GAA Museum Relaunch - Player Interviews

Dav

Hello all,

The GAA Museum in Croake Park is being relaunched this Thursday morning by Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin. Also in attendance will be Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy, Cork Hurler/Australian Rules player Aisake Ó hAilipín and Tyrone's Seán Cavanagh, and the lads will be available for a Q&A before the ceremony.

So if you have any questions for the players, please post them below and I'll be doing my best to make sure I get them all answered.

Big thanks to James and Nora at Ogilvy for the invite.

Dav

An Citeog

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

The GAA Museum in Croake Park is being relaunched this Thursday morning by Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin. Also in attendance will be Tyrone footballer Kieran Donaghy, Cork Hurler/Australian Rules player Aisake Ó hAilipín and Kerry's Seán Cavanagh, and the lads will be available for a Q&A before the ceremony.

So if you have any questions for the players, please post them below and I'll be doing my best to make sure I get them all answered.

Big thanks to James and Nora at Ogilvy for the invite.

Dav

For Seán Cavanagh:

Did your recently fractured relationship with Mickey Harte have any bearing on your decision to switch allegiances to Kerry?:pac:

DDC1990

For Keiran Donaghy: Did the open attractive style of the Ulster Championship lure you to your Father's County of Tyrone?

An Citeog

Ok, some actual questions now for both Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone) and Kieran Donaghy (Kerry):

You've shared the last 7 All Irelands between your two counties. What is it that sets Tyrone and Kerry apart from the rest of the chasing pack? Is it simply down to footballing ability or is it much more than that?

Who's the toughest opponent you've ever directly faced in a game?

If you could pick one other player from any other county to play with your county, who would it be?

largepants

For both players.

If you could see any county that hasn't won an All Ireland in the past 30 years winning one over the next 5 years who would it be?

Dav

Yea, spot the guy who knows nothing about GAA and has to Google player names and who they play for and then proceeds to mix it up *ahem*

Anyway, corrections made, my apologies folks Please keep the questions flowing!

Dav

Dav

Last chance to put any questions in for this guys, I'm leaving the office for the event in the next hour or so.

Dav

Dav

It's taken me some time, but I finally have these interviews. I had some issues with sound quality from the video recording device I had, so I've transcribed the chats I had with Seán, Kieran and Aisake. I had a good chance to take a look around the museum itself and it looks great. There's a nice mix of history, audio-visual information booths and interactive parts and something for all ages.

So here are the interviews:

Interview with Se&#225 wrote: »

Dav: Thanks very much for taking the time to talk with us today. We're here for the Museum re-launch, have you had a chance to take a look around?

SC: Yea, I'm told it's here since 1998 and I've never realised how much was in it. I'd always heard of it and a I know few of the club teams have been down here and were always very complimentary about it, but to come in here and get a chance to look around and see how good things are and to see some of the fantastic history of Croke Park really is amazing. I'll certainly come back here some day whenever I have a few hours when I'd be with my wife, you know? I skimmed around it in 20 minutes there, but in those 20 minutes I learned more than I've learned in the last, probably 20 years of my life about GAA and it really is an interesting thing to do.

Dav: Good stuff. So a few quick questions from our members, you’ve shared the last 7 All Irelands between your two counties. What is it that sets Tyrone and Kerry apart from the rest of the chasing pack? Is it simply down to footballing ability or is it much more than that?

SC: Ah, y'know, I don't think there's any secret formula. Obviously Kerry and Tyrone are 2 of the football super-powers of GAA and are really blessed to have a really good set of skilled footballers and footballers that play the game at that sorta high intensity and I think that whenever one of us comes for a big game to Croke park, to be able to apply some fantastic skills to that high intensity has allowed us to go on and win the All-Ireland.

Dav: Who's the toughest opponent you've ever directly faced in a game?

