as good ourselves. But I think our day will come, definitely do. And, hopefully this year.
"Every year you go out you want to win the fecking thing. If in five or ten years' time you have two All-Ireland medals, or you have won nothing, you are just going to have to get on with your life. I'm not saying this doesn't mean a lot to me, of course it does."
It's been five weeks since the last match, with Kellaghan at the centre of the substitutions' saga that delayed today's semi-final. He says they always felt that they had the rule book on their side. The mood has been greatly enhanced by a couple of wins.
"Since we knuckled down and had a good chat after playing Dublin, it's been brilliant, and I think the two wins came out of that, came out of that meeting, came out of the work that was done after that. We've two wins now in Croke Park and we'll burst our gut to get another two there before the year is out."
In Rhode, it's the least they'd expect.
Dermot Crowe
Sunday July 2nd 2006
Overcoming loss with a smile
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