Brendan Crossan: The colour of Corrigan Park, the silent anger of a derelict Casement and the children’s screams for a brighter day
IT was one of those weeks in the GAA where you didn’t know how to feel by the end of it.Pride. Sadness. Frustration. Anger. Euphoria.I love the drive to Corrigan Park probably because it’s the shortest journey I undertake in this job. The back road that skims the Black Mountain and brings you to the top of the Whiterock is 15 minutes on a busy day.Roughly 90 minutes out from the 12.30pm throw-in for last Saturday’s Ulster Championship match between Antrim and Armagh and the parked cars snake all the way up either side of the Whiterock Road.It was fitting and right that the Antrim senior footballers got to play the game at Corrigan Park.
Read more: All the action from Corrigan ParkAntrim stole the show for a while but All-Ireland champions Armagh display their class on and off the fieldLess than a mile away as the crow flies, across the City Cemetery, a Casement Park rally was taking place. Citizens, Gaels gathered at O’Donovan Rossa’s grounds on the Shaw’s Road to embark on a walk towards the derelict stadium.Last Saturday’s rally was about people saying they’d had enough of the absolute state of Casement Park, where it’s approaching 12 years since it was closed.At the bottom of the Whiterock Road the Walsh family, who have strong ties to O’Donovan Rossa, were burying their dearest Fionnuala.Gerard Walsh, Fionnuala’s big brother, plays for the Antrim hurlers.“From all of us on the panel we’re heartbroken for Gerard and his family,” said Antrim senior hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald, “but we hope we’ll be able to provide a place for him to go and find some peace with us.”Later that afternoon, Patrick McBride was shooting the lights out at a packed Corrigan Park and daring Antrim to dream.A 40-foot banner at the Antrim v Armagh match at Corrigan Park calling for Casement Park to redevelopted. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN While there was hugely important symbolism attached to the Ulster Championship match being staged at Corrigan Park last Saturday, former Antrim player and primary school teacher Mickey Pollock described it as applying a “band aid” to Antrim GAA’s deep-rooted problems.The Antrim footballers left the field with credit while the Armagh players conducted themselves like champions throughout the day.The weekend mercilessly rolled on, with the GAA, as only it can, leaving an after-glow of differing emotions.Hope springs eternal.A new week, a new dawn and the sounds of screaming children of St John the Baptist Primary School on Finaghy Road North – a stone’s throw from Casement Park as it happens.On Tuesday, it was the school’s annual GAA Day with guest speakers Neil McManus and Davy Fitzgerald prompting the excitable screams among the children in the school gym hall - each of them wearing their club colours.Thanks to Mr Pollock and school principal Mr Chris Donnelly, the day ran like clockwork.Aspire, Believe, Achieve - the school’s mantra that’s emblazoned on the wall at the back of the gym.Selected children were invited to the front of the gym to read aloud a potted history of their club.Lamh Dhearg, Sarsfields, St Brigid’s…In each brilliant address, there was hope for the city and for Antrim.The children listened intently to Neil McManus speak about pride of place and the joy he derived from playing hurling as a young boy in the Glens and how it made him feel.Neil McManus signs hurls belonging to the children of St John the Baptist PS on Tuesday
PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN Davy Fitz did the same but also spoke about times he was bullied in school.And here the Sixmilebridge clubman stood – in a small school gym, a double All-Ireland winner as a player and one as a manager, speaking on a child’s level.In those few words you immediately understood the origins of Fitzgerald’s bullish defiance every day he stepped onto a hurling field.“There were times you were isolated, made to feel pretty small and everybody having a laugh at you. It’s not nice,” Fitzgerald said.In an interview with The Irish News afterwards, he added: “I get an opportunity because of my sports profile to say things like that and when I can I try my best to do that.“I’d be passionate about it because there is no-one better than anyone else or worse than anyone else. It doesn’t matter who’s wealthy, who’s not wealthy – we’re all the same and we must respect each other.“Time is such an issue for me. I’ve turned down a lot of dinner dances, but these school visits can make a difference. If I can say a few words that might resonate with them, just believe in themselves, keep their dreams alive and be nice to other kids, it’s worth it.”Even in schools, volunteerism remains the bedrock of pursuing sporting excellence.It’s individuals going that extra mile for the children with the shared vision that Casement Park will one day be their field of dreams.“We see our GAA day as an opportunity to inform the kids of the values of the Association,” said Pollock.“There is no greater shot in the arm for us as teachers to see these children be successful in whatever that is – arts, music, sport… that they keep on battling and maybe one day we will see some of those who came through St John the Baptist play at a new Casement Park.”In the space of a few days, we felt the silent anger of those who walked from the O’Donovan Rossa club to Casement Park on Saturday morning.We thought of the Walsh family and their unfathomable loss.We felt exhilarated by how Patrick McBride kicked all those two-pointers from as far away as the Black Mountain.In these times, we understood the importance of Corrigan Park and why the Antrim footballers just had to play the All-Ireland champions there.And days later, the uplifting sound of children screaming, echoing around the school’s gym hall.Hoping that every scream will be heard by government, beseeching them to build Casement Park in the way it appears and feels in their dreams.
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