Mary Coughlan: From running the country to running her county

The elevation of Mary Coughlan to the top position in Donegal GAA might have come from left field but it is also a reflection of how the Gaelic Athletic Association has changed over the last 30 years.

Year on year ladies football has increased in volume and that has brought females into club committees and officer boards.

And it should be no surprise that the surname Coughlan is to the fore as Mary’s family have been to the fore of Donegal GAA for as long as any of us can remember.

While her late father, Cathal, was more into athletics, we have fond memories of him playing with us in the Ardbane school yard in the mid-sixties. The competitive streak was there and we knew that if we could keep him on the losing side, the lunch break would be extended until parity was achieved (or a car was heard in the distance!)

That was a time when there was no organised football for girls and the GAA was wholly a male-dominated sport.

Mary Coughlan, however, says she enjoyed a very sporty childhood. “We were reared in Frosses National School where we had people with a different attitude. We had athletics, we had rounders and we also had football and my father encouraged everyone to play.

“When we moved on to secondary school (in Sligo)  then it was hockey, athletics and basketball. There was no GAA at the time. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity at all to play Gaelic football, but my sister did. It was really only starting when I left school.

“The amount of opportunities now are huge and from a very young age children are encouraged to participate. I’m a huge believer in participation in sport because it’s very good for people’s mental health as well as their physical health.

“It’s also a great way of meeting friends.  I also find that being part of a club you are part of a community, meeting new people and new friends,” says Coughlan, who sees sport as very important for young students.

“One of the criticisms you would hear is that children are spending all their time on machines and all of that and it’s even more important now that you see kids out with a hurley or a football or at basketball or some kind of activity.  It is cheap and you can do it anywhere.

“There has been a huge change (not just for women) and it has become very competitive at that elite level. You talk to anyone who played football at a club or for the county in the 50s. The football was different, the boots were different, the field was different. You changed in the car or behind a bush. There were no facilities, but the sport was still there and the camaraderie was there and the respect. And equally the physicality was there but in a different way.”

CENTRED AROUND SPORT

Mary Coughlan’s young life was centred around sport and with her late uncles Clement and Austin prominent players for St  Naul’s and Clanna Gael while another uncle on her mother’s side, Dom Breslin, had also played for both St Naul’s and Four Masters. 

“We had it in turns that you got to go to see a county game. There were seven of us in our house so you had to get access. And in those days not everyone had a car so you would share with somebody.

“Dad brought us all or as many as he could to games. And we would all go out to see the boys playing. But you never got to go to the big games because there were no tickets or no room.”

The normal rivalries were there but it went up a level in 1992. “I had split loyalties in my house when I married a Mayo man. In 1992 we were just after being married David got a huge Mayo flag and put it on top of the house. I was disgusted and so were my brothers. The boys got into the car and drove up to Ballyshannon to Slevins; it was the only place we could get cloth and we got Breid Burke to make the most ginormous Donegal flag and they put it up on the other side of the house.

“The Charltons are big GAA people and through marriage we would be connected to some of the football people down there now. The bragging rights were ours after that semi-final. Poor Mayo, they haven’t made it yet but hopefully they will at some stage.”

After being torpedoed into politics with the death of her father, Cathal, her involvement in GAA affairs was limited.

“We would have been members and both Maeve and Cathal played for St Naul’s. When I lost my seat and after David passed away, some of the members came and asked me if I would become secretary. I said I would even though I said I knew nothing about being secretary of a club.

“I enjoyed it thoroughly but it took a while to learn what has to be done.  But once you get into it, it’s the same thing every year, knowing the timing and knowing the people that you have to ring in the CCC or county board or whatever.”

But Mary Coughlan was more than a secretary; she was willing to get stuck into all aspects like making the sandwiches and pouring the tea, washing the jerseys. 

“I enjoyed doing that because it came easy to me. We have a good team there now (at St Naul’s). Catherine Deely has taken over as secretary; she was our first ever chairperson and she did a great job. We’ll have to appoint a chair at our EGM.

50% OF MEMBERS

“50% of the members of the GAA are women and 50% of the population are women so they are moving from the mammy to being coaches. And then I suppose regulation has forced that because you must have women in the dressing room if you have girls playing. As a consequence of that you have more women involved.”

She welcomes the fact that another change from her early days is that most parents are there on game days now. “It has changed and that’s fantastic because it also has its challenges because there is expectation there. You have to learn how to lose and how to win. It’s about getting the balance.”

After 11 years as club secretary, Mary Coughlan has now made a huge leap onto the county stage at the very top, but she wants to hit the ground running.

“It is a big jump and I’m not going to say I know everything that’s going on, but what we have now is a great mix. First of all we have five women on the board; we also have a mix of people who have come back and have experience and new people with new ideas and energy.

“What we have decided to do is to have a three month plan and a six month plan because not everybody is going to be up to speed on everything that needs to be done, including myself.

“We will pick what the priorities are, things that have to be done immediately, games and preparations. Administratively we would hope to be on our feet fairly quickly. We are lucky that Noreen (Doherty) is there in the office. She has that wealth of knowledge which will be very beneficial.

“I think there is an enthusiasm out there among the club representatives and I hope that will go back to the clubs. And JP McManus’s support will really give people a lift.”

The distribution of that money is now being discussed with talks with the other bodies, the LGFA and the Camogie Board.

