Hall of Fame - John Rooney
Now to our next big award and it's the inductee into the Aodh Ruadh Hall of Fame. I'm going to call on Barry O'Neill to make this prestigious presentation. Some might feel he's a bit young to be going into the Hall of Fame but a bit like Enoch Burke, he always shows up and he's given huge service to our club as player, coach, administrator, fundraiser and much more besides.
He's from the small club of Eyrecourt in East Galway, home to the great Brendan Lynskey and Sean Silke.
Tonight's inductee came to Ballyshannon in 1991 via Pettigowhere he worked for a time. Having served his time as a detective Garda up until retiring in April of 2021 exactly 30 years after first arriving here, he has contributed an incalculable amount to the development of hurling in the area.
His enthusiasm immediately struck a chord with his senior hurling teammates and to those who were giving their time and energy to keep Ballyshannon's long hurling tradition alive.
I think he bagged three goals on his debut against Lisbellaw in the Fermanagh League prompting great relief for management, Billy Finn and John Larkin who realised they finally had landed somebody who knew how to hurl - a beacon of hope on a dark horizon.
As well as playing senior club hurling, he got involved in coaching underage teams and in nurturing young hurling talent. He demonstrated a real talent in this area and did great work to encourage young boys, who might otherwise might not have got involved, to come to his hurling coaching sessions and to become involved with Aodh Ruadh youth teams.
As well as hurling with Aodh Ruadh, he played senior hurling with Donegal and got involved in coaching and managing underage teams at that level too. Indeed, he was very often the only non-Burt man on the Donegal side, that in itself no picnic as assignments go.
He was and is, a live-wire on the hurling scene here and worked well with his late friends Billy Finn, Seamus Grimes, John Larkin, Peter O'Keefe and Pat Butler in the promotion of hurling. He also worked very closely with others in Aodh Ruadh such as Tom Daly, Owen Roe O'Neill, Conal Gallagher and Denis Doherty, who as a group all contributed in a serious way to the hurling effort in Aodh Ruadh and further afield in different ways.
He also recruited many new people to hurling coaching where a great team today continues to work under the leadership of John Larkin junior who now chairs the juvenile hurling committee.
He's known throughout Ulster and the west of Ireland through the local tournaments he has organised in Ballyshannon over the years with trophies dedicated to the memory of various past club stalwarts. He succeeded in bringing teams from the premier hurling clubs from Ulster and Connacht to compete here.
What has to be particularly satisfying for him is to see the skill level locally developed to a point where Aodh Ruadhteams can compete well with clubs from hurling strongholds like Antrim and his own native Galway. All our success on the hurling field is directly attributable to him and the time he's invested in coaching coaches, training team and indeed, playing the game here.
Apart from his love for hurling, or perhaps running parallel to that, is his involvement in so many aspects of community life in Ballyshannon and environs. All five members of his family have worn the Aodh Ruadh jersey on the field while his sons, Senan and Oísín have represented their county with distinction in both hurling and football.
Over the years, he has also given generously to charity as a fundraiser, never more so than in the early months of 2020 when his leadership of a massive virtual walk generated a major positive profile for Aodh Ruadh over a wide area. It also raised many thousands of euro to support people and organisations which had frontline roles in supporting those in need across many sectors, during the worst of the Covid crisis.
A man who always calls a spade a spade and commands the respect of the youngsters and his peers at adult level. Indeed some of our now senior members describe him as a hero to them growing up. He was still hurling until the mid-noughties taking the number 3 or 14 jersey, somewhere that didn't involve too much running.
Married to Eleanor from County Down and Dad to Oísín, Maedbh and Senan who we mentioned. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a huge hand to our Hall of Fame inductee for 2023, the unassuming and ferociously committed, John Rooney.
Last modified: Monday, 10 February 2025 at 6:11pm