Former Star Paddy Donnelly Holds Out High Hopes For Meath Hurlers Meath's hurlers are improving dramatically. This statement certainly holds true if the Royal County's post-Christmas performances in the National Hurling League are to be used as a yardstick. Okay, the League has totally paled into significance in comparison to the Championship - but it remains the second most important competition known to Gaelic games. And victories over reigning All-Ireland champions Offaly and their 1994 Leinster final opponents Wexford as well as a richly deserved draw with Dublin have fairly warned the very hearts of all Meath hurling enthusiasts; men like Paddy Donnelly from Ratoath who himself represented his county during a long playing career. These days Paddy Donnelly occupies himself running a modest builders providers business in his hometown village of Ratoath, a concern he set up a score of years ago. He also operates a small building contractors business. For those with any interest in Meath hurling, the man is a minefield of information, anecdotes and stories of both the informative and witty variety. A Hogan Stand journalists delight! Paddy Donnelly tells us that he is a forth generation Ratoath man - and adds that his daughter-in-laws recently born baby is a sixth generation Ratoath Donnelly! He played hurling regularly with Ratoath between the ages of 17 and 42. "I didn't give them up, it gave me up!", he quips. Paddy played his first Senior hurling final against Trim in Navan in 1960 and won his only Senior county Championship medal three years later, helping himself to an incredible FIVE goals as Ratoath narrowly defeated Dunboyne by one point in one of the highest scoring Meath county finals ever. "Mattie McCabe was the star of that game", Paddy reflects with a great deal of nostalgia in his voice. "He was an exceptional hurler who would have got his place on any county team at the time. Another of our best players was Bill Eiffe who played football for Meath against Dublin in 1958 and never gave Ollie Freaney a kick of the ball. That Ratoath team had a lot of great players but was short one more scoring forward who would have made the difference and perhaps given is three Senior Championships rather than only one between 1960 and 1986". It seems that hurling has always been a part of life in Ratoath. There has been a hurling team in the village going back to the very early days of the Association. The Senior county Championship of 1963 was the club's last major success. A Senior League and a couple of Junior Champ-ionship have been garnered since then, but little more: "Hurling seems to have lost its place in the pecking order in this area, and even football seems to be going downhill, perhaps due to the influence of soccer", Paddy observes. While still a player, Paddy Donnelly also served on Ratoath's committee for a while. Since retirement, his involvement with the club has been limited somewhat by lack of time. He did however sponsor them a set of jerseys last year. "One of our best hurlers at the moment is Mick Brazil who played for Meath last year, and I'm proud to say that my son Alan also plays with them at present", Paddy notes. How much has the hurling scene in the Royal County changed since the 1960s? "Well, in the sixties the five big teams were ourselves, Athboy, Kilmessan, Dunboyne and Boardsmill. It was always the same teams from 1960 onwards. Trim had waned a lot up until recently and we never came across either themselves or Longwood while we were at our peak. When we started dropping we met them on our way down", Paddy Donnelly explains. Extremely happy with the progress which has been made by Meath's hurlers in recent years. Paddy is nonetheless a little perturbed by the apparent shift of the power base within the county: "I'm delighted to see the way the county team is playing but disappointed that hurling seems to have faded here in the east end of the county. Kilmessan is the closest strong team we have now", he points out. "The hurling seems to have returned to the pocket it was always in and doesn't seem to be thriving anymore". Paddy Donnelly was on and off the Meath county team between 1963 and 1968. During this time he was never lucky enough to win anything, but he did have occasion to wear the green county jersey in the company of such mortals as clubmate Mattie McCabe, Mattie Mullen, John and Martin Doherty and Pat Andrews of Athboy, Boardsmill's Sean Garrigan and Dinny Donnelly of Kilmessan. "As a county team we were in a similar position to the current side. I don't remember us ever playing against any of the big teams, but we did play against the likes of Antrim and Westmeath. Certainly the current team seems to have plenty of promise", offers the man who, apart from brief spells at midfield, spent most of his playing career at full forward. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of Donnelly's career was scoring five goals from a total of 8-2 in an extremely high-scoring county final, but the Ratoath man attributes great praise for the past played in this feat by team mate Mattie McCabe whose supply that day was faultless. "Mattie was probably the best player the club ever had. Another brilliant player was Sean "The Duggan" Wheeler who played for Ratoath and Meath before going to England. I haven't seen him in years". For most of his life Paddy has been known to many people as "Dinky". What was the best thing about being Dinky Donnelly of Ratoath and Meath? "The sheer enjoyment of it. I played a lot of football too, but always preferred to play hurling which was a quicker game with more skill attached. There's a much bigger hurling tradition here than people realise. Ratoath always had a hurling club but I remember the first football team being formed her in the early fifties while I was still at school", recalls the former Meath 400 metre sprint champion. Is the current Meath county team good enough to go on and win a Leinster Championship within the foreseeable future? "They're a very skilful team. Pat Potterton and Mickey Cole would get their places on any county team. And Dinny Donnelly's son Paul is another fine player. These guys are very skilful and all they need is a bit of self-belief. Personally I wouldn't be very surprised to see them in the shake-up in Leinster. I will be very disappointed if this team doesn't beat Westmeath in the first round and go on to do something for hurling in the county. If we'd played any way well before Christmas then we'd have made the League play-offs. I'd be very optimistic about this team - and if the county team does well then there will be more youngsters wanting to play and the game will be rejuvenated at underage level". To what extent has the success of Meath football teams militated against chances of hurling success in the Royal County? "I think it's true that Meath has always been classified a football county and hurling has always been the poor relation. I remember going to train in Navan one day and afterwards we were given ham sandwiches and tea. The County Board then decided that both the footballers and hurlers should train together and we were then brought in and were given steak dinners. I think that puts the whole thing into perspective", Paddy Donnelly explains. While hurling has always been his number one love, this Ratoath man doesn't close his eyes to the existence of the big ball game. What does he think of the prospects of Sean Boylan's men for Championship season ahead? "I was very disappointed with the way they played in their last League outing against Laois, and Bobby O'Malley will be a very big loss. I had though earlier on it the year that they were shaping up well but I'm not too sure now. I wouldn't put a lot of money on them coming out of Leinster. Dublin are also fading and I think Kildare and Laois could be the two biggest threats". So says Paddy Donnelly head - his heart tells the Ratoath man otherwise of course! Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 21st April, 1995 Tweet

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