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No Ordinary JOE Soap
The glimmer of hope which existed in the eyes of Simonstown Gaels
GFC founding member Joe Clarke has fertilised into a bright shining
light boasting one of the top GAA clubs in the county. Members
of the north Navan club owe a lot to Joe.
Where football wasn’t the topic of conversation in Simonstown
during the past year or so, it almost inevitably meant that talk
revolved around the club’s ambitious development plans and second
House Draw. Lottery funding, builder’s quotations, £100 tickets
occupied much of the minutes from the various Executive Committee
meetings.
When all this is considered, it’s difficult to believe that at
one stage Simonstown had to borrow a set of jerseys from the neighbouring
Gibbstown team or that weekly meetings was held in the A.O.H Hall
on Navan’s Watergate St.
Founding member Joe Clarke remembers these days as if it were
yesterday. He also vividly recalls meeting with Jim Lane snr.
in John O’Loughlin’s pub (now Ross’s) on a Sunday night in February
1965 and setting the wheels in motion for the foundation of one
of the biggest clubs in the county.
Joe takes up the story: “I had gone around a few lads who had
retired from playing football with the surrounding clubs asking
them would they play if I organised a team and received a positive
response. The last night for affiliation was a Sunday night in
February and I met Jim Lane in John O’Loughlin’s and two of us
headed over to Liam Creavin’s house.”
He continued: “We told Liam what we were planning and paid our
affiliation fee of 2 shillings and six pence. He gave us a receipt
and the next thing to decide was what colours we would wear. We
eventually settled on sky blue. When we went back to the lads
they didn’t believe us when we told them but we had the receipt
to prove it.”
Joe handled a lot more receipts over the next seventeen years
in his role as treasurer. Jack ‘Duck’ Callaghan was the club’s
first chairman while Loman Fagan was secretary. Other prominent
members of the first committee included Jim Lane, the late Packy
Flood and Joe’s brother Mickey - well known in Royal County GAA
circles as a former chairman of the club and current delegate
to the Co Board.
“We got a great response from the lads who had promised to play
with us,” recalled Joe. “Our first meeting was held in the A.O.H
Hall on Watergate St. and membership cards were half a crown.
The money which we raised from membership paid for a new set of
jerseys.”
The next problem facing the fledgling committee was the small
matter of a playing field. That was quickly resolved, however,
when the Clarke’s late mother, Mrs. Julia Clarke - the club’s
first jersey washer - came to the rescue by offering the use of
one her fields down Simonstown Lane. The first game played by
Simonstown Gaels GFC - who, incidentally, wore the Gibbstown jerseys
on that landmark occasion - took place on that field against a
team from the Commons.
Five years later the Navan club qualified for their first ever
final, the Junior ‘B’ decider of 1970, where their opponents were
none other than Navan O’Mahony’s. It turned out to be an unhappy
final debut for the poor footballing relation in Navan at the
time.
Frank Carberry, who later transferred to the other side of town
and won a NFL medal with Meath in 1975, Eamonn Kearney, father
of current senior star Ned, Val Devlin, Pat and John Lynch, Dick
Stapleton, Jimmy Fitzsimons, Victor McCullagh, Phil and Mickey
Hegarty, John Carroll, Tommy Lynch and Ollie Plunkett were amongst
those who wore the sky blue jersey that day.
“Myself and Mickey were subs that day. He came on and missed an
open goal and I haven’t let him forget about it since,” laughed
Joe.
There wasn’t much success to recall during the early seventies
but the initiative of a group of people in 1976 would ensure that
Simonstown would evolve into a force to be reckoned with in Meath
GAA. The setting up of a juvenile section that year sowed the
seeds for their ascension up the ladder.
“It was hard to keep things going at that time because we weren’t
winning anything so the interest wasn’t as high as it should have
been. The start of the juvenile section made us the club we are
today. Myself, Mickey and John O’Hare set it up and then fellas
like Tommy Clynch came in. Once we started winning underage titles
things began to pick up on the adult side.”
Needless to say Joe has a story or two to tell about the early
juvenile days. “I remember travelling to an U-12 match in Ballivor.