SC: Toughest opponent's probably a guy who played for Kerry a few years ago, Eoin Brosnan would be a fantastic player, very, very athletic I suppose - my style of game is going up and down the field and being quite athletic myself and whenever I had to run after him all over the field, he certainly wore me out and then the energy levels would be a wee bit low whenever I'd come to do my own stuff down the other end of the field, so yea, I'd certainly say Eoin, he was pretty tough.

Dav: If you could pick one other player from any other county to play with your county, who would it be?

SC: I suppose I would have to pick Charlie Vernon from Armagh cause he is my brother in law. *laughs* He is actually motoring very well for Armagh at the moment and it would certainly ease a lot of the burden of my wife having to go between Tyrone and Armagh - 2 massive rivals.

Dav: True enough! Is it a big problem in your house?

SC: Yea, well it's certainly an interesting problem anyway because one minute Fionuala's got the orange on her and next minute she's got the red and white on. Obviously, Tyrone and Armagh're only separated by the River McWater and we actually do live on the border so it certainly makes interesting banter and interesting rivalry in our house.

Dav: If you could see any county that hasn't won an All Ireland in the past 30 years winning one over the next 5 years who would it be?

SC: I suppose coming from an Ulster background, you almost would like to see Antrim make the break-through onto the All-Ireland stage because they have had it tough the last, probably 15 - 20 years even though they are having a wee bit of success now with St Galls winning the All-Ireland Club titles. I think they're a team now that's really on the up and they could go that one step further and go on to win an All-Ireland and it would be fantastic to see someone who hasn't been big in footballing circles in the past few years to go on and make that victory.

Dav: How does it feel to be a role-model?

SC: It certainly is quite humbling - whenever I think about when I was growing up, you know looking up to Andy Tohill from Derry, or Peter Canavan from my own county, it's quite surreal to almost think that people would look up to me in the same way that I did to those guys and you probably don't realise it and you move through your career that quickly that you don't realise that other people maybe do admire you, but, you know, to me it's just fantastic to be among GAA circles. I always love taking the chance to pass on any knowledge I have of the game onto younger people and I spend an awful lot of time doing youth presentations at small clubs and having a chat with some of the younger members - it is fantastic and they are the future of our organisation and if everyone can conduct themselves well, the future of GAA is definitely very strong.

Dav: It's certainly very interesting to me that we're talking about an amateur organisation and an amateur sport yet obviously when you look around here you can see there's a lot of money in GAA. Do you think that there's ever going to be a professional era or would you like that?

SC: No, I certainly wouldn't like that. I think the formula that we have now is almost as close to perfect as you're ever gonna get. From my point of view, being able to balance working - I'm an accountant - with playing sports at the top level is almost perfect because you have your 9 to 5 working, you know, and it leaves where you have a career then after sports where you see in some of these other professional sports, the guys maybe turn, after they finish their careers, to gambling or they turn to drink or other addictions. It's nice to know that people involved in GAA have a trade or have a job to go to once they finish their career, plus, you know, it keeps your feet on the ground - the fact that they're not getting paid £50,000 a week or whatever it is. You know, you look over some of the careers and the amounts of money in soccer and even rugby nowadays and it is quite silly almost to think about the numbers that are being bandied around. I think here with the GAA its fantastic where you know, the role-models of the sport can be the guy from down the road that's doing somebody's accounts or the farmer from down the road and to have those sorts of connections with community, you know, it certainly keeps your feet on the ground and certainly keeps in with the organisation that is the GAA - it's what its all about, you know? It is an amateur organisation and it's quite amazing to come down here to Croke Park and look around and say this has been built by amateurs.

Dav: Excellent, I think that wraps it all up I think, thanks very much for your time, it's very much appreciated.

SC: Not at all, thanks very much for having me.

Interview with Kieran Donaghy wrote:

Dav: I'm joined now by Kieran Donaghy from Kerry, thanks very much for taking the time to answer some questions for us. First of all, have you had a chance to take a look around the museum yet?

KD: Yea, absolutely, I had a look around there and I'm very impressed with it - I think the interactive section upstairs for kids will be thoroughly enjoyable - myself and Aisake were above flaking the sliotar around the place and if we're having that much fun with it, I'm sure young people will love it. It's great to come here and even to walk around and learn about the history of the game and how important it is to us as a nation. It's well worth a visit.

