Bailieboro qualified for the knockout stage of the Cavan SFC again in 2004, but that was as far as they got. However, even though the injury-ravaged Shamrocks misfired in their clash with Denn, they gave a favourable account of themselves in the group stage of the Breffni County's blue riband contest. Andy Coleman, who flew the red and white flag with the county seniors, was one of Bailieboro's walking wounded. Here, he reflects on the year that was and looks forward to what 2005 has in store on the local club scene. Having contested a semi-final in 2003, Bailieboro Shamrocks went into the '04 senior football championship season full of hope. The town side hadn't been too far off the mark the previous year and there was no reason why they couldn't repeat the dose. As things transpired, the Red & Whites did superbly to progress to the last eight but a spate of injuries eventually took its toll as they fell flat on their collective faces in a disappointing quarter-final clash with Denn. It's been ten long years now since Bailieboro last claimed the county SFC but, in fairness, they did produce some decent performances on route to the quarter-final stage in 2004 and, though the team is very much in transition at present, there's no reason why they can't at least consolidate their senior/Division One status this summer. That's the target they've set, as Andrew Coleman confirms: "I think it's going to be a very big year for the club and it's vital that we stay up. That has to be our main objective. We're not setting ourselves any unrealistic targets because there are a lot of good teams in Cavan and we've lost a few players. But I'm confident we can hold our own. "I wouldn't like to see Bailieboro go down because it could be a year or two before we get back and who knows what damage would be done in that time? We have some good young players coming through at the moment and it's important that we can give them senior football. If things gel this year, then we should preserve our senior status and stay in Division One. "I believe we can do it. The talent is there, between young and older players, and hopefully we can find the right blend. We know we have good footballers in the club so, if we get it right, we should be okay." Consolidation is a modest ambition for a team that blazed an impressive trail to the knockout stage of the county's premier competition in 2004. During the course of that campaign, Shamrocks produced some superb displays, kicking off with a 2-5 to 0-7 victory over Crosserlough and following up with excellent wins at the expense of Kingscourt (3-10 to 1-14) and Knockbride (1-12 to 0-6). Cavan Gaels and Belturbet both knocked Bailieboro out of their stride but the Red & Whites bounced back with a comprehensive defeat of whipping boys Ballymachugh to book their place in the business end of the SFC. Unfortunately, nothing went right before, during or after the quarter-final and Denn came away with an emphatic win, 1-12 to 0-3, to effectively put an end to Bailieboro's uncertain year. Reflecting on the season in general, Andy Coleman notes: "We're probably happy enough with the way things went overall. We were trying to win the championship out but we had a couple of men injured and things didn't go according to plan. We played very badly against Denn and the result says it all." Was it a game that Bailieboro expected to win? "We probably would have been expected to win it until the injuries struck. We had two or three men out and that really hit our chances hard. But Denn are a good team and we can't take anything away from them. They deserved their win on the day and were worth their place in the semi-final." Were Bailieboro happy enough with their lot, then? Did they feel that they had proven some people wrong with their displays in the competition up until that point? "The way things went, we were never going to produce a big performance in the quarter-final. But I don't think anyone would've been surprised to see us in the quarter-finals either. The year before, we got to the semis and we could've beaten Mullahoran, so there was never any doubting what we were capable of." Andy himself sustained a broken collarbone in training on the Friday night before the Cavan/Derry qualifier. The injury was a massive blow, disrupting his county plans at a most inopportune moment and also knocking the club's prospects back. Frankly, with a couple of others also injured or carrying injuries, it left the Shamrocks with too much to do on limited resources. The year had begun brightly, with training starting early under the watchful eye of Johnny Brady. Training went well and the players put in a great deal of effort. A decent run in the league and a championship quarter-final spot was just rewards for all the honest endeavour. Many tests lie ahead in the coming months, not least of which will be the task of holding things together while a changing of the guard takes place. "A couple of our lads are nearing the end of their playing days, so we're going to have to adapt accordingly. We have good young lads coming through but it could take