Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
Strong sense of belonging and the pride
WHAT is the difference between the Macauley that came into the Dublin panel in 2010 and the Macauley of 2022?
Maybe he feels like more of a Dub now.
“It’s hard for that football team not to shape your identity. Just the people that you meet day-to-day that I probably wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t been swimming in GAA circles,’’ he said.
“A lot of the more... authentic Dublin people. It helped me more to see what Dublin means to people. I’ve got that since working in the north-inner city, too.
Proud
“There’s a case to be made for people from the suburbs not feeling as passionate about the place where they’re from as people from the inner city.
“People are so strong and proud about their community. A lot of the Dublin supporters that I met... you could just see the pride they have in their jersey.”
In 2011, Macauley was part of the Dublin team that won the county’s first All-Ireland in 16 years.
It was a huge breakthrough and one of the abiding memories of that time is the lock-in in Coppers hours after the final, with Damien Dempsey ( above) leading the sing-song.
To Macauley, Dempsey epitomises the resurgence of Dublin pride.
“Damo is such a part of Dublin. Seeing him live, especially Damien Dempsey at Christmas, is an incredible experience. I have friends on Facebook and they’ll ask me how I know someone, and the amount of times I’ll say that I know them from a Damo gig,” he explained.
“It’s intense, it’s an authentically Dublin experience. I brought my sister-in-law from Australia to a concert and she’d never heard of him. And I was explaining to her what the song ‘Chris and Stevie’ was about very quickly, just as he was starting it.
“I looked over at her at the end of the song... she wouldn’t wear her heart on her sleeve at all, but tears were running down her face.
“One of the only things that tempted me to go home at Christmas was to see Damien Dempsey live again.”