Sad death of Owen O’Neill
Owen O’Neill of Ballingurrane, died last weekend. To his wife, Norma, sons, Eddie and Owen, daughters-in-law, Katie and Fiona, and to his grandchildren, Dara, Conor, Eabha, Lauren and Emma, we offer our deepest condolences on their immense loss.
But that is just the heading. Owen was a founding member of the juvenile club in Killavullen GAA in 1979. A man of immense drive and determination, he along with the late John Beechinor, Michael Linehan, Ballygriffin and others had the wherewithall, to see that Killavullen had the numbers within its midst to have a team of their own in that year, the year when the Pope came to Ireland.
While occasionally Killavullen had fielded teams in their own name before then they had been unable to sustain the interest and had faded away, but not since 1979 has that had reason to happen, and for Owen we are so grateful.
A native of Castlemagner, who came to Killavullen to take up the running of his uncle’s farm, in Ballingurrane, Owen worked hard, got up early and got through an amount of work in the day. He believed football should be played the same way, backs were backs and defended the goals, and forwards ran freely about the place but scored. To play football for Owen you had to be fit, determined, brave and loyal, yet he endeared himself to all the teams that he was involved with. How could you question the work ethic demanded by Owen of his players when he put in all that and more himself.
A great neighbour to those who lived close to him, a great supporter of Killavullen GAA, a juvenile chairman at one stage in the 1980’s and a firm, decisive and uncompromisingly fair umpire when his friend Dave Mellerick was a referee of renown and then also with Noel Brosnan, another accomplished referee.
Owen was great company to be with, you knew where he stood on the matters of the day, on politics and his lifelong allegiance to the Fianna Fail party, on government, on television personalities and sport.
We thank you, Owen for all that you done, for Killavullen GAA Club, we are truly better for your involvement. Rest in peace.
THE LEVELS IN THE RIVER – WHAT DO THEY MEAN
Killavullen pitch was completely covered in water last week, when the river Blackwater peaked at a height of 5.148 metres on 24th February, according to the automatic water level detector (No. 18003) at Killavullen Bridge.
5.148 metres means that the main pitch is submerged in water, and water will make its way into the boiler house of the dressing room complex, but not into the dressing rooms themselves. The pathway from pitch 2 to the dressing rooms will also have water on it, but with wellington boots you would be able to transverse between the two pitches.
At 4.2 metres, the roadway between Tiddane Bridge, and the main bridge of the Blackwater becomes flooded, and many a car have had the need to be rescued, owning to the deceptive nature of the road into the flood, from both sides. The council, to prevent a car being swept away on that roadway, has erected steel barriers along the road edge, but perhaps retractable barriers should be put in place to prevent a car going over the bridge in the first instance but that is for another time.
With the flood defence system in place upstream in Mallow and saving the town from the annual winter floods, it is appreciably noticeable in Killavullen how much faster the river is flowing down to us and the speed that the river rises at. It now causes a significant whirlpool below Killavullen Bridge which may need to be addressed in the future as it has a tendency to erode the sand based training area of Killavullen GAA.
At the confluence of the Ross, Tiddane and Blackwater rivers, the pitch in Killavullen is always susceptible to flooding, but an expansive lateral drainage system in the field means that the water runs off quickly, once the river level drops. Thankfully it is back down to a 1.9m level as we pen these words for the paper.
Incidentally, the highest flood on the Blackwater is marked on the bridge in Killavullen, with a high water mark level at 6.159 metres on February 11, 1980.