Kiltegan to celebrate Sean and support Alex
ON Sunday, June 10, the community of Kiltegan along with the GAA clubs of Clonmore, Donard-The Glen, Ballymanus, Rathvilly, and Stratford will come together in Kiltegan to celebrate the memory of a man who will never be forgotten among the Wicklow hills and beyond.
It’s 20 years ago since the O’Toole family of Barraderry, Kiltegan, and the Wicklow GAA community, were robbed of a loving husband and father, a loyal servant and a renowned leader of men.
His reputation is firmly established. The Hacketstown native was a student of the famous St Kieran’s College in Kilkenny where he first tasted real success as a player. After his studies in U.C.D. he spent some years in New York where he earned the distinction of being the first Carlow man on the Carlow team to win the Junior Championship in the Big Apple in 1972. Famous names from that team which Sean played on include Micky O’Sullivan, Kerry captain in 1975, Dan McCarthy, George Glynn, and Barney McGeehan of Down, Pat Reynolds, Martin Curran, Martin Quinn, and James O’Reilly of Meath, Kevin Ger O’Sullivan and Martin Doherty of Cork.
Back in Ireland Sean won a basketball league medal while teaching in De La Salle in Bagenalstown.
The popular Sean was Chairman of Clonmore GAA Club from 1976 to 1981 but it was in the role of manager that Sean O’Toole really showed his powers.
With his beloved Clonmore he guided them to an IFC title in 1980 and SFL Division 2 honour in 1978. He was also the first Chairman of the Carlow County Development Committee in 1979 and was nominated for the position of County Chairman on a number of occasions.
Sean married Mona Farrell in 1978 and came to live in Kiltegan in 1981. His first involvement with the local team was when he trained the Junior team to win the Keogh Cup in 1985.
A year later he was manager and motivator of the Senior footballers who made the championship breakthrough. In 1987 he switched codes and inspired the Senior hurlers to crash the championship barrier for the first time.
Sean would later enjoy success with Donard-The Glen in the nineties and was Chairman of Kiltegan from 1986 to 1993 and came back for a second term in 1996.
Sean’s county involvement in wicklolw included being the senior football manager in 1987, Irish Language Officer in 1996/97, Scór Chairman in 1996/97 and secretary of the ‘Development 2000’ initiative in 1997.
There are also a host of awards to his credit and his untimely passing at the young age of 48 thwarted a future in which many people saw Sean O’Toole most certainly becoming County Chairman in Wicklow but very possibly ascending to the highest role in the GAA. That is how highly regarded Sean O’Toole was.
All of the above information should explain to the casual reader the importance and gravity of the Sean O’Toole Memorial Day which is taking place on June 10 in Kiltegan GAA Club.
Sean’s sons Ciaran and Barry John are the driving force behind the special occasion.
“It’s marking the 20th anniversary of our father’s passing back in 1997 so we wanted to do something to mark that, do something substantial, and Barry John came up with the idea of doing a sevens tournament because he used to be involved in that here in the early eighties here in Kiltegan. So, we invited the clubs that he had an association with, they being Clonmore, where he originally came from, ourselves of course where he won championships, and also Donard, and we’re in the Parish of Rathvilly and we’ve always had a close connection to Stratford and Ballymanus because they’ve also supplied Senior hurlers here in the club over the years,” said Ciaran.
Both Ciaran and Barry John have wonderful memories of Sean over the years. Both young men grew up as their father guided their club to success and given that every young boy’s father is his hero at a young age, Sean O’Toole must have been a God to Ciaran and Barry John.
Ciaran recalls one night when Sean was managing Donard-The Glen where Ciaran’s driving practice got him in a spot of bother with the manager. Before that, Ciaran reflects on a moment in 1986, ahead of the county final of that year, when him and Barry John paraded with the Kiltegan team in Augjrim dressed in lovely shorts and a Kiltegan jersey and in the company of a beautiful Collie dog.
“Nine years later, in 1995, the training was going on (in Donard) and after the training the lads used to have a team meeting. And we used to drive the car (Sean’s) around the football field, we were 10 or 11, that’s where I learned how to drive. But one night I got brave and the field wasn’t big enough and I ended up going through the goals until he caught me and then it was a different story,” he added.
Ciaran would like to take this opportunity to thank the Donardthe Glen Club for their help in his honing of his driving skills. He also reveals they can also take the blame for the “hape of penalty points” that he has accumulated over the last few years.
Barry John says that not alone is the day a celebration of their father but it is also a fundraising event for a local child, Alex, who needs to go to Chicago for medical treatment.
“There’s a child in the village here that they’re trying to gather money for, the charity is called Alex’s Adventure, and the her adventure being that she needs to go to Chicago for medical treatment to try and improve her quality of life, she needs a little help so this iss us doing our bit. The response thatt we are after getting from our own club and all the other clubs has been fantastic, overwhelming. LocalL businesses have come on board, local people want to get involved, it’s really opened our eyes.
“So, we’re starting at 2.30pm, we’ll have our six teams, so we’ll run off group stages, semi-finals penciled in for 5.30pm and 6pm, and then there’s a window of say halfh an hour or 45 minutes where we hope to have music, a little bit of anovelty thing, we won’t say a whole thing about that, then Amhran na Bhfiann and then the final. Let’s hope it all goes well. We’ll have a marquee here and food and it’s a family day, the car park is closed off and it’ll be a fun day for kinds. It’ll be ran on donations. All proceeds to Alex’s Adventure,” said Barry John.
There’s also a lovely sub plot to the whole day and that is that Sean’s daughter and Ciaran and Barry John’s sister Sinead is coming home from America a few days before the event. Sinead is bringing her children, JP, who is three, and her nine-month-old twins Evelyn and Conal.
“We’re all excited by this as we haven’t meet the twins before,” said Barry John.
On the day, Sean O’Toole will have five grandchildren present and, amazingly, it will be one of the first times they will all have met.
In addition, Leinster GAA Chairman Jim Bolger is going to be attending the event. Jim was a childhood friend of Sean and he would have been immensely proud of Jim’s achievements.