The Bracks, the GAA and the forging of an identity

The Bracks. That's what they are known as - and have been for a long time. The players, that is, who represent Ballinabrackey, the GAA club located in a parish at the southern end of Meath. A parish that is truly unique. Different.

There's the make up of the place for starters, the geography. "It's the ultimate border parish," explains Seamus Brennan the author of 'The Bracks Our Story - A History of Ballinabrackey GAA Club 1884 to 1917.'

"It juts out from the bottom of Meath and is surrounded by five parishes in counties Westmeath, Offaly and Kildare," he adds. "There's no Meath parish bordering Ballinabrackey, almost half the parish is in Offaly, 54 per cent of it is in Meath. It's very much a border parish and that has caused a lot of difficulties through the years. It location was also used to its advantage as well. Ballinabrackey is down there away from everybody. Everybody hated going down there to play a game, it's a bit of a fortress."

Football has been played in the Ballinabrackey area since even before the formation of the GAA but the club - Ballinabrackey GFC - came into existence in 1920.

The Bracks could not have been born at a more turbulent time as Ireland was reeling from events surrounding the War of Independene while the Civil War was kicking off in earnest. Yet the fledgling club survived all the instability and upheaval to become a permanent part of the local sporting landscape.

"Ballinabrackey played their first championship match in Ballinabrackey in August 1920 in the JFC and from there they have played every year after that in Meath football championships up to the present time," adds Brennan with a touch of pride.

Ballinabrackey born and bred, the author (who was involved with Trim GAA club for a time), spent five-and-a-half years putting the book together. It turned out be an enlightening experience, a labour of love he's glad he embarked on despite the hours upon hours of research and writing. In many ways it was a journey back into the recent history of his own family. His people.

Inevitably, during the course of his journey, stories emerged featuring club personalities. Stories tinged with humour but also reflecting the times in which they happened.

There's the tale, for example, of one of Ballinbrackey's great stalwarts, Neddy Mitchell. "Ballinabrackey played in a final of a tournament in Castlejordan in 1961 and Neddy Mitchell (the team's trainer, there were no managers then!) wouldn't let the Ballinabrackey players go out for the game," recounts the author.

"He held them back for an hour because local farmer and one of the team's best players, PJ McNamee, had a cow calving and there was some difficulty, a delay. PJ was a key member of the team, a full-forward, so the match, which was in Ballinabrackey, was held up until the cow calved much to the annoyance of the Clara players!"

Then there is the story of a match between Longwood and Ballinabrackey in July 1939 described by Jimmy Farrell in his brilliant book - 'Strong Backs - Longwood, county Meath and the GAA' - which is re-told in Brennan's fine publication. It's a story that underlines how a referee's job was just as precarious back then as it is now.

"A row rizz in the Bracks’ goalmouth. Oh, did I not say who else would you expect only The Bracks," wrote Farrell. "The referee gave Longwood a fourteen yard free kick instead of a penalty and them two points down with time up. The ball was kicked over the ditch and nobody would go to collect it because the ditch was full of briers and the grass next door was wringing wet. The referee then decided to let them all go to hell. He blew the full-time whistle and made a run for it. Apparently he managed to escape with his life by getting to the Garda Barracks in Ballivor with a howling mob on his heels."

There's also the tale of the aforementioned Neddy Mitchell and how he acquired a football for the Ballinabrackey players in the club's early days. "He said he first got involved in football as a teenager when a number of neighbours would call a few times a week and play football (probably with a pig's bladder) in his front field," Brennan recounts.

"During this time Neddy spotted an advert in a magazine from a company in Liverpool for a football for 7s 6d. He mentioned it to the lads and they all decided to donate 3d per week until they raised 7s 6d at which stage Neddy sent a postal order to Liverpool. Lo and behold, six weeks later the football arrived. There was great excitement as most of the lads had never seen or kicked a leather football before. The numbers swelled with arrival of the football."

As yes the good old days.

HEROES

Down the decades also Ballinabrackey has produced it's share of marquee players. Men who had that star quality when it came to Gaelic football. One of those was Jack Cooney. "He was corner forward on the 1930 Meath senior football team beaten by Kildare in the Leinster final."

For a small rural club like Ballinabrackey to have a player on a Meath team that played in a Leinster final was a big deal indeed - and there's a story too behind that with Jack's inclusion on the team reflecting the spirit of the times.

In the Leinster semi-final Meath had defeated Dublin. One of the team's key players was Fr Michael McManus, a richly talented footballer who was unfortunate in one respect at least, in that he was at his prime at a time when the Catholic Church insisted its clergymen should not play football. Seamus Brennan takes up the story.