two or three years for them to mature and establish themselves as seniors. Paul Sharkey and Geoffrey Martin are just two of the promising players we have coming through. If we give them time, they'll serve us well. "It looks likely that Adrian Lambe and a couple of others will call it a day, so we'll have to start rebuilding and our main aim will be to stay in Division One." Up until his unfortunate injury, Andy had been a permanent fixture on the county senior panel in 2004, playing in a couple of McKenna Cup games as well as the national league games against Armagh and Wexford. "You have to perform for Eamon Coleman and I was happy to get the chance," he says. "I didn't go back in this year because the shoulder isn't strong enough at the moment and I probably need to take the break. I'm doing some weights training on my own to try and build it up. "I had been asked in by [former Bailieboro trainer] Mattie Kerrigan a couple of years ago as well but I was in the middle of building a house and didn't think I had the time to give proper commitment. In hindsight, I probably should have given it a go then because I could have established myself by now. But I'm still hopeful that I have an intercounty career in front of me. I'm hoping to play for Cavan again but for the time being I need to take a break and see how the club football goes." Andy broke onto the Bailieboro first team when he was 16 and has been there for seven years. The club has failed to reach the same highs as 1995, when they ruled Cavan and were controversially beaten in the Ulster club final. There have been genuine mitigating circumstances, however: "Things went downhill big time after Glen Crossan died in 1996. That was a huge blow to the Shamrocks and we've never recovered." Bailieboro also lost Paul Coleman to New York and Aidan Connolly retired at an early age, all of which affected their chances of progress. Is the pressure on for 2005, bearing in mind that we're talking about a big club from a major town? "There is pressure and we could probably do with a few more players. Having said that, the players we have are talented lads so we're keeping our fingers crossed. You're always better off with fellas who are prepared to put the effort in, so we'll be happy if everybody gives it 100% this year. "We won't be too ambitious. We're hoping to stay up and we know it'll take a huge effort because there's a lot of competition. "But in football you never know what might happen. If we stay injury-free and get to a quarter-final again, we'll give it a good lash…" Write the Shamrocks off at your peril. Pat Clarke - a unique talent Pat Clarke was one of the most exceptional footballers ever to wear the Bailieboro jersey. Equally adept either in attack or at centre half back, Pat lined out for the Shamrocks during their golden era in the 'fifties and 'sixties and was named on the club's Team of the Millennium. A member of one of the town's truly great GAA families, Pat never conceded second best on the field of play and the Bailieboro club is indebted to the great man for his extraordinary service as a player, coach and administrator over the years. A quick look back over the history of Bailieboro Shamrocks reveals that the club's golden era arrived in a glorious period that spanned from the early 1950s until the mid-sixties. During this time, the town side emerged as the team to beat in the Breffni County, playing in a total of eight county finals and winning the SFC on three occasions. (Bailieboro's only other SFC successes were achieved in 1911 and 1995.) Pat Clarke was a central character with Bailieboro at this time. Pat starred on the sides that took the county crown in 1957 and '64 and was unlucky not to scoop at least two more senior county souvenirs (county final defeats to Cornafean and Cavan Gaels, in particular, should have been avoided). But this cannot detract from the fact that it was a special time for gaelic football in the town and the Shamrocks had a crop of exciting talent at their disposal. Under the guidance of Phil Sheridan from the Vale, they rose spectacularly to prominence, with many of their players going on to play for Cavan - and even Ulster. Pat Clarke, the McIntyre brothers Ciaran and Tom, Donal Kelly, Gabriel Kelly and Peter Pritchard would all don the county colours with great pride and dignity. Standing strong at 5'11", the first-mentioned was undoubtedly one of the club's all-time greats. Extremely versatile and blessed with all the vital ingredients of greatness on the field - speed, vision, composure, confidence, panache, grace, strength, intelligence, faultless handling and determination - Pat lined out for Bailieboro and Cavan both in attack and defence and was widely regarded at the time as the best club footballer not only in Cavan but in the entire country. During the course of his career, Pat won two senior championships and a senior league with Bailieboro as well as Ulster senior championship and junior championship honours with Cavan. His son Finbar collected a SFC with the Shamrocks in 1995, when the Cavan kingpins went on to contest the