Tansey, Brian
July 18, 2006
The late Brian Tansey
It is often said that God takes those whom he loves most, and this is certainly the case when he called Brain Tansey, Cloverhill, Ballaghaderreen to his home in Heaven on July 6th, 2006.
Millions of nice things have been spoken about Brian since his sudden and untimely passing and in deed every word is true. Brian gave his life to helping others, especially our youth in whom he continually instilled a love of sport and a knowledge of the skills of several sporting disciplines.
Brian was a native of Cuilmore, Gurteen, Sligo but he spent more of his life residing in the Ballaghaderreen area. Although I did not have the privilege of seeing him play, I am reliably informed that he was a very skillful gaelic footballer. He gave many years of loyal service as a player with Eastern Harps and even though he was very actively involved with Ballaghaderreen GAA Club and with partically every sporting organisation in the area, I know that his first sporting loyalty lay with his native County Sligo.
Brian spent his working life in the service of the ESB, which saw him serve all over the north west, and I am also told that he won national titles on a few occasions with the ESB gaelic football team in All-Ireland Inter Firms competition.
It is with the Community Games movement that I came to know Brian and it is through this organisation that he had made the greatest, though not exclusive, contribution over the years. While most chairpersons preside over activities and chair the meetings etc, this was not Brian's style. He led from the front he was the coach/trainer/manager/co-ordinator for several sporting disciplines, especially gaelic football, soccer, handball, athletics and gymnastics. There was nothing he liked better than to see little girls and boys taking an interest in sport, learning the basic skills of the sport and then competing fairly and tot he best of their ability. He lived the objections of Community Games in ensuring that every child was given the opportunity to learn the skills and participate. I have never heard him to reprimand a child who might not give of his/her best. he would give them a pat on the back and say "what harm, you'll be better next time." It is a tribute to his leadership of Community Game sin Ballaghaderreen that the Ballaghaderreen area had won the Community Games National Area Involvement Award on at least three occasions. This means that they have been adjudged to be the best Community Games area in IReland. I don't think that any other area in IReland have won as many such awards. It was Brian's efforts in ensuring that the children of Ballaghaderreen participated in a wide range of sporting and cultural disciplines to help achieve those national awards.
Brian's Community Games involvement was not confined to the Ballaghaderreen area. He was for many years a most active member of the County Executive Committee and the highlight of his involvement at this level was his years as County PRO. This involved the collating of information on activities throughout the county each weekend an the preparation of a weekly report for submission to our two local newspapers. Although Brian was not into computers, he never failed to get his handwritten copy to the papers in time. This work was done simultaneously with his work on the playing fields and with the task of rearing his young family, which always come first in his life.
He also was actively involved in co-ordinating in inter-club football and soccer fixtures as well as other events, and he also refereed many such games. Indeed, this work often involved Brian marking out pitches, putting up goal nets etc. before games. For many years he acted as team manager with the Roscommon participants at the Community Games National Finals weekends in Mosney. Here again his calming words to nervous competitors were always worth listening to and they usually proved to be beneficial.
Brian was the well deserved recipient of many awards for his Community Games involvement, including the Roscommon VEC Sports Personality of the Year award. He did not like such acclamation as he preferred to get on with the basics in a quiet manner. He did not like the limelight and indeed he would certainly have got officer jobs on the County Executive, but he preferred to be at the coalface with the children.
Indeed, Brian's personal life had not been easy as his wife Helen predeceased him at a young age when their four children were very young. Despite this, he reared them to be successful young people in the he community and he inculcated in them a love of sport to such extent that each of them hold high level wards for sports such as gymnastics, athletics and football.
Brian's passing has left a void in our organisation that will be difficult to fill. We can only try to follow his example and work that bit harder to fill that void. Ni beidh a leithead ann aris.
County Roscommon Community Games extends its sincere sympathy to his children Brian Jnr, Aidan, Loretto and Eimear. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dhilis.
Martin Dolan
Community Games County Chairperson
Courtesy of The Roscommon Herald
18 July 2006
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