A friend in need is a friend indeed

DECLAN O’Shea’s friends could effortlessly talk about him all night. The anecdotes kept rolling even if most of them cannot be repeated publicly. But when it was nearly all said, Clive Kelly summed up how himself, Declan Downes and Leonard O’Halloran felt about their stricken friend.

“If it was Leonard or Declan or myself that this happened to, he’d definitely be sitting down here at this table,” Kelly reflected.
Along with Mick Darby and Eamon Downes, the trio are the trustees of the Declan O’Shea Trust, which will be launched on Saturday March 17 at The Crossroads public house in Kilmihil.
A number of fundraising events are planned for the coming months including a tractor run in Kilmihil on Easter Sunday April 8.
Declan, who turned 36 in January, was seriously injured in an accident in an apartment last October in Faro, Portugal. He was in Portugal at a sporting event.
Declan Downes and Leonard O’Halloran went to school and played football with Declan, while Clive Kelly, who is from Kilmurry McMahon, lived with him for three years in Australia from 1997 to 2000.
“We were inside in Daly’s in Kilmihil one night playing pool and Declan said ‘will we go to America?’ I said, ‘I’d go if you go but I have a cousin out in Brisbane’. So Declan said to ring him. That was in November and in February, we were there. I’d my 21st out there and Declan was just gone 21 that January. We went mad for three years and then we came home,” is how Clive describes their time Down Under.
It didn’t take much prompting for Clive to expand a bit further on their time in Australia.
“We drove each other mad but we got on great. We used to put money into a coffee cup every week and whoever was home from work first put on the spuds. I’d put on his dinner and he’d put on mine. We were stuck together for two years,” he laughed.
“We went out three or four, ok, six nights a week. We bought the same kind of clothes. The two of us even had two blade one haircuts and everyone thought we were brothers. We were about the same build and the two of us were skinny that time,” Kelly added, the laughter ceasing momentarily.
They played football while in Australia but most of Clive’s memories are linked to off-the-field activities.
“We went to a Desperate and Dateless Ball, where 2,500 fellas were matched up with 2,500 women. You put details of your ideal woman into a computer and the computer matched you up. I met my one under a photograph in an Irish pub. She was standing there and I landed over with the kilt. Declan met his bird right beside where I met mine. If one of us had to bolt, we were both gone. We were like Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dee,” he recalls.
Long before Kelly and O’Shea went to Australia, they and their friends appeared unable to stay at home come Saturday night.
“We’d all meet in Daly’s pub in Kilmihil and on to Noel O’Shea’s bus. We’d go from there to Cooraclare, Cree, on to Doonbeg and back to the Atlantic in Kilkee, which is now closed. We’d go in there, spot the women and try to bring some lady for a walk up the beach. After that, we’d go for a bag of chips, hit a few pucks on a couple of lads from town and then go home. Then Sunday, it was over to the Crossroads and talk about what we did the night before,” he reminisced.
Leonard O’Halloran heard about Declan’s accident when his wife got a phone call from Declan’s wife, Helena.
“That Saturday morning, Helena rang and she said that Enda Conway, who was with Declan out in Portugal, was after ringing and said that they’d gone to his apartment and that the guy in reception said he had an accident and was gone to the hospital. That’s how she heard it. She didn’t know how bad he was but 20 minutes later, she rang back and had heard from Enda that she [Helena] had to go out to Portugal,” Leonard said.
Declan underwent an operation on his spine in Portugal and then spent a month in the spinal injuries unit of the Mater Hospital in Dublin. He has been receiving treatment at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire since last December.
“He’s working hard and making good progress,” Leonard revealed. 
Declan Downes says Declan is doing everything he can to deal with his injuries. The most recent medical prognosis indicates he will be wheelchair-bound for the foreseeable future.
“His form is good. He’s very upbeat and very positive. He won’t go for a day out if it’s in the middle of the week in case he misses the rehab. He sees himself as being in a better position than most. He has his bad days, I’m sure, but he does appreciate that compared to what’s around him that he has been fortunate in one sense. I’m not taking away from what happened to him but he’s hugely positive,” Declan Downes stated.
Declan O’Shea played senior football for Kilmihil as recently as last October, while he played minor, U-21 and junior football for Clare.
“He stood out from early on as a good footballer. He played midfield but as he got slower, he went full-back,” Declan joked.
Declan O’Shea played centre-back for the Clare minors in the 1994 Munster minor final defeat to Kerry in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, while he was full-back for Kilmihil when they won the Senior B Championship in 2009. Knee trouble, including a cruciate operation, led to Declan attempting to retire almost every year.
“He was bribed back into it several times. Every year, he was stepping away from it but found it hard to step away fully,” Declan Downes remembers, adding that he is certain his friend will make the best of his situation.
“He said to me last Thursday that his week flies. He’s so busy putting five or six hours a day in with different classes. He’s talking about going looking at cars and maybe modifying a car. That’s the kind of outlook he has. He’s been trying other sports and signing up for everything. He’s hugely positive.”
All three trustees are acutely aware that fundraising these days is very challenging. However, they are hopeful that people who know Declan O’Shea through work, farming or sport will support one of the upcoming fundraisers. The trustees are keen that people will only be targeted once and are trying to ensure the fundraisers will be varied.
“We recognise the environment that’s out there at the moment. We’re all living it. We’re all part of it,” Declan Downes commented.
Clive Kelly is hopeful their fundraising efforts will aid their life-long friend.
“This is a fella coming back to Kilmihil in four or five weeks’ time that needs a bit of support,” is how he summed up the situation. 
Information on upcoming events can be found on www.thedeclanosheatrust.com or on facebook.com/thedeclanosheatrust.