Ulster club final only to lose in contentious circumstances. Pat's wife Rita acted as club secretary in 2004. Records indicate that Pat broke onto the Bailieboro first team in 1953. "I played minor before that but I wasn't much good," he quips modestly. "I was then with the junior team for a few games before breaking through into the senior side. "There was no such thing as relegation in those days, as far as I can remember." Shamrocks had won the SFC for the first time in 41 years in 1952 and the club would go from strength to strength with Pat Clarke on board. They were great times for the club and for the town, as Pat recalls: "That was by far and away the best period in the club, but we didn't realise it at the time - we were just playing ball. It was all we had to do. There wasn't much else for a young lad to do in those days. You either played ball, went to the pictures or went to a dance. There was no money for the pubs. I'd say that 13 of that Bailieboro team were pioneers, and we were into our football." Things were done differently 50 years ago. "We trained at the park two or three nights a week and there was none of this modern training or fellas rubbing you down or anything like that," says Pat. When it came to injuries, the Bailieboro man sustained a couple of nasty ones - a broken leg was picked up in Kilmainhamwood and the gifted Shamrocks man also sustained a broken bone in his shoulder in Cavan. These still summon up painful memories. Pat played his first county final against Cornafean in 1956 and made his mark with a goal inside the opening minutes. Unfortunately, he only lasted five minutes in that game and his injury was the turning point. If Pat Clarke had lasted the full hour that day, there's no way Cornafean would've seen that championship! The following year, Cootehill - who were regarded as untouchable at the time - were beaten on county final day. Pat remembers: "We were given no hope in that game but we beat them by a point. It was the year of the 'Long Grass' final, because the grass wasn't cut at Breffni Park before the game." The great Charlie Gallagher was no worry to Bailieboro - they knew how to play him. The Shamrocks team possessed speed and craft in abundance. In fact, that team had everything and the only real pity was that they didn't collect another couple of SFCs to further highlight their brilliance. Cootehill again provided opposition in the final when Bailieboro collected the SFC in 1964. Pat Clarke was player-manager that year, Joe Mitchell having overseen the '57 victory. Pat also played for Cavan. He helped the county reach the 1959/60 national league final, with a brace of goals against Longford, but unfortunately Down got the better of Cavan in the decider. "I got two poxy goals against Longford in an earlier round, when we were getting a bad beating and it turned the game. Longford were a good tough team at the time - they would go through you." A couple of years later, Pat and Cavan had their revenge on Down when beating them in the Ulster SFC final. It was inevitable that Pat would be named on the Bailieboro Team of the Millennium, even if his positioning at right corner forward is a little dubious as the man was always to be found in a more central role and played his best years in the No.6 jersey. He had a reputation as one of the most effective centre backs in the business and never resorted to fouling: "I'd let nobody go round me, but I wouldn't pull out of them either. When I played, I knew every step of every senior footballer in the county. I could always anticipate the next move. That's something that's gone out of gaelic football today - nobody goes to games anymore to pick up hints and learn about their opponents. In my day, we had our homework done." Outspoken on the performance of match referee Pat McEnaney in Bailieboro's 1995 Ulster club final defeat, Pat remains quietly confident about his hometown club's immediate future, even if it's been a decade since their last senior county championship victory: "Bailieboro could be in trouble at senior level for a few years, but there's a good youth programme in the town and some good prospects coming through. There's plenty of talent there, it they can hold onto them." Pat devoted a lot of his life to gaelic football - as player, manager and a former club chairman - and it is fitting that his family remains synonymous with the GAA in the town today. Reflecting on his career, he notes: "We had golden years in Bailieboro. It was some town back then and it all centred around the football. We had a hell of a time! I have great pride in the fact that I went to school in The Vale. "I only won two championships with the club but Cootehill and Crosserlough were strong at the time. In fact, there were a lot of great footballers in Cavan and that wasn't reflected on the county team. I thought the County Board placed too much emphasis on picking lads who went to St Pat's in Cavan - and half of those lads couldn't kick a barn door of a Halloween night!" Straight talking is another of Pat Clarke's commendable qualities. Tweet

Most Read Stories