Years of hard work bring Ratoath to fantasy land
Eamon Wallace insists a population boom isn’t the key to his club’s success, it’s the sense of community
‘I WOULDN’T EVEN WEAR A PAIR OF DUBLIN SOCKS UP TO TRAINING – WE’RE ALL RATOATH PEOPLE’
EAMON WALLACE describes the world since Ratoath’s first Meath senior football title like living in ‘fantasy land’. In July, the former Irish 100 metre sprint champion was reliving his youth on the race circuits of Germany and Switzerland. Healing his broken body and rediscovering his love for competition, all at the same time.
A nephew of 1995 Ryder Cup hero Philip Walton and former Fianna Fáil TD Mary Wallace, there was a time when the five gold rings of the Olympics might have been a target as much as being a Meath senior footballer. This summer, his route back from injury and a year out of football saw him break the 49 second mark for 400 metres – enough to run in European competition. So he paid online and booked his flights. A few weeks later, he ran in the national championships. A matter of months later he hit 1-3 in the county final as Ratoath crowned a first senior final appearance by landing the Keegan Cup.
As he says, ‘fantasy land’.
From the outside, it’s tempting to look at the broad brushstrokes of Ratoath’s title success without ever noticing the small detail that bring the full portrait to life.
It would be easy to imagine the story merely as a product of the boom – a numbers game.
It could inspire a David McWilliams-style thesis on how a sleepy village turned Celtic Tiger Cub. From the 1991 census that recorded just 593 souls, it became a bustling spot of over 10,000 that boasted two functioning wine bars at the peak of that same boom.
Wallace wasn’t born when the 1991 census took place.
But this is his village.
And so on Wednesday morning – as the club looked forward to its first appearance in the Leinster Club SFC with an away trip to Mullingar’s Cusack Park to face Garrycastle – he found himself touring with the cup. He visited Ratoath College, sprung up since that census and now educating over 1,000 students, double the old population. Alongside him at assembly was manager Davy Byrne, the former All-Ireland winning Dublin goalkeeper who worked in a coaching capacity with Jim Gavin for the guts of a decade, from Under 21 All-Ireland success through to senior until 2016. Byrne has long since put down family roots in the village, featuring in the club’s breakthrough junior title in 2004 and then managing the junior team to 2012 success, the springboard to its rapid ascension up the ranks.
It was the visit to Wallace’s old primary school with his teammates that really hit home. ‘The senior national school was the biggest hit I got. We walked in and the third to sixth class were all set up. Music, chanting, colours. Claire Donnellan was my sixth class teacher. She had it all set up. “Beautiful Meath” playing in the background… “Championes”. The kids were roaring and shouting. She interviewed every single one of us. The buzz… it was unbelievable. I didn’t see that coming. It really hit home.
‘It was great to see. You know, Ratoath, full of Dubs, there was green and gold everywhere, Meath music – it was fantastic.’
Eamon’s 1-3 in the final was added to by the 0-3 of his younger brother Joey, who picked up the man-of-thematch award – another jet-heeled forward with a Formula 1 engine who also took time out from club and county earlier in the year to rehab a shoulder injury. Eamon namechecks Dermot Rooney’s influence, who coached the nucleus of the team all the way up – winning every Division 1 title from U12 to minor. Players such as Conor McGill, the club’s first All-Star nomination this year, continuing the proud tradition of Meath number threes, Bryan McMahon and Dermot’s two sons, Conor and Gareth.
‘My dad grew up in Ratoath. The McGills, McMahons, Rooneys. This hasn’t happened overnight. It’s years of hard work.’
The conductor
HARD WORK and preparation are qualities Davy Byrne appreciates. A natural conductor of the orchestra, since transferring from his native Ballymun Kickhams and embedding himself in the community nearly 20 years now with his wife Liz and daughters Ciara, Orla and Sinéad.
When he took over the seniors at the start of the year, he made it clear to the club executive: ‘It’s important that Ratoath men drive this on.’
So his backroom team consisted of Marty Mannering, there with him for the junior breakthrough. Sean Ryan, like himself, one of those positive life forces, whether on the pitch or off it. Liam Eiffe, whose family is steeped in football, be it his late father Noel or uncle Bill who only recently passed and who held the honour of being the first Ratoath player to represent the Meath senior footballers and famously kept Kevin Heffernan scoreless during their battles.
