The dream shall never die

The huge turnout at the funeral of Pat Fitzpatrick at St Joseph’s Church in Ennis last Friday reflected the popularity of the Killimer-born businessman, who gave over 40 years of service to the promotion of Gaelic Football in Ennis, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh.

Pat Fitzpatrick loved his politics, be it locally or nationally and that’s why at General Election time he’d regularly decamp to Dublin to canvas for his Killimer cousins Pat Upton and Mary Upton in their Dublin South Central constituency.
You can be sure he helped them win election to Dáil Éireann; by dint of his charm, his smile and most of all by his handshake that brought people into his world.
He brought these same qualities to business on the Tulla Road where he was based since the mid-1970s when establishing Banner Motors with his brother-in-law Noel Glynn, after cutting his teeth in the industry in Ted Sheils’ on the Gort Road from the late 1960s.
And he brought them to sport — in his youth as a county champion in the long jump and high jump events and in Gaelic football through his promotion of the game in Ennis for over 40 years.
Pat, or Fitz as many called him, was a great football man, so much so that where the game is concerned
Teddy Kennedy’s keynote address to the 1980 Democratic Party convention could have been minted with him in mind.
“The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope lives and the dream shall never die.”
That was Fitz when it came to football — it was his mission statement.
He may have been born in Killimer, where his interest and passion for football was nurtured, but it was in Ennis that his footballing footprints could really be seen — in the haul of silverware won by town teams, but it was always about much more than trophies or medals.
It was a feeling and a great grá for the game that his larger-than-life presence helped sustain and cultivate through many football generations.
Fitz was a New Frontiersman for the big ball in the big town — a man in the gap, with the likes of Tony Honan and Tom Glynn in the 1980s when men were needed to fill the gap. Badly needed.
The enthusiasm for the football wing of Éire Óg kickstarted by Pat Brennan in the early 1970s and cultivated by the likes of Michael Howard, Bob Lyne, Denis Horgan, Liam Harvey, Paddy O’Halloran, Miko McNamara and Martin Galvin had waned by the mid-1980s, but it was Fitz who ensured that the game survived and eventually thrived.
After Éire Óg reached the county senior final in 1986, there were times in the years that followed when football could have died, but at AGM after AGM both Pat Fitzpatrick and Tony Honan put their hands up to take charge of adult teams.
Fitz put his hand up because the work went on, the cause endured, the hope lived and the dream never died. He refused to allow it die.
He always talked about 1992 — yes, there was his hope that the Munster SFC title win and the trip to Dublin afterwards could be a catalyst for footballers in town to show greater cause, but far from the crowds of the Gaelic Grounds or Croke Park there was another game he namechecked from that year, a relegation tie Éire Óg played in Coolmeen against Naomh Eoin. Lose and Éire Óg were back to the junior ranks. Things were that bad.
But Éire Óg won that day and soon everything changed. That flame kept flickering by Fitz was then stoked and soon raged. Pat Fitzpatrick and Tony Honan were foundation stones and great men emerged around them. And continue to emerge.
Donie Buckley, Mattie Fennell, John Hickey and Tim Caffrey were in the first wave and later on others like Jarlath O’Halloran, Noel Normoyle, Dave Loughman, Seanie Lyne and James Hanrahan took the baton, as did Mick Frain, Dónal Ó hAiniféin and Maurice Walsh all the way through to the present day with Paul Madden, Shane Daniels, Seanie Buckley, Peter Cosgrove, Tom Russell et al.
It can all be traced back to Fitz and Honan putting their hands up.
After that relegation win in ’92 the Faughs amalgamation was born a few months later and the best of times rolled. Players on that team in Ciaran O’Neill and James Hanrahan had won a Munster senior title in ’92, others like Ollie Baker and Stephen McNamara would go on to win Munster and All-Ireland hurling medals, more like Kieran Lynch, Murrough MacMahon and Dermot Cronin would depart Ennis soon afterwards, but everyone agreed that it was the time of their lives.
It was the football, but also the camaraderie, craic and kinship. Indeed, there have been many memorable days and nights over the past 30 years. Fitz was there for them all.
He was a selector on the Faughs’ Clare SFC winning team in 1994; he was a manager or selector on Éire Óg minor, under 21, junior A and intermediate winning sides; he was a county minor and Under 21 selector; he was a club chairman and Clare County Board delegate and a constant in Éire Óg, because to the last the cause endured.
How proud he was that day in Cusack Park in 1997 when Martin Daly put the ball in the Cork net, because six Éire Óg players saw action in Clare’s first SFC win over Cork since 1941.
How proud he was in 2000 when Éire Óg reached the mountaintop by beating mighty Doonbeg in Cusack Park to claim a first Clare SFC title and prouder still that the star graduate from the minor teams he moulded into county champions with Jarlath O’Halloran and Ted Finn in 1998 and ’99 — his own son Brian — should get the all-important goal in a 1-10 to 0-10 win.
And, in 2006 that pride was even more pronounced when Brian won a second county medal, while his nephews Eoin Glynn and Seán O’Meara being part of the winning team made it a family occasion as much as a football one.
Family, football and business where he held court on the Tulla Road for nearly five decades were Fitz’s life and people were all the better for knowing him.
And, the football was there to the very end. For Fitz, Éire Óg’s Clare SFC triumph of 2021 was as good as anything that went before. A new beginning.
Standing on the shed terrace of Cusack Park for the recent National Football League game against Offaly, there was Fitz — the new football season opening out before him.
“We’ll be stronger,” he said confidently of Éire Óg, “because we have to be”.
“We’ll have Cathal Darcy back,” he continued, “and maybe players like Liam Corry, Shane O’Donnell and Colin Smith as well. It would be great to win another Jack Daly…..”
That was Fitz.
Always looking ahead — with his wife Catherine, children Gráinne and Brian, and grandchildren Éabh and Siún, as he looked forward to them picking up a camán and winning county camogie championships and an All-Ireland like their grandmother Catherine had done. He looked to the future in life, in business and in sport.
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope lives and the dream shall never die.