"Fr McManus played under the pseudonym of 'O'Donoghue' but after the Leinster semi-final win over Dublin, he felt guilty. He felt he should go to the bishop and say something to him. A delegation from the Co Board went to Bishop Mulvany and he said to Fr McManus. 'I knew you were playing but I was going to let it go but now that you've told me I'm going to have to tell you not to play.' So he never played for Meath again. Jack Cooney got on the Meath team at corner forward because of that."

Clergy played very significant roles in many GAA clubs; it was a common trend and Ballinabrackey were no different. A central figure in the club's history is a local priest Fr Callary. He did a great deal to revive the ailing club in the 1940s. Among his lasting contributions was his role in securing a piece of land from the Land Commission that became the club's home ground - Boyne Park. "He was the most significant man in the Ballinabrackey parish in the 20th century," adds Seamus Brennan.

From time to time the club continued to produce players good enough to represent their county. "The Meath team that reached the 1964 All-Ireland semi-final (where they were defeated by Galway) included Kevin McNamee at full-forward and Peter Moore at midfield."

Moore was still at midfield three years later when Meath finally reached the Promised Land and won Sam Maguire, defeating Cork, 1-9 to 0-9 in the final. "Peter Moore was the greatest footballer ever to play for Ballinabrackey but Kevin McNamee was close behind him," adds Brennan who played for Ballinabrackey and also represented Meath at minor and u-21 levels, as well as having a brief sojourn on the senior panel.

Over the years Ballinabrackey experienced some good times. Boom years. The club's first JFC was claimed in 1926. They won it again in 1972, a final the author Seamus Brennan played in and scored six points from frees even though he was only a teenager at the time. Subsequent triumphs in that championship have followed in '77, 1985 and 2010. They also won the IFC in 2020 although that tale has yet to be told in the next installment of the Ballinabrackey football story.

There were many barren times too, when it was a struggle to field a team, particularly in the 1950s and '60s when emigration hit hard. No matter how bad things got Ballinabrackey stayed in the game. They kept the flag flying.

SEAMUS BRENNAN ON...

BALLINABRACKEY'S UNIQUENESS

“The enduring journey is exceptional, given that they are a border club from a parish split almost equally between two clubs (Ballinabrackey/Meath and Clonmore/Offaly). Regarding area, 53% of the parish lies in County Meath and 47% in county Offaly. The total population of the parish is approximately 1500 people, which equates to the Ballinabrackey club having to pick from about 800 on the Meath side.

“Most Meath senior football clubs come from areas with populations from 1,500 to 5,000 and more. Given the figures above, it is quite an achievement for the Ballinabrackey club to compete at Meath senior football level. Their success is a testament to a talented bunch of players, a well-structured underage club and many dedicated volunteers.”

BALLINABRACKEY'S BIG DAYS

"Over the 100 years, the club contested 13 county finals at adult level, winning six and losing seven. The wins were…..Intermediate – 2020. Junior – 1926, 1972, 1977, 1985 and 2010, (including a Leinster junior title). The Ladies played their part also when they won Meath senior football titles in 1988, 1989 and 1990. At underage level - U’10 to U’21 football - the club experienced numerous championship and league successes over the previous 50 years, providing a sturdy foundation for the senior section.

ON TOURNAMENT GAMES THAT WERE ONCE SO POPULAR

“Being a border club had advantages for Ballinabrackey in that down through the 1930s, '40s and 50s the hay day of the tournaments, there were tournaments played all around the area in Kinnegad, Edenderry, Rhode, Carberry. Every year there were tournaments and they were more important than the championships, they drew huge crowd. The Edenderry seven-a-side for example was the greatest tournament in the midlands for years, Ballinabrackey won it in 1959 and it one of the major triumphs in the club's history. Ballinabrackey was in the middle of everything.

GETTING THE BOOK OUT THERE

“In April this year I finished writing up Volume one and I was wondering how I was going to get it over the line and into book form. I had it done in Microsoft Word the pics sorted and everything. I got a price to have it all in book form and the club were astonished to find out how much it was.

“Then, out of the blue, Liam Hayes (the former Meath footballer and All-star winner) who has a publishing company contacted me and he indicated he would do it for free. Hayes and his company did a brilliant job in designing it and putting it all together. Writing it was a labour of love and it was an enthralling thing to do partly because I was going back to my roots, my father's people came from there. I grew up listening to my father talking about the great Meath teams of 1949 and '54 that kind of thing so football was very much part of my family.”