Colm Keys would have been playing while Mickey was the referee
and I was a linesman. Young Johnny Cantwell from St. Mary’s Park,
who have only been about nine or ten at the time, was the first
aid man! That goes to show the type of help we had at the time
but we won easily on the day so it wasn’t so bad.”
Who were the best juvenile footballers Joe say play with Simonstown?
“That’s a difficult question because there has been so many but
fellas like Colm Keys, Philip Traynor, Paul O’Brien, Hank Traynor
and Ned Kearney stick out in the memory.” When I approached Joe
about having a chat for this article his reply was: “the office
will be open tomorrow night from 7 to 9. Joe’s office is located
at the end of the counter, to the left as you enter the door of
the club’s lounge, and if the truth be known, his office is always
open.
He’s always on that seat, except on Sunday nights when he moves
closer to the larger television to catch up on the latest goings-on
in Glenroe. He’s a creature of habit. Other habits, for instance,
include fulfilling his umpiring duties at all Simonstown games,
from U-12 right up to senior. He was once compared to an Ariston
electrical appliance because he keeps going on and on and on .
. .
“I enjoy doing the umpiring. I’ve been doing it from the start
so I’m not going to stop now. Colum Cromwell once told me that
I may hold the record for umpiring at most games.”
As an Honorary President of the club - Robbie McCullagh being
the other - Joe has been a regular at the club’s executive meetings
and during this time of continued expansion and development, he
admits that it has surpassed his wildest expectations.
“The facilities we have here at the moment are absolutely brilliant.
The pavilion is a great achievement and provides a place where
club members can come and meet and have a bit of craic. When I
think of the old shed down in the corner of the field we used
to have as changing rooms I can’t believe it. I never imagined
I’d see the day where it would be as big as this.”
Joe concluded: “But, while the development is great and all that,
I’d be more interested in the football end of things.”
Tell us something we didn’t know!
(The above is an updated version of an article which appeared
in the Meath GAA yearbook in 1998.)
Simonstown’s first Hon. President
James Lane (1926-1980)
The late Jimmy Lane was a native of Trim who moved to Navan when
he took up employment with Spicers Bakery. He had previously worked
with Spicers in Trim and dedicated some 33 years service to the
industry in total.
A very accomplished sportsman, he represented Trim at all grades
in hurling. He won an O’Growney Cyp medals in 1947 and added two
Meath SHC medals in 1949 and 1950. He also enjoyed success at
intercounty level when he was a member of the Royal County hurling
panel which captured the Leinster and All-Ireland JHC titles in
1948. He would be pleased to know efforts have been underway to
establish a hurling section within the club over the past number
of years.
Jim passed his love of gaelic games on to his sons, Jim, Paul,
David and Sean, all of whom have represented the club at some
time or another. Indeed, Jim jnr is presently vice-chairman of
the club.
Simonstown's first chairman
Jack "Duck" Callaghan (1923-1976)
Jack was the first chairman of the newly formed Simonstown Gaels
club back 1965 and remained involved in club affairs up until
his death in 1976.
Born in Carrick-on-Shannon in 1923, Jack, at the age of seven,
came to live with his aunt and two uncles in Simonstown on the
death of his father.
Jack continued his education in the local De La Salles Brothers
school and it was here that he developed his love for football.
He won U-16 and minor medals with the Salles in 1939 and '40.
He also spent a year in St Patrick's Classical School but decided
to leave and farm full-time on his uncle's farm.
He continued to play football with the Parnells club at adult
level and won a Meath IFC medal with them in 1943. In 1948 Jack,
along with nine others - including the late Benny Gartland, Simonstown's
first goalkeeper - formed the Navan O'Mahony's club. In 1949,
he captained the first ever O'Mahony's team to win a county title
- the junior championship. A regular in the full-back position,
he went on to win a SFC souvenir in 1953 and a Feis Cup equivalent
in 1956.
Jack's experience was invaluable when Simonstown was set-up in
1965 and in order to cement the foundation of a second club in
Navan, he undertook the position of chairman. So as well as playing
for the infant club he guided its development until his death
in 1976.
The present day club owes an immense amount of gratitude to its
first chairman for his guidance and wisdom.
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