A Special Guest: ‘Sambo’ is open and honest about his life
FORMER Antrim hurling star Terence “Sambo” Mcnaughton has spoken honestly and openly about his battle with the stigma of having a stammer in his youth. In an interview with The Impartial Reporter, as he made a special guest appearance at the Erne Gaels Dinner Dance recently, he revealed the torture he endured as a shy child where he was routinely “battered” and made to feel totally useless and isolated. But hurling was to be his salvation as he did not have to open his mouth, so he never left the field in Cushendall.
“The hurling pitch and the primary school were just 50 yards apart, one was Heaven, and the other was Hell,” he told us. He also spoke of how meeting his wife Ursula was a big part of the healing process it took for him to become the eloquent, inspirational person that he is.
On the pitch, he was a warrior who was never afraid to go into those dark places where timber tests the soul and he won an All-star for Antrim in 1991.
These days, he is a much sought-after speaker who is an avid reader and loves the poetry of Seamus Heaney.
He also spoke of his great friendship with the late John Mckillop, who had Down syndrome and was Cushendall’s greatest fan.
“I developed a speech impediment at primary school and school was not a good place for me,” he said.
“When I went to the hurling field, I did not have to speak, and back in the days they tried to batter it out of me and when that did not work they just ignored me.
“It came on me in P2 and my communication skills were zero but when I went to the hurling field I did not have to communicate.”
He added: “Hurling was the only thing that gave me a purpose where I was able to feel that maybe I was somebody after all because at school I was always an outsider, I wasn’t good enough and I was at the back of the class, and I was the dumb one.
“Then every Monday they sent me to a Special Needs school and that is where I met the wee John Mckillop.
“We were comfortable in each other’s company, and I would have played with John growing up and I did not have to communicate with John so it was easy.
“John and I could communicate in a special way and right up to the day he died just last year.
“John was just nine months older than me, and we grew up together.
“And every night I went to training, John was always waiting in the car park.
“I am probably one of the few hurlers in Ireland who never carried his hurling gear into the changing rooms because John would wait in the car park every night for me and carried it into the changing and that was every night for years.”
John’s passing took a big toll on Sambo. “I never hit a ball for Cushendall that John did not see. I don’t have a photograph of our senior team without him in it,” he said.
“He was in all the team photos of the team for the past 30 years and he loved the club as much as life itself.”
When asked what attracted him first to the hurling, he said: “I grew up in a village as one of a family of 14 and we don’t do Gaelic football, soccer or rugby, we just play hurling – and if you wanted a team sport you had only one option and thankfully it was hurling and that was where the love of the game came from.”
Sambo played minor hurling for Antrim at 14 and played minor, U21 and senior for Antrim on the same weekend in 1982 which is something of a record.
But his shyness was still a big factor as he walked into dressing rooms “not wanting to talk to anybody”.
“At that time, I could not put two words together and that was the case even when I made my senior debut for Antrim,” he said.
“I did not speak in an Antrim changing room for maybe the first eight to 10 years.”
So what was the thing that helped him out of this dark silent place?
“Well, as my wife Ursula who comes from a family of 21 often says, I am trying to make up for it and I won’t shut the f**k up. It was growing confidence I suppose and when I met Ursula that helped me a lot. There are certain people in life that you can feel comfortable in their presence
– like John Mckillop, and other people felt awkward in his company – and I felt at ease in Ursula’s company.
“She came from a big family and had 11 brothers and nine sisters, and her maiden name was Lemon.
“And then I was getting more of a profile in the hurling, and I met the former Irish News photographer Brendan Murphy who used to take photographs of the Antrim team and we became friendly.
“I played for Antrim senior hurlers for 19 years and I made my debut at 16 years of age. In 1981, Cushendall won our first county title and, of course, the first cup is always the sweetest when you break that ceiling.”
He went on to win eight more county titles, the last one as a player in 1999 when he was 35, and he also managed Cushendall to a few county titles as well.
He has managed Antrim at minor, U21 and senior levels, the latter in tandem with his great friend Dominic “Woody” Mckinley. He was also the coach of the Cushendall team that got to the All-ireland Club final but lost to Na Piarsaigh of Limerick in 2016.
But he is currently managing the Cushendall U15s who have won the last two Feile titles.
In 1989, Sambo was part of the Antrim team to reach the All-ireland final against Tipperary in Croke Park but he said that their best display was in 1991: “In 1989 we got carried away and we did not know how to prepare for an All-ireland and we forgot that there was a match to be played and there was too much hype, and the county went mad.
“We gave the best performance of any team that I ever played on against Kilkenny at Croke Park in 1991 and that was against DJ Carey in his prime – and if we had met a Kilkenny team minus DJ, I think we would have won and given the All-ireland a real rattle.”
Sambo won his only All-star that year and he was playing on Richie Power: “I was playing at midfield and I think that was my worst position, to be honest.
“I got an All-star from my worst position on the field, and I was nominated quite a few times but a few years I was nominated in positions similar to DJ and Nicholas and there was more chance of me getting a knighthood than an All-star.”
During the Troubles, Sambo, like many others from the nationalist community, had difficulties with the security forces while going and coming from matches.
“The first night I went out with my wife Ursula, some members of the UDR broke four hurls on me,” he said.
“And the guy that did it lived only 500 yards from me at home and he has since passed away. But we were more scared of the UDR than the British army.
“People who don’t understand the geography of the Glens, it is surrounded by loyalist areas. So the only reason the Glens is nationalist is because it is bad land down here and the only thing we can rear is sheep. It is all hills, and we got the bad land, and the Planters got the good land in and around Ballymena. That is why hurling thrived in the Glens.”
But Sambo is very proud of that hurling heritage which exists in a 20-mile radius.
“Where I live is very beautiful and we can look out at Scotland at night where they play Shinty. There is not a Gaelic football team in the Glens.”
But they do have one unique legend who has overcome many difficulties and is an example to all of us.