When first-team regular Cian O’Brien underwent an operation to sort an ankle and knee problem, he joined the management team as a forwards coach. Dave Conroy was part of the mix too.
As Wallace explains, Davy Byrne’s forensic run-through with the team the night before the county final against Summerhill had a prophetic feel to it.
There’s a reason the players didn’t panic when the opposition scored a goal in the opening seconds, or let the occasion consume them.
‘Davy went through a few scenarios on the Saturday night of disastrous stuff. Goalkeeper Shane Duffy going off injured. A red card after a minute. Goal conceded after a minute. What do we do? We stick to our plan. One-touch football, that sort of stuff. And we went up the pitch and got a peno – goal. Next kickout we won, got a point. All of a sudden we were a point up after five minutes.’
It was Wallace who banged home the penalty. Pressure? Not for someone who tends to play with a collarup confidence – the kind you can’t fake. ‘No! It’s probably my biggest weakness and my biggest strength, being relaxed. I got so much stick taking ownership of the penos this year – “Why are you taking them?”
‘The night before, I wanted to make sure I had everything covered. So I went up to the club and just took 25 penos into an open goal. Scored 24. Hit the post with one!
‘But when I stood over the ball then, I was very confident. I thought, “Lovely, I have this ready.” And if I miss? Well I’ve done the preparation. But I was fairly confident I was going to score. Roy Keane says practice makes perfect. With practice comes confidence. All I was thinking of was the day before.’
From there, Ratoath turned on the style, leading by 10 late on before Summerhill pulled 1-2 back. ‘I remember running by Jack Gillespie
and he stopped. Didn’t chase his man. I was like, “Jack, what the f**k are you at?”
‘At the end of the match, I realised Jack had torn his ACL. He was hurt. It was just all a bit mad near the end.
‘All I heard was Marty shout, “Get the ball!” I was beside Joey and Conor [Rooney]. Relief. An amazing feeling. My uncle Danny ran over. One of the most passionate Ratoath supporters.’
Remembering ‘Pep’
IN THE midst of the outpouring of emotion, one person was uppermost in their thoughts. At the junior final at Páirc Tailteann the previous week, the number 20 jersey was left blank as a mark of respect to Ronan Cahill who was only 20 when he passed away in September, losing his life to Cystic Fibrosis. ‘Pep’ was a clubmate and friend to so many of those on the field.
Before they returned to the clubhouse to celebrate, the squad paid a visit to his grave with the cup. ‘Two minutes after the final whistle I went up to Ciarán and said, “We’re going to bring this back to Pep.” He was in everyone’s heads.
It was emotional. That was the number one thing – feck the celebrations, we’ll do plenty of that.
‘I was really close to Ronan. He was in Newcastle with us on a team trip. All he ever talked about was “Keegan”.
“We’re going to win Keegan.”
He was the first man down at training the last couple of years, last one to leave. All he talked about was Liverpool, Ratoath and Keegan.
‘I visited his grave before each game and every single time I was down, there was another player there. I was never the only one at the grave before the games.
That’s how much he meant to us.’
The funeral was raw. Emotional. There is no heavier weight than carrying the coffin of a young life.
Davy Byrne explains how important it was to remember him, to see his mother Linda beside the players at the cup presentation.
‘He wasn’t just a club member or part of the group, he was best friends with a hell of a lot of those young lads – he was friends with everybody. Shane Duffy mentioned it pitch-side after the match, that “we loved Ronan”. And we did.
‘He just lit up the room. A funny, funny young man. Dry wit. A great character to have around the place. It was lovely to see him at training, as much as he could be there with his illness.
‘Even up to the last time he came to see the team play, against Moynalvey in Skryne. Was with his brother Enda who was home from the States for a couple of weeks in the summer. Ronan was in his wheelchair because at that stage his oxygen levels or lung function levels were so low he couldn’t move around himself. So he was in the chair to help him get around.
‘He was wrapped up but you could still see the cheeky smile, the goodwill, and the thumbs up. It’s a terrible tragedy what happened. Such a sad loss.
‘The lads carried it really well. It was a difficult time for them, from September to now.’
