It Occurs to Me: Coláiste na Carraige: Scéal Spóirt Scoile

These are indeed exciting times in the world of Donegal GAA. We have the new management of our county team; Mark McHugh has landed the big Roscommon job, and last Friday saw the launch of Anthony Molloy’s memoir, co-authored by Frank Craig, who will be joining us as Sports Editor next week.
Frank is a superb sports journalist, a proud Ardara man, and follows in the footsteps of Peter Campbell, who did such tremendous work over many decades.
Peter is one of many contributors to a brilliant publication entitled “Coláiste na Carraige: Scéal Spoirt Scoile - 1950 - 2020”, which chronicles the sporting achievements of what was the Carrick Tech for some 70 years.
It must be ten years ago since Noel Carr asked me to contribute to an anniversary publication for the old Gairm Scoil na Carraige - edited by Denise Doherty - and he reminded me that as far as he knew, classes started under Conaill (Condy) O’ Domhnaill in the Red House in Carrick in 1951 for ten bob a pupil. I’ve written here before about the very happy year I spent in the Tech, having left St Eunan’s College as a boarder.
I loved the experience immediately, and was made so welcome by Master Byrne, Gerry Breslin, Sean McNelis, Charlie McGarvey and others. Charlie was a big poetry enthusiast and was a huge inspiration in discussing the works of Patrick Kavanagh in particular.
Crucially for me, however, after my boarding school experience, was the ordinariness in running into the teachers in Benny McNelis’s, McGinley's, Madge the Docs or Tom Carrs at the weekend. They were our educators but importantly were ‘of us’ and like good Guards, were an integral part of the community.
For the first time in my teenage life, I looked forward to going to school and allied with the study, the ‘craic’ was mighty.
As I wrote some years ago in the Democrat, one of my best friends was Jim ‘The Yank’ Hegarty, and we had many surreal adventures, including following a man through Carrick for half a day, Jim being convinced he was a CIA agent. Had we passed this information on to Frank O’Donnell or Joe Bradley, I might have been returning to Letterkenny but to a different place of incarceration!
Jimmy Doogan too became a close friend and even then was chock full of innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, and many a lunch time cuppa I took in his mother’s kitchen. Happy times indeed.
In the “Scéal Spóirt Scoile” publication, the aforementioned Jim Hegarty gets his revenge on me on page 35…nuff said!

THE COLÁISTE GLORY DAYS
This book tells stories of highs and lows, triumphs and disasters, Ulster Finals and three-legged races. The articles bring to life the early mornings, camaraderie, hard work, bus trips, sing songs, and efforts from dedicated coaches, especially the much lauded Francis Barry Campbell.
But most of all these are stories of community. The school community of Coláiste na Carraige and the wider community of 'in-through'. A community that works together to provide the best for their young people.
Sport just doesn't happen. In more than 120 articles from past pupils living as far away as the USA, New Zealand, China and Australia (and as near as Gannew and Crobh) you can read about at least 40 different sports played at school, locally and as far afield as Dubai and China. You can read about sports as diverse as fencing, hammer throwing, scuba diving, and darts as well as articles on sports psychology, education, community support, refereeing, coaching and much more.
The book was a mammoth task, some 580 pages, edited by Yvonne Cunningham, and unfortunately I missed the launch because of a family bereavement. However, I have diligently read it from cover to cover since and while all the aforementioned sports get equal billing, it is true to say that the contribution of Coláiste na Carraige to Donegal GAA success has been extraordinary.
The accompanying photograph shows a very proud Jim McHugh in 2010 with his famous sons, Martin and James, as well as grandsons Ryan and Eoin. Former Principal Pádraig Ó Léime has a fascinating interview with the McHugh lads and Peter Campbell reminds us that if we add Noel Hegarty, Paddy McBrearty and John Joe Doherty to the McHughs, there are six All-Ireland medals and seven All Stars.

There is a general consensus that Noel and Paddy Hegarty’s brother Michael was an exceptional footballer too but in time emigrated to the US. I love Kieran Cunningham’s article on the Hegartys which begins: “Paddy Hegarty has one request before going into the nostalgia business. ‘Put in a good photo of me taking on five or six men and them scratching their heads’. It is a typical Paddy line, one of the best known and popular footballers in Donegal.”
Paddy won an U-21 medal in 1987, along with Paul Carr and John Joe Doherty, to add to Maurice Carr and Martin McHugh in 1982. Of course, the college has had innumerable successes in the Vocational Schools tournaments.

‘THE ARDARA KISS’?
That is the title of one chapter written by ‘The Scribe’ chronicling the healthy rivalry between teachers and students. Teacher Danny Gillespie played for Kilcar and county and I had the pleasure of meeting up with him recently, where we reminisced about fishing for ballan wrasse off the rocks in Muckross in the 70’s.
‘The Scribe’ reminds us that in the early days of the Tech, there were soccer matches and that one Lochlann O’Rourke was a Killybegs Messi and scored six goals one day with Teelin’s Charlie McGarvey in goal. John Carr of Kilcar was nigh impossible to get past in a game but “Bart Whelan tried to use the ‘Ardara Kiss’ (repeated head butts) on John but no avail.” I must ask Frank Craig to elaborate.
The book is chock full of facts and testimony but because it contains so much craic, it is very readable. If you have an ‘In-Through’ relative abroad, this would be a superb Christmas present.

MIXED MESSAGES…THE UNIONIST CURSE!
I meet my northern brethren of all persuasions on a regular basis. Rest assured that the bulk of them are so ‘p…ed off’ at all politicians and parties that they will get a cold reception at the doors.
The NI Protocol is a convenient excuse for saying NO again. John Hume famously said that if NO was removed from the English language, the Unionists would be politically mute! If he were alive now, he would only be referring to the DUP, as Dough Beatty and the UUP are just as critical of their fellow Unionists as are Sinn Féin, SDLP and Alliance.
A Derry friend in despair wondered…”Has anything really changed since the Home Rule Bill almost 140 years ago?”
As a humorous aside, when Gladstone moved his first Home Rule Bill in April 1886, his fellow Liberal, Austen Chamberlain, crossed the floor to the Conservatives and helped defeat the Bill. Thereafter, 'Conservative' and 'Unionist' became interchangeable terms. I have always been intrigued by the nationality of the tipsy butler who worked for Edwardian hostess, Maggie Greville, at whose table, Foreign Secretary Chamberlain, supped with the great and the good.
At one such dinner, Greville became increasingly concerned at her minion's precarious balancing act with tray and decanter…it seems the butler was as full as a bingo bus.
She slipped him a note which read: "You are dreadfully drunk. Leave the room immediately." The butler famously read the message, staggered along the banquet table and handed it to Austen Chamberlain.
I would have promoted him.