Dav: Excellent, well I'll cut straight into the questions as we're running a bit short on time. Between yourselves and Tyrone, you have 7 All-Irelands which is quite an achievement between the 2 counties. We're wondering what it is that sets you both apart from the rest?

KD: I dunno, I just think there's been 2 very good teams that have come at the exact same time and as you've said, shared 7 finals. Now we've 4 and they've 3 and it's just a case of 2 very good teams coming at the right time and you know, over the years gone past, you woulda had the same thing there teams come to the fore and they're playing very good football and we've seen them dominate for a few years, but it hasn't been easy for either of the 2 teams - there's been a lot of stiff competition and a lot of scares and a lot of nearly going out and certainly for us in '07 and 08, both years against Monaghan and we actually thought we were gone and it was only for 2 great scores in the last few minutes that pulled us through them games, otherwise we would've been out there, you know?

Dav: Who's the toughest opponent you've ever faced in a game?

KD: There's been a lot of them! I dunno if I could pick out any of them individually, but you know a full back is always a tough cookie and unfortunately I'm full forward so I'm landed in the middle of them and there's no getting anything easy off them. If I was to pick one I suppose, Francie Bellew woulda been a great full back for Armagh, although I only got to play against him once - he was coming to the end of his career as I was starting off - he was definitely one of the toughest, but fairest as well you know? Hard and fair, your old fashioned full back you know, and he woulda been probably the toughest.

Dav: If you could pick a player from any other county to play with Kerry, who would it be?

KD: Probably Daniel Goulding from Cork, he's just a very good corner forward and athlete - scoring both from play and frees. A good man with an eye for goal and the nack for it you know?

Dav: If you could see any county that hasn't won an All Ireland in the past 20 or 30 years coming up through the ranks and winning one over the next 5 years who would it be?

KD: There's a number of teams, you know, who have won it in the last 30 years, so it's a tough question, but I suppose teams like Mayo now, you know, who've come very, very close.

Dav: I'm a Mayo man myself and I've been through that too often!

KD: Yea, they've reached a lot of finals and have done very well, that team and you know, unlucky I suppose to come up against us on good days and that's the way it goes, but I'm sure the young people in Mayo would be watching that and get inspiration from that, so you'd be hoping down the line that they would maybe get one in that long wait.

Dav: How does it feel to be a role-model?

KD: It's great, you know, it's something that you don't really think about when you're playing and it's only now you can think about it when you have young people coming up to you looking for autographs and stuff. But you just gotta behave in the right manner and just try and respect the position you're in and do as well as you can, but we're only human and we're only amateurs...

Dav: I was gonna say, do you think being amateurs, you're more grounded I suppose? You're not looking at a wage bill of 50 grand a week or something like that?

KD: Yea, although I wouldn't mind the wage too, you know? *laughs* No, but I suppose it is part of why we're so grounded I suppose. If you go the other way, we wouldn't be long being told to cop on and get a hold of yourself! No, I've been lucky enough that I'm a pretty level headed guy anyway, you know? For me it's about playing with Kerry and winning All-Ireland's and anything else is really secondary.

Dav: That’s great, thanks very much for your time, it's much appreciated.

KD: No hassle, ok, all the best.

Interview with Aisake O'hAlp&#237 wrote: »

Dav: I'm joined now by Aisake O'hAplín, thanks very much for taking some time to see us.

AoH: No worries, not a bother.

Dav: So it's been an interesting year for you, you've returned to Cork and to hurling, how's that been for you?

AoH: It's been good, we've done alright in the league so far this year, so hopefully we can cap it off with a win like, you know? But yea, it's been good to come back, it’s always good to come back home like, you know?

Dav: How was your time in Australia? Enjoyed it?

AoH: Yea, I did, I spent 4 years over there you know, and I did learn a lot and I suppose I was over there with my brother, you know, so I couldn't ask for anything more. I really enjoyed it.

