The late Liam Ruane One of Ballina's footballing legends, Liam Ruane, Pearse Street, passed to his eternal reward. His passing has robbed the area of another of the former greats of Ballina football and the pool of memories and stories of great players and great games has diminished yet another bit. Liam Ruane was passionate about football and no one who ever met him on a Monday talked about any topic other than the previous Sunday's games. As a youngster in the town he showed great promise from a very young age and won honours in the under 14, under 16 and minor grades. He honed his many skills in the games in the town leagues which were played between The Desmonds (Castle Road, Circular Road); Fitzgeralds (Garden St., Station Road areas); United (Tyrawley Park and surrounding areas), The Quay and, later St Patrick's (Corcoran Tce and Killala Road areas). There was great competition, and rivalry, in the street leagues and for the better players they were an important stepping stone to the Stephenite teams and the county teams. The final of the street leagues was always a big affair and drew huge crowds to James Stephens Park. The atmosphere was always electric and people travelled from outside towns, and parishes to be part of it. The highly partisan attendances from the two areas contesting made for great atmosphere and excitement. In all of these games Liam Ruane was a commanding figure at full-back for the Fitzgeralds. As well as being one of the stars for Fitzgeralds he was also one of Gerald Courell's chief assistants and confidants up to and after his retirement from playing. In that role he made a significant contribution to the advancement of football in the town. He was selected on the County Minor team in 1947. This side won the Connacht title but were unfortunate to have been beaten by a very good Tyrone team in the All-Ireland semi-final. In the same year the Stephenites reached the county senior final against Castlebar Mitchels. This game was played in Foxford. At the time Castlebar were always the team, to beat. Such contests were really rugged and without "yellow and red cards" were not the ideal occasion for playing minor players. But Liam Ruane was one who did play. Castlebar had a very strong team at the time and among their prominent players was the famous Josie Munnelly and Tot McGowan. Prior to that game Liam Ruane always played in the backs and Gerald Courell, the manager, caused great surprise and probably some disapproval by selecting him at full-forward. Gerald's judgement was fully vindicated when his young protege scored two goals early in the first half. With this good start the Stephenites won despite the fact they went into the game as outsiders. Senior titles were hard won in that era and the Ballina side did not take the title again until 1955. In later years Liam Ruane was a very committed football follower and apart from his wife and family, and Fianna Fail, the Stephenites was probably his greatest interest. He was a great fan and admirer of David Brady and, indeed, of the entire panel of players that won the All-Ireland Club title, and of all Mayo players past and present. Courtesy of Western People 28 February 2006 Tweet

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