The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Groves’ helped set down Dynamos roots
FOUNDING member of the Ballyhar Dynamos club, Donal Groves has made an enormous contribution to the club a journey that has now lasted over 45 years.
A fanatical sports fan, Donal also follows Gaelic football and basketball as well as provincial and international rugby. He has served in many capacities with the club and gave 100% to every role he held.
At present he is in a more lowkey role with the club as he is Club President but he is always available to help out if his services are required. He still goes to the games every week during the season and meets up with the players afterwards for the after match banter and post-mortem. He says he has been very lucky in his playing career as he never picked up an injury of a serious nature.
Back in the mid 70s he was around Ballyhar Church kicking a ball against a wall with a few of his friends and the topic came up about a soccer league that was up and running in Kerry.
Killarney Celtic were not formed at this time while Killarney Rangers were playing in the league. With a number of Ballyhar lads planning to join this club Donal decided it was time to try and form their own club and keep the local players together.
After making a few enquiries they set the wheels in motion and joined the Kerry District League who were looking for clubs to join at that particular time and the rest is history now. Being a small rural club the amount of players available was not very large and they predominantly came from the Ballyhar, Firies and Farranfore areas.
Donal played at right full back and was a hard man to get past as he always kept himself very fit. He played with the club for 22 years and retired at the age of 42. He says they were the happiest days of his life and he has some wonderful memories to look back upon. The highlight of his playing career he says was winning the Reserve Cup in 1981.
“This was a huge achievement for the club and we celebrated for weeks afterwards. It took three games to decide the final.”
He says at the start the club were going from post to pillar trying to get a pitch to play in and they were in many different places in the early years.
Then Donal who is a farmer rented a field to the club and they began to grow and flourish after this.
The social side of the club’s activity led to its attractiveness and Donal enjoyed meeting up with his team mates of Sunday nights for a few pints and a lively discussion about the game they played earlier in the day.
In the early 2000s the club purchased the field and he said he was delighted the great job the club have done with it.
“When we started out back in 1975 we would never have envisaged what a splendid amenity we have now. An awful amount of work went into bringing this to fruition and great credit is due to everyone who helped fund raise for it,” he said.
Donal is a huge Arsenal fan and has made many trips to London to see them play. Indeed Donal has a bow in his tie very few else have attained as he has actually played at The Emirates Stadium. As a member of the Arsenal club he got the opportunity to play at the end of the season in a special tournament for members.
His last appearance was at the age of 57 and his son Tomas played with him on that occasion.
Donal’s love of the game has taken him far and wide and he said he was delighted to be at the 1988 European Championship when the Republic of Ireland played England and he was behind the goals that Ray Houghton scored the famous winning goal.
He was also in Italy for Ireland’s great run in the 1990 World Cup.
“We had a great times following the Irish team during the Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy eras and memories of those games and the fun we had afterwards will be enshrined in my memory for as long as I live,” Donal recalled.
Donal was high in his praise for the late Murt Scott who he said was a true legend.
“The amount of work he done for the club was unbelievable and it is great that our pitch has been named after him. He was an inspiration to everyone involved in the early days of the club and was always at hand to help out in any way he could. He was a huge loss to the club but to this day his name in mentioned on a frequent basis anytime people are having a discussion about local soccer,” he said of his old friend.
Donal says that times are changing for everyone involved in the game at present but with such great facilities in place the future of the club is looking very good.
“It is great to see the club still thriving at a time when young people have so many different things to occupy their time and also when many people have been forced to emigrate to obtain employment. I will keep following Ballyhar while my health allows me to and hopefully that will be for a long time yet,” he added.