Two superstar past pupils put school in a class of its own
Captaincy puts Coláiste Éanna on the map
IT WAS a schoolboy competition at Donabate Golf Club. Coláiste Éanna had sent a team of four boys to compete and teacher Sean O’Donnell was on driving duty. He loves the game of golf but refuses to take any credit for what became of some of the boys he used to chauffeur to tournaments.
Anyway, they arrived at the northside Dublin course, but one of their players had gone missing. O’Donnell had just taken the key out of the ignition, seat belt still on, but a teenage Padraig Harrington had already evaporated like an apparition.
He hadn’t got cold feet or lost his nerve – the opposite. Already he was showing an appetite for the grind that eventually vaulted him into golfing stardom.
“I remember the first time Padraig played for the school, he disappeared when we arrived in Donabate,” O’Donnell says.
“We couldn’t find him. I went looking for him and he was already on the putting green. He went straight there. He was that focused already at that age. He wanted to win. I saw it even more in Padraig than I did in Paul.
“Paul is more relaxed. He wouldn’t be as driven. You saw Padraig when he won those big tournaments like the Open – did you see that look in his eyes? That is Padraig.”
The Paul that O’Donnell is referring to is Paul McGinley – an ex-pupil that allows Coláiste Éanna to lay claim to a unique sporting distinction as the only school to produce two Ryder Cup captains, with Harrington recently announced as the man to lead the European team into battle in 2020.
Tucked away on Hillside Park, just off Ballyroan Road in Rathfarnham, Coláiste Éanna is a world away from the sun-soaked, manicured golf courses on which American Ryder Cup stars tend to be produced.
Harrington and McGinley are down-to-earth local guys at heart, and you can see that in their background.
Situated 10 minutes from Ballyboden St Enda’s, many Coláiste Éanna students play for the local GAA team – although the presence of Rathfarnham Golf Club, The Grange and Stackstown among many other courses means that there are some keen golfers floating around too.
Harrington and McGinley fitted into both categories.
Both men had great battles on the GAA field with Coláiste Éanna, McGinley seeing off a Niall Quinn-led Drimnagh Castle side while Harrington was defeated by a Dessie Farrell-inspired St Vincent’s – not before managing to collapse the crossbar at Croke Park following a booming 45.
McGinley was five years older so their paths didn’t really cross as peers until they both emerged strongly on the national golf scene years later,
but their former teachers remember two distinct characters during their time roaming the corridors of the 600-pupil school.
Brendan Vaughan was principal during Harrington’s time there, and can vividly recall his drive in the same way that O’Donnell saw it on the putting green in Donabate. McGinley was a more laidback personality.
“They were two different individuals,” Vaughan says.
“Padraig was very committed to the job that he had to do. He wouldn’t be cracking many jokes with you. At the end of a class, there would be no waste of time. Paul was full of fun. He would entertain you as much as anything, and he was very clever too. Padraig was serious and McGinley had a twinkle in his eye.”
As a teenager, McGinley’s dream was to play for Dublin. Harrington’s sporting focus was definitely directed at on-course matters.
The mark Harrington and McGinley made on Coláiste Éanna is evident from the moment you walk through the door. Students, teachers and visitors are greeted by a trophy cabinet featuring mementos from Ryder Cup wins, major triumphs and the even more remarkable coincidence of two Rathfarnham lads winning the Golf World Cup for Ireland.
Current principal Seán Ó Murchú says that the duo’s affection for their local area and their background has rubbed off on the students who came after them – and in some cases inspired them to their own sporting greatness.
“Last Tuesday we had Brian Gartland, who plays with Dundalk, come down with the FAI Cup and league trophy,” he says.
“After the lads won the Golf World Cup, they came into the assembly hall with the trophy and gave a speech and Brian said to me, ‘I was sitting there looking at them and thinking, I’d love to be up there one day’ and it was quite emotional on Tuesday afternoon, he said, because it was one of his dreams to come back.
“Both Padraig and Paul have been decent, and helped out with the school over the years.
“The two lads did very well academically and then they went off and have excelled in their fields and yet they don’t forget their roots.”