Dav: Do you think you've brought much? You're coming from a professional sport back to an amateur sport, have you brought much with you in terms of work ethic and so on?

AoH: Yea, I suppose work ethic when you do play for Cork is always very high anyway, so it'd be on the same level I suppose. I have learned a lot, especially with like my nutrition, my diet and stuff, especially in the gym too you know? The way things are going now like, we do have like weights coaches and stuff like that, you know, and fitness coaches with Cork, so it's starting to even out a bit.

Dav: A professional attitude shall we say?

Aoh: Yea, definitely.

Dav: How does it feel to be a role model?

AoH: A role-model? Geez, with all of us in it it's hard to know...

Dav: Well there's three of ye I guess, so?

AoH: Yea, I suppose I'd be the more quiet one out of all of us, so I suppose Setanta and Seán, they are bigger role-models like, but ah, it is good you know, it's certainly not "not good" like do you know what I mean?

Dav: Is it strange walking around and having people recognising you and all the rest?

AoH: Oh yea, in Cork, Cork is a small place, you know, so when you do play for Cork, you'll always be known. You just try to put your best foot forward everywhere you go like, you know?

Dav: Who's the toughest opponent you've played against?

AoH: I suppose everyone I've played against, you know what I mean? I try not to concentrate too much on my opponents like, you know? So far, to date, I suppose they've all been tough like , you know and I presume that there will be tougher opponents ahead, so I couldn't actually pin-point one I've faced you know - I suppose they're not inter-county hurlers for nothing like, you know?

Dav: That's true. If you could pick one player from any other county to play with you, who would it be?

AoH: Gee, that is a tough one now. There are a few good ones out there now. Henry Shefflin I suppose, Joe Canning maybe, they're the lads that are actually in form at the moment. They'd be probably the ones - either one of them. Eoin Kelly from Tipperary, he's up there.

Dav: Everyone, I think, recognises Gaelic Football worldwide, do people recognise Hurling? Did you bring a hurl and a sliotar with you when you were in Australia?

AoH: Ah, they'd be curious alright, d'you know, when you'd go pucking around. Thanks to the internet now, I suppose people can look it up on YouTube now. It does catch people's eye like, you know? And when they do find out about it and ask questions, they might take the trouble to actually go to a game and they'll be more interested after that like, you know? They actually grow to love it and have the passion for it.

Dav: Well it's in my own blood, my own Dad was from Athenry and was a big hurling fan, but I'm a Mayo man, so we're not known for it. If you could think of any team who haven't done maybe as well as they might have over the last few years, but you expect to make a push, who do you think that might be?

AoH: In Hurling or Football?

Dav: Well, in both - whichever you think.

AoH: yea... In the football I suppose, Dublin have been there or there-abouts maybe, you know? They do have the population I suppose, so I reckon Dublin for the football maybe. In the hurling, Waterford can be dangerous to, like, you know? They're always there or there-abouts like, in Munster finals.

Dav: Is there any team in particular you do look forward to playing against?

AoH: No, to be honest, I look forward to playing against every team out there like, you know? I suppose they're all different challenges and I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't love that, you know?

Dav: I think that wraps it up, thanks very much for your time, it's very much appreciated.

AoH: Its no problem at all.

Bit of a mega post, my apologies again that I didn't have a video - it was a busy day at the meseum with all that was going on and there was no quiet corner we could take for the 5 minutes with each player.

Thanks again to Nora and James at gilvy PR for the opportunity to pop along to the event and for arranging the interviews and thanks to you guys for the questions. Finally, a big thank you to Seán, Kieran and Aisake for their time too.

Dav

Qwerty27

You might want to edit some of the players names......Anthony TOHILL and Francie BELLEW for starters!!

Dav

Thanks for that Qwerty, changes made.

An Citeog

Some good interviews Dav, particularly the Seán Cavanagh one. I haven't been to the GAA museum in years, so I'll have to pop down during the summer for a look.