“One or two of the officers and myself will be meeting the LGFA and the Camogie and discuss the issue. I would have wanted to meet with them anyway,” said Coughlan, who added that the letter attached with the McManus gift was very specific and puts emphasis on inclusivity and disadvantage.

“I think it is important to thank the McManus family for the contribution. They made a fine contribution the last time and that actually helped us get our Academy up and running.”

The new chairperson said she was happy that Donegal were working as one unit and that this money was solely for the clubs.

“We had an initial discussion and we asked people to think about it. The money has to be distributed before the end of January and we have to go back to the trust and show how we did that,” said Coughlan, who said they would be fair, open and transparent.

JIM MCGUINNESS

Mary Coughlan is anxious to get all teams representing the county in a positive mood and agrees that the return of Jim McGuinness as senior team manager is a great lift.

“Every county is very proud and every county wants to win, but not everybody can win. That’s not possible. I think it has given a lift to everyone in the GAA. I was over in Newry at the weekend and for Setanta, wasn’t it great that they got that far.

“I know the hurling board are anxious to get as many people to play hurling as possible. There is an ambition there from the hurling officer. It’s not going to be done in the morning but it is very much part of our tradition.

“For me, personally, there’s another game that has lost out and it was one that my father was very fond of, handball. And it’s a huge skill, and we have good handballers in the county.  And it was only a wall at the end of the day, doesn’t take a lot.

“I suppose it got lost when some of the schools got out of handball. I would like to see handball coming back as a skill and that we would have it for the future.”

In relation to talks to bring the ladies and camogs under the one GAA banner, Coughlan says: “Integration is going to be based on respect at the end of the day. Look, I can see this hesitancy where you have the Croke Park issue. But at club level it’s happened anyway,” said Coughlan, who said we were lucky in Donegal to have Micheal Naughton as the Ladies president. “He’s level headed and he’s going to bring a lot to that debate. It’s part of the development plan of the GAA.

“There are differentiations between how our ladies county teams and our senior county teams and that shouldn’t be. It’s the same as soccer, it shouldn’t be.

“But I have to say women in sport have come on really well in the last 10 years. There are icons in women's sports and that has really helped.

“The pioneer of all of this was Billie Jean King (in tennis). But what she did was never rolled out into other disciplines. There is absolute equality in professional tennis. She pioneered that and you would like to see that rolled out in other sports.

“We are an amateur organisation but the principal is there.

The new chairperson agreed that the overall financial position of the county was not great. “We have a fund-raising committee which will be driven very well. We will deal with our finances and we also have to deal  with our legacy debt. We have creditors that must be paid and we will find a pathway to pay them.

“It would be my wish that we would have a clean slate fairly soon. The reality is, I know in my club what it costs. It’s astronomical and an expensive job for an amateur organisation.

“But I feel sponsors have been very, very good and have stayed with the team and that was one thing the former chairman, Fergus (McGee) said. He publicly thanked those who stayed with the county through difficult times. That was a huge lift to him personally.

“It would be our hope that other sponsors will also come on board.

COMPETITIONS   

“I know that Mary (McHugh) has been appointed to the CCC and herself and David (McLoone) will work first of all in getting our games sorted for the coming year. I think we will need to have a discussion about reserve football because I think it’s a huge opportunity for younger players going up into squads, to get experience and keep healthy.

“Because not everybody can get on the senior team and you don’t want to lose that gap from minor across. You want to keep them tied to the club. 

“What we want to do is help clubs get up to that elite senior level.”

In relation to there being too many senior clubs the new chairperson didn’t want to be drawn on that. “There will be a regulation meeting shortly and clubs will come up with ideas,” said Coughlan, agreeing that there were competitive gaps between teams in different championships. “That happens at underage too and it’s not nice having teams going out and getting hammered.

“There has to be a streamlining of coaching from clubs, schools, Academy to county level. 

“Clubs will come with ideas, let’s see if they are practical. I’m not going to pre-empt anything. 

“Each club is supposed to have a five-year plan.

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FUTURE

The new chairperson has plenty of administrative experience and she hopes to bring that to the fore in her new role. What are her hopes for the next year?

“What I would like to see is that administratively we’re on an even keel, and that we have dealt with our debt  issue.

“And that our Academy is going well and have people there to drive it and there is opportunity for young people to develop and that streamlining will go into our teams at both hurling and football.

“After that we can see all the clubs that are looking for support in the Sports Capital and how we can support them. How we can keep all our volunteers a part of the GAA family. Then sustainability is out there, climate action. All of those things impact on clubs and the GAA, even though we don’t think about it that way.

“There is the issue of demographics for rural clubs. But my view is that instead of looking at the fear, let’s look at the opportunities and how we can help clubs. It’s important for clubs to make their own decisions, it’s not about dictats.”

And what about our county teams: “Their success is very, very important. We have very good managers at all levels and they have aspirations for their players. We have to provide the talent at all age levels for that to happen. People who pull on the jersey are proud of the jersey.

“We also have challenges of new families coming into the community and people with disabilities. Because people with disabilities enrich our communities and enrich the GAA. We have to be very cognizant of simple things like physical access to get to see our games.”

The new chairperson is energised by the number of people who have offered help and by the number of people who continue to work behind the scenes as stewards, people opening and closing gates, watching gear, all great people.

“I’ve always been busy, since I was 21 years of age. But there are certain things I won’t be able to do. Everybody has a job to do and if they do it well it will make life easier. And there are loads of people there who have offered support,” says Coughlan.