Jock Stein to blame for Pat Boyle ending up in Na Rossa

How has a man born, bred and still living on Dungloe’s Main Street, been secretary of neighbouring club, Na Rossa, for three and a half decades?

The answer is simple - a decision by Jock Stein to sign Packie Bonner, which had a domino effect, which ended with Pat Boyle becoming firstly a Na Rossa player and then their long-term secretary.

Pat was recently elected to serve for the 36th year in succession and he explains how it all started.

“I always say, Jock Stein played a huge role in my moving to Na Rossa when I’m asked how did someone from Dungloe end up as Na Rossa secretary,” said Pat (pictured right)

“When Jock Stein signed Packie Bonner from Keadue Rovers, Packie Boyle, who is also from Dungloe, was the Na Rossa goalkeeper.

“Packie Boyle was poached away from Na Rossa by Keadue Rovers which left a vacancy between the Na Rossa posts.

“I played all my underage football with Dungloe. I was a goalkeeper and I won championships at U-14, U-16 and minor with Dungloe

“But as everybody knows Dungloe have a great tradition of producing goalkeepers. When I moved up from underage to senior football Noel McCole was the Dungloe goalkeeper and he was also the county goalkeeper.

“And Neil Campbell was the county minor goalkeeper around the same time.

“I was only getting the odd game so when I was approached I jumped at the chance. All I wanted to do was play football.

“It was Hugo Tremble that approached me. He had seen me play for Dungloe a few times and unlike Dungloe, Na Rossa had no one for the position.

“I played in goals for Na Rossa for eight seasons, the first six with the senior team and the last two with the second team.

“I was in goals when they won the Junior A championship in 1982.

“We beat Gaoth Dobhair in that final and I’ll never forget the score. We won by a point, 3-4 to 2-6, and there were a couple of interesting features from the game.

“Donal Bonner was only 15 at the time and he scored 2-1 for Na Rossa, and Brian Mór Gallagher was only 16 and he scored the two Gaoth Dobhair goals.

“I remember he was a tall lad and he flicked the two goals past me and of course Brian went on to win an All-Ireland U-21 with Donegal five years later in 1987.

“I also remember the great Neilly Gallagher was full-back on the Gaoth Dobhair team. It must have been one of his last games for the club.”

Pat also became club secretary in 1982 after Johnny Doherty stepped down when he moved to live in Derry.

Pat played on for a number of year and also played a season (1984) in Division One after the club had come all the way from Division Four to Division One in quick succession.

“We had a very good team at the time. It was around the time the Bonner brothers Sean, Declan, Michael and Donal were beginning to come through from underage.

“We also had a good group of more senior players like Vinny Gallagher, Jamesie Byrne, Jamesie Melly, Peter Molloy, Gerry McHugh, Charlie Bonner, Nicholas Gallagher, Eamon Melly, Pat McCahill, Big Eddie Gallagher. Jim Brennan played with Na Rossa for a number of seasons.”

In all his years in the job Pat has been challenged once and that was in the early years and after the club had won promotion to the top flight.

However, 34 years on Pat is unwilling to divulge who the challenger was at the 1984 annual general meeting.

“It was the biggest crowd we ever had at an agm. Michael Boyle’s was just about able to accomodate the crowd.

“I survived the challenge and I’m still here. I would have stepped down by now only for the development of the new playing pitch at Madavagh.

“It’s a huge project for a small club and it is moving along well. However, the poor winter and weather of late has slowed down the development.

“The plan was to open it in 2018 but that will now have to be put back until 2019. The delay is down to the fact that we sowed the ground out last September, but the weather has been so poor and wet that we are not sure how the seed has taken and won’t know until the summer.

“It is major project and only for the deal that Michael Duddy negotiated with Wills Brothers it would never be possible.

“They had the machinery and the equipment to remove the big rocks on the site and they cleared and levelled it all.

“The deal was that they would level it and leave it ready for sowing out for the use of the site as a base and to store their machinery during their time working on the N56.

“They have done a great job on the levelling and they have also left a number of portacabins which we will use for changing rooms.

“There is a lot of work to be done on the project and I would like to stay on to see it complete before I step down.”

The arrival of the internet and the worldwide web is without question the biggest change that Pat Boyle has witnessed in his 35 years as Na Rossa secretary.

“When I started first and for a good few years up until the arrival of the internet, all correspondence from the county board and other GAA bodies came in the post.

“But the arrival of the internet changed all that and it has certainly made the job of the county and club secretaries much easier. It must also be saving the county board in a big way on postage.

“The 40 clubs in the county have their own email address and the county secretary can now, by just hitting a key on the keyboard, all notices will be emailed to each of the clubs, all at the same time.

“The internet has also made registration much easier and a simpler process. Before the internet when I was doing the registration I had to write out three copies, one for the county board, one for Croke Park and one for the club’s own record.

“That is all done now on the computer and it is just a matter of updating the existing register by adding new members and deleting others where and if appropriate. It certainly makes the job of registrar much simpler and a lot less time consuming.”

In the 36 years since Pat Boyle took on the job at the top table Na Rossa have won the Donegal Junior A championship once (1982) and the Donegal Intermediate Championship twice (1989 and 1999); won the Division Two, Three and Four League titles and came within a whisker of once getting their hands on the Democrat Cup, the Division One League title.

While recent years have been leaner for the club, the development of new facilities will always bring fresh hope.