Scotty McAndrews journey home to Pettigo via Oxford and the House of Commons

Winning a championship medal in Pettigo is a rare and a much celebrated occasion. When the Donegal Senior C medals were handed out at their annual presentation night recently one of the recipients has a back story to match any GAA story.

The Pettigo secretary/registrar/pro/county board delegate/children's officer/online lottery organiser and team mentor Michael 'Scotty' McAndrews is, if ever you wanted it explained, the ultimate GAA volunteer.

Now totally immersed in the local GAA club, McAndrew is just known as 'Scotty' to all and sundry, but his back story before coming to live in the village of his father some 10 years ago is a fascinating tale.

From  being on the street in London at the age of 26, recovering and being 31 years 'clean', McAndrews went back to school to secure a degree in Oxford, become a county councillor, then spend two years in the House of Commons as a researcher before his journey 'home' to Pettigo.

The McAndrews have their origins in Inver where there is one of the many Mickey McAndrews that led to the nickname 'Scotty' to differentiate the Michael  McAndrews that is so much part of the present day Pettigo GAA club.

"When I moved back here there were so many Mickey McAndrews, my cousin Mickey in Inver, a cousin in Pettigo called Mickey and my grandfather was called Mickey. I was known as 'Scotty' from an early age.

"I don't have any problem with it. One of the Michael McAndrews lives three doors up from me in Pettigo. So when the postman sees 'Scotty' on the envelope he knows who the letter is for."

'Scotty', even though only living in Pettigo for a relatively short period, has great interest in his own ancestry and talks about two McAndrews brothers in Inver who were married to the Black McDyres. "Some of the people in our family still have those dark features."

McAndrews was born in Scotland where his father had emigrated in the 1950s and married.

"We were reared in Glasgow. I did a bit of moving about but my intention always was to come back at some point to Pettigo. I never had the intention to come back and do half the stuff I'm doing but these things just happen." Indeed, four of the McAndrews siblings are now living in Ireland in Ballybofey, Waterford and Belleek.

His grandfather had lived in Billary with the home house just above the school field. "That was where my father was reared. I would have come there for summers.

"My great uncles would have played on the very first Pettigo team back in 1912. I would have heard these stories.

"I've got a wide family in Pettigo. I would have done some work on my ancestry and I can go back to sixth cousins I'd know that I'm connected to," said 'Scotty' who named the likes of present day players Enda Baird and Paddy Carr as being relatives.

As for his own football story, he replied: "I have never played football in my f------ life. I'd love to say yeah, yeah. I was part of the backroom team with Pettigo this year.

"That was the first medal I have ever got in my life," says a proud 'Scotty'.

He was back in Pettigo when the club won the Junior B championship in 2018 but wasn't involved in the club at that time.

"I got involved in the GAA . . . it started off with Colin McFarland in the chair and they needed someone to work the computer to do the online lotto system. I would have been good with computers.

"That's where it started; it's not where it ended, but that's where it started. That's about six or seven years ago.

"It started with that and I then became the registrar as well, because they are connected to computer with the Foireann and Clubforce. I ended up doing that.

"Then Colin decided to move and called it a day and Barry (Gallagher) became the chair and I took on the job as secretary, cum children's officer at the time, cum digital liaison person, county delegate and backroom stuff for the team on match days.

"Making sure the strip turns up, the balls. Whatever’s needing done, I'm the boy that is doing it. Sometimes it's everything.

"I enjoy it. For me, when you look at it, take the county board for example, 90% of the people there are ex-players. When you look at the GAA, it's where we all belong. There's a place there for everybody. For me, I've got some skills that are quite good; I'm good at organising. And I also see the benefit for a wee small town. Sometimes the GAA is the only thing in a wee small town. You can see the effect on young men, who instead of running to the pub, are running out and doing a bit of training. It's good to see that.”

But there is a great story behind ‘Scotty’ McAndrews and the journey he has taken from Scotland to Pettigo.

“I enjoy my work with the GAA because my past  experience is working with addiction, mental health and all of that. I realised the benefit of people getting involved and being involved in other things.”

‘Scotty’ is still involved with helping people with addiction and he outlines his own story and his experiences.

"I'm 31 years sober. The town (Pettigo) knows that.

"My experience of addiction is as a result of me using alcohol and whatever I ended up on the streets in London for two years. I woke up one day and said 'this is no good'. I had reached that point where I needed something else.

"Then at 26 years of age I went to rehab and I was there for about six months. And I haven't used since then,” said ‘Scotty’.

Thereafter is a remarkable story of resilience and recovery.

"I went back to college and ended up in Oxford. I got a degree in politics and then I was elected a county councillor in Oxfordshire.”

From there he ended up going to work in the House of Commons for his MP in Glasgow, Ian Davidson, as a researcher.

“I knew him from Glasgow as he was my MP. He didn't give me a job because he felt sorry for me. I knew what was going on.  I was there when Labour was in government and Tony Blair was leader.”