That sense of togetherness, of thoughtfulness and reflection in their support, said everything to Byrne. ‘It blew me away. When I saw when Ronan was sick how they would call to him – to Linda his mum, with Enda being in the States, to Killian.
‘Even up in the hospital, the last time Ronan was taken sick, all the lads were up there doing a vigil. The day that Ronan passed, I was down the country working. Got up to the hospital late and all the players were there.
‘It was a huge funeral. It showed how much Ronan touched everyone in the village.’
Last weekend, that support continued. Gavin McGowan – one of four brothers who played in the final along with Jack, Ben and Daithí – took part in the New York marathon with Enda.
‘I saw some footage of him in the marathon with Enda. And Brian Power.
He raised €5,000 for Cystic Fibrosis running the marathon. Likewise, Cian O’Brien walked Carrauntoohill and raised monies for Cystic Fibrosis earlier in the year. Ben Wyer climbed Croagh Patrick, raised a couple of grand. So it’s been with us all year. Because of Ronan’s influence on the group.’
A break with the past
BYRNE recalls his time with Dublin fondly. His singular brief when he linked up with Gavin and Dublin in 2013 as goalkeeping coach to Stephen Cluxton. ‘The first thing when talking to Ray [Boyne, team statistician] was “What was the return on the kick-outs?” One of my objectives was to get that percentage higher. So we worked specifically on that with Stephen.
‘It would have been high 60s. We wanted to get it into the 70s and beyond. Push the defence. Because it’s not just Stephen – it’s a 12-man movement. Without giving too much away, everybody has a specific play to make in our kick-outs.
‘We got those numbers up. I think up to last year he was hitting late 80s, early 90s, so he has pushed on every year in fairness.’
What stays with him from his time with Dublin? The camaraderie within the group on the training camps in Doonbeg or Carton House. Post championship games in the Gibson Hotel. All the families present. Michael Darragh Macauley doing DJ and taking requests from the kids.
‘The hardest part was to break that connection,’ he says of his decision to step away after back-toback All-Irelands in 2016.
He was invested enough locally not to feel the need to play up any Dublin-Meath dynamic. ‘It never came into it. Not once. I’ve been very purposeful not to bring that in.
I wouldn’t even wear a pair of Dublin socks up to training.
‘We’re all Ratoath people – we’re all club members, we’re all volunteers. That’s the way it should be. It was never a Dublin-Meath thing, that has never come into the mix.
‘I’d say the lads slag me more about it than I say anything. I purposely tried to keep that out of any of our discussions. Even when I’m talking about great things that teams have done in the past, I reference more a Kerry or Mayo than I’d ever mention Dublin.
‘Because I don’t want to be condescending either. I’m conscious that was different. That was part of what I was involved with. This is Ratoath’s journey.’
That attention to detail became the management’s calling card. A clash of colours with Summerhill saw both wear away strips for the final; changing into the original blue and gold strip after the final whistle meant the celebration photos resonated more.
‘We always talk about the what ifs. What if we get a red card or the opposition get a red card? Or we have a shot of flu in the camp. And with the two away strips, Marty said, “What if we win it?” Do we go up in the away colours?
‘He was dead right. So we had the other strip in the dugout and changed.’
Strength from unity
1903 is on the club crest, along with the words ‘Go neart le chéile’ – in unity, strength.
In 1963, Bill Eiffe was on the mould-breaking team that won the club’s only other senior championship – in hurling. The blue and gold colours were originally based on the Tipperary All-Ireland winning teams of the late 1940s, early ’50s.
A junior football title in 1961 represented the first proper sign of dual ambition and when Byrne managed the juniors in 2012, they kicked on after Meath to win Leinster. As did the intermediates in 2015 under Fergie Power’s guidance.
The road to making it a hat-trick starts against Garrycastle this afternoon.
‘When you say Ratoath are here to stay, I absolutely think that. And it’s not because of what the senior team has achieved, it’s what we’re doing at underage. In the camogie, we won the junior club All-Ireland, the hurling is very strong in the club, and the ladies football too.
‘In terms of numbers, we’re blessed. But I still believe that without the heart and determination of the players… you could have 15 Flash Harrys on a field but a team needs heart. And it’s in Ratoath.’