Well-known Donegal GAA man Liam Reilly remembered by Tony Boyle

A GAA man, a clubman, a Dungloe clubman

He may never have held high office or ever had too much truck with the great and good of the GAA; he never courted the limelight; but the crowds that thronged to Liam Reilly’s wake in Dungloe over the last few days from right around Donegal and beyond; the hundreds more that turned up for his funeral mass and burial in Dungloe yesterday afternoon spoke volumes about the esteem in which the Mayo native was held by his beloved GAA.

Liam, whose own playing days were cut short due to a fishing accident, courted inter-county management for a short time and managed Donegal to an Ulster minor football league title - a 1982 team that included future All-Ireland winners Gary Walsh, Brian Murray and James McHugh.  

Tributes have been paid by many players who crossed his path in the course of his management and coaching days. Among them was 1992 All-Ireland winner and fellow Dungloe clubman and All-Star Tony Boyle.

“My first memory and first contact with Liam was when I was 15, in 1985 and he was manager of the Dungloe U-15 team that won the county Og Sport,” said Tony.

“Back then the county Og Sport winners qualified for the All-Ireland Og Sport final which used to be held every year over a weekend in Gormanston, Co Meath.

“We didn’t do very well. We lost our first two games and won our last after we copped on that in 7-a-side you need goals. All our training had been done taking points.

“We didn’t do very well but we had a great time.

“Liam, as most people know, had an artificial leg and he used to take it off at night going to bed.

“We were all sleeping in the one dormitory and I’m not saying who the culprit was but when Liam got up in the morning it was missing.

“There was a mad panic for a few minutes and the late Sean Ward, who was with us too, was calling us a shower a hooligans. Eventually the leg was found and in fairness to Liam he took it in great spirit and laughed and joked about after.

“I was chatting my brother Ben on Sunday evening about Liam and he was telling me he was on a team in 1980 that played in the All-Ireland Og Sport too in Gormanston.

“They also hid the leg. But they  hid it on top of gear of some other team and I think the young lads on the other team got a wild fright in the morning when they found the leg.”

Liam Reilly also gave Tony Boyle, at 17, his first senior club championship start. That was in 1987 against Naomh Columba, up in Pairc Na nGael.

“Liam was the club back then; it was his life and he had a great passion for the club.

“The club meant the world to him and that was right up until he got sick a year and a half ago. I remember in my last stint as manager any time I met him after we won a game his face used to light up. I could see the delight in his eyes.”

Liam Reilly, from outside Belmullet in Mayo, played U-21 football for Donegal was first and foremost a Dungloe clubman; a club he nurtured Phoenix-like after it had been reformed by himself and Jimmy ‘Nappy’ O’Donnell, in 1980 after a period of GAA darkness in the Rosses capital.

The late Liam Reilly died in Letterkenny University Hospital on Sunday morning after a long illness. He was 71, born in 1946.

Form a family of 12, eight boys and four girls, Liam is survived by his wife Margaret; daughter Martina; brothers PJ, Terry, Eamon, Paddy, Michael, Tom; sisters Gabrielle, Kathleen, Mary, Teresa; nieces and nephews and a wide circle of friends. His brother John Joe died a number of years ago.