Naturally, ‘Scotty’ had a great interest in Irish politics and even now is open to debate the rights and wrongs of present day politics in the province.

"I'm not a Shinner but Michelle O'Neill has every right to be First Minister; I'm  not Fine Gael but Leo Varadkar has every right to be Taoiseach; I'm certainly not a Tory, but Rishi Sunak is the man at the minute.

"I'm a Democrat and that's democracy. You might not like it, but as Churchill once said, 'the electorate has spoken, the bastards'. That's the way it is.”

Those many life skills picked up during his 15 years living in Oxford and his work in the House of Commons are now being used in Pettigo.

"I'm sort of semi-retired. I'm on the board of the Termon Complex and then the GAA. There is enough there and it keeps me busy. My whole thing about life is you need to occupy yourself. You can retire, but you can't retire and do nothing. You need a garden or a hobby.”

One of his interests is in music, something he has enjoyed since being very young. You could find him singing a song anywhere and it is something he enjoys.

"I think being involved in the GAA for me is a great thing. You can see the benefit of it in the town. I have no baggage as I wasn't the best player or the worst player," laughs McAndrews

He has just enjoyed the most enjoyable year with his new club, winning a championship and losing out on a league title on final day.

"This time last year there was talk in Pettigo that we mightn't have a team. We were struggling. We didn't know if we would have enough players to put a team out.

Players away - Matthew Gallagther, Jarlath Leonard away for a while, Paul Robinson away

"These are good players and to lose them and then trying to find players is difficult. It is a parochial organisation, you have to work with what you have," said McAndrews, who points to some good young talent coming up but are not available yet like Ronan Maher,  Daithi Moss and Luke Kelly.

"When last I checked I had 42, 43 players registered, including myself. Because at one stage last year and with the rules of the game to have 15 players on the pitch at the start of the second half, I registered myself because I would be there.

"Fortunately we didn't have to do that.

"But now we are at the point where we might have two teams because of the numbers. We will just see how things go. That would be huge  for Pettigo. We have to remember that people are joining to play football and we have to cater for that.”

The club also caters for supporters who join just to get fit with walks on Tuesday nights and they also have Mothers and Others.

And it is a club that has a great band of supporters, who were behind the team and they produced a great buzz.

"You saw that in Ballintra (for league final) against Ballyshannon. There was no one left in the town.  It's great for the boys and the supporters going to places like MacCumhaill Park.

"We have come on leaps and bounds for a club that on the face of it was struggling to get numbers.”

There was disappointment in the league final with Aodh Ruadh able to field a very strong team. “The system didn’t help us for the league. But the boys showed great grace in defeat on the day. It gave them the confidence when they went to the championship final. It was a long time since people were paying ten pounds to see Pettigo playing," laughs McAndrews.

‘Scotty’ is full of praise for the Mayo man with the Pettigo connections, who came in to manage the club this year.

"Pat Gallagher has been a Godsend. He is a great manager and he has great capabilities. He enjoyed the journey himself. He has got that connection to Pettigo and it's great that we have managed to keep him again, himself and Stephen (McElrone).

"Pat has been a breath of fresh air and he was on top of things from early on. You would have Sean Maher, Sean Robinson and Sean Russell. Very, very quickly, maybe because of his work as a guard, he was shouting Robb or Russell. There was that personal thing about him and he was able to interact with the lads. 

"The lads like him and they know he is a good manager and he knows his stuff.”

There are many roles in a GAA club and ‘Scotty’ is prepared to take on most of them, including being the club’s county board delegate. And there are stories attached to that as well.

"Sometimes I bring the dog ‘Lukka’. And yeah, at one meeting that went on for a bit I had to go out and feed the dog.

"And the first meeting I was at, I thought it would be quite quick and I had a mate with me who I left in the car. We were to go for fish and chips after the meeting. The meeting went on until ten to one in the morning that night so there was no fish and chips.”

That was last year when there were many troublesome county board meetings.

"That was a hard year to get involved in the county board. It was a baptism of fire. I would have experience at committee meetings and how things should work. There were a lot of things happening that shouldn't have happened. It was quite difficult.

"I would be quite hopeful for the future now. Mary's (Coughlan) chairing of the last county meeting was exemplary. She's got a way of dealing with things and she has the experience," said McAndrew, who admitted that he would be talking a wee bit of politics to her now and again.

"I don't know if she knows my background. A lot of people in  Pettigo would know but not many outside that. It's not something you expect in Pettigo.”

Pettigo GAA club is probably like no other in that sometimes survival is success. But with ‘Scotty’ McAndrews on board, the club will never be short of optimism.

"I'm enjoying life and it's good to be involved and make a difference. And if you can make a difference, it's good.  You don't get it right all the time, but if you get it right most of the time you are doing well.

"And you must remember in the GAA we are all volunteers and we are doing our best to make something work.  Sometimes the element of volunteering can turn into a full-time job.”