Memories, milestones, Meath and me

AS I watched my daughter, Eva, take part in her last blitz of the season with Glasgow Gaels at Toryglen Regional Football Centre in the shadow of Hampden Park, I allowed myself some time to reflect on what was a year of milestones for us as a family in GAA terms.

2025 marked her first foray into the world of Gaelic Football, initially training with the Gaels under the watchful eye of their highly skilled and dedicated coaches before moving onto playing in blitzes. She loves the sport, sees it as part of her own Irishness and is thriving at it, learning new skills and making new friends along the way too.

She has embarked upon this journey much earlier than I did. I was a latecomer to the sport, joining Sands MacSwineys in Coatbridge at the request of GAA stalwart Joe Bradley, at the ripe old age of 29. It was a sport I had always watched—having been a Meath supporter from an early age due to family on my mother’s side—but had never played. My experience has mirrored that of my daughter’s. I too see it as an integral part of my own Irishness, and I learned new skills as well, even if being roared at to ‘take the point’ didn’t always make sense to someone raised on soccer!

Perhaps more importantly, the 10 years I spent with that wonderful club saw me make friendships for life and when the late, great Dave Kellett—a fellow Meathman from the club—passed away last year, it hit hard and felt like a death in my own family. One of the GAA’s motto’s is ‘where we all belong.’ I’ve been lucky enough to feel that both at Sands MacSwineys and my current club, Glasgow Gaels. Having witnessed at first hand the environment that the youth coaches are creating for her, I know she feels that too and will also enjoy friendships that will grow and flourish off the pitch for years to come.

A Royal introduction

She also made her debut as a Meath supporter this year too, taking in her first game at Croke Park, no less, in an All-Ireland semi-final against Donegal. If you told me at the start of the year, that I would be watching the Royals at the business end of the championship this year, never mind taking my daughter and my partner Ide along for the Croke Park experience I don’t think I would have believed you. Yet there we all were, getting the early flight over, enjoying a fry and joining the colourful throngs of green and gold making their way to the stadium with headbands on and hope in our hearts.

While the result didn’t go our way, with Donegal running out deserved winners, the experience had me beaming with pride and is something I’ll never forget. Eva loved it too, despite the scoreline. Her only real grievance was not being able to make out her former teacher playing with St Roch’s Marching Band as part of the half-time entertainment. A post-match Supermacs seemed to quell her mild disappointment.

Believe it or not, it was a first that she and I shared—not the Supermacs, I’ve always been partial to a smokey bacon burger and a garlic and cheese fries—watching Meath in the flesh. Despite many trips to the Royal County in my youth, I never managed to catch a game either in Pairc Tailteann in Navan or in Croke Park. The latter is more easily explained obviously given that in the past two decades our visits there have been limited, due in no small part to being in the same province as one of the greatest Dublin sides of all time. We did pick up the Tailteann Cup in 2023 under Colm O’Rourke’s tenure as manager, but with the greatest of respect that’s not a competition that Meath players nor fans want to find themselves in.

Paradise in Pairc Tailteann

Anyway, I digress. I had always wanted to see the Royals play in Navan, a desire that was accelerated this year due to the fact that Pairc Tailteann will undergo redevelopment in 2026 and Meath will be based at Croke Park for home games next year. So, I booked the cheap flight and the very central Newgrange Hotel, shoved some clothes into a backpack and headed over for the Division 2 clash between Meath and neighbours Cavan.

Now I know that public transport in Ireland comes in for a lot of criticism, but being able to hop on the bus to Navan just outside the Dublin Airport Terminal and charge my phone as I recorded my match day diary for the We Are Meath podcast was bliss. I had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

The multi-generational Irish living in Scotland will tell you that from the minute you touch down on the old sod, you have an innate feeling that you are home and I’m no different. The sentiment was only heightened as I walked the streets of the ever-expanding commuter town, making a note of places and landmarks that I remembered, including Jack Kiernan’s Sporting Goods Shop where I made an obligatory purchase. When in Navan, to paraphrase a better-known saying, and Jacksie is Meath royalty himself to be fair.

A pre-match Supermacs wolfed down this time, I arrived at Pairc Tailteann ridiculously early, in part due to the excitement, but also so I could catch up with Meath media mogul, Davy Rispin—a columnist formerly of The Irish Voice parish—in the press box. The term ‘press box’ is doing some heavy lifting it has to be said, a rustic space with painted green wood at the back of stand, but it was charming nonetheless, a throwback to a golden era of sports reporting!

What was also a pleasant throwback was the Meath side’s performance on the day—a taste of things to come as it happened. The team flourished playing the new rules and ran out 3-21 to 0-20 winners against a notoriously tricky side in the past. Fittingly, Dave Kellett’s nephew contributed 1-04 to that total. He’ll have been smiling looking down on that performance from him and the team, of that I am sure. From seeing my name in the match programme, to the first strains of Amhrán na bhFiann, to the roars that greeted every goal and point, it was a dream come true and an experience I’ll cherish all my days. Edward Clarke, of Moynalty parish, may have passed away many decades previously, but I am certain he was with me that day. Hopefully, as a pioneer though, he wasn’t with myself, Davy and his We Are Meath colleague Micky Brennan later on in Navan’s many bars and Palace nightclub, as we celebrated into the wee small hours!

Meath in microcosm

What happened after that match was like supporting Meath in microcosm, bear in mind that I’m old enough to have lived through four of our All-Ireland successes and three final defeats. The team just missed out on promotion to Division 1, but for the first time in 15 years, defeated Dublin in the Leinster Championship to reach the final against Louth, in what was a grudge match for the wee county, still smarting from the Joe Sheridan ‘goal’ in 2010. That match afforded me the opportunity to take my partner Ide, who despite being born in Iran—neither a Gaelic football or Hurling stronghold—to the game. She took up the sport with Glasgow Gaels in 2024 and has totally immersed herself in the game, the club and has come on leaps and bounds as a player. She was in awe of the stadium and the experience, although The Hill is perhaps a younger person’s game. I’m a fan of the colour that pyro can bring to sport, but I’m less in favour of being in the middle of it. Despite the game ebbing and flowing, Louth were the better team on the day and ended a 68-year wait to get their hands on the Delaney Cup.

After an excellent group stage run that saw Meath top their group and become the only side to defeat Clifford and co of eventual All-Ireland winners Kerry, I again got on the early flight to Croke Park to watch the Royals shock Galway to make the semi-finals. Another first, watching Meath win in person at Croke Park. To say I was delighted is an understatement and the pints tasted extra sweet that night. The run came to an end in the semi-finals against the Tír Conaill men led by inspirational manager Jim McGuinness, but the disappointment was superseded not only by the pride the Royal players had instilled in the county once more, but also that I was able to enjoy it with my loved ones in person.

For me, as a Meath supporter, 2025 was a year of exhilarating firsts, but it also allowed a new generation of fans to realise what I’ve long known, that this is the playground where Meath teams used to compete and, God willing, under Robbie Brennan’s guidance, will be fighting it out in years to come. It’s where we belong and cheering on the Royals is where I belong too. See you in 2026!