No baby blues for Summerhill midfielder Adam Flanagan
Adam Flanagan of Summerhill celebrates with his partner, Jennifer, and two-week-old daughter, Isla, after the Meath SFC final. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
Adam Flanagan was leaving his home for the trip to Navan and the Meath SFC final last Sunday when baby Isla intervened.
"About 10 to 12, just leaving, and she does one into the nappy!" smiled the big Summerhill midfielder.
Flanagan has done a lot in his time as a GAA player, lining out for Meath in the 2012 All-Ireland minor football final, starting a final round SFC qualifier against Armagh two years later as well as big championship games in 2015, 2018 and 2019.
But changing nappies a couple of hours before such a huge game was a new one for him.
His baby daughter certainly possesses a keen sense of timing. Precisely two weeks earlier, just minutes before Summerhill's county semi-final showdown with holders Dunshaughlin began, she arrived in the world at the National Maternity Hospital on Dublin's Holles Street.
That morning, Flanagan got a nudge from wife Jennifer to alert him to the possibility of a busy afternoon, far away from any football pitch.
"She woke me up saying, 'I have news here, there's definitely something happening'," smiled Flanagan. "So up we went to the hospital. I rang the manager and told him, 'Look, I'm probably not going to make the game if things progress as they are'.
"Fair play to the lads, they dug in against Dunshaughlin. They dug me out of a hole because I felt awful not being there. I remember kind of testing the water with the nurses in there, 'Should I be playing this game? I have a game at four'. But they were like, 'No...'. Ah, I was never going to go anywhere. I wasn't going to miss that."
Summerhill colleagues Adam Flanagan, right, and Adam McDonnell after their Meath SFC final win. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Proud parents Adam and Jennifer made fresh memories on Sunday afternoon after Summerhill's battling 0-16 to 0-13 final defeat of Ratoath, placing Isla in the Keegan Cup for a photo that will inevitably end up on the mantelpiece.
"She started crying the minute we put her in but she settled down then," he said. "Ah it's great, great memories to look back on in years. We have the programme from the semi-final kept, from the day she was born, so we'll show her that, the havoc she caused!"
The distraction and shift in focus leading up to the game clearly worked out well for Flanagan. He was returned to the team after missing the semi-final and, lining out alongside Man of the Match Adam McDonnell, enjoyed a huge game, cleaning up on the breaking ball and fetching brilliantly in the air as Summerhill clinched a ninth title.
"In fairness to Jen, she gave me the spare room for the two nights beforehand, so I slept very well," said Flanagan. "I got eight hours on the Friday night and 10 hours the night before the game, while she was up slaving away. She took one for the team there.
"The first week was rough but Dave Clare (Summerhill manager) was very good on the football side. I didn't train until the Friday. It took my mind off the final and coming into it I was completely relaxed. Win or lose, you know what you have waiting at home for you and it's great."
Pádraig McNulty of Tyrone in action against Shane Gallagher and Adam Flanagan, right, of Meath during a 2018 All-Ireland SFC qualifier between Meath and Tyrone. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Flanagan, an All-Ireland junior football finalist for Meath against Kerry in 2017, was initially a Clonard player when he rose to prominence with county teams but switched to Summerhill in 2022, helping them to claim two of the last three senior titles.
"Killyon is my home club and that's hurling only," he explained. "Growing up, I would have gone to Clonard for football, we would have been successful underage, won a Junior B with Clonard. We were competing in Junior up to semi-final type of thing, lost to Cortown in 2013 or 2014 by a point and they went on to win it and to go intermediate.
"And then we just lost a lot of lads for different reasons; emigrating, injuries, lads not playing. It got to a stage where we weren't fielding in the championship. At that stage, I needed to play a bit of football.
"It wasn't with any ambitions to play with Meath or anything, it was just to get back playing at a decent level. I knew Conor Gillespie from our time playing with Meath, he gave me a text and we just got it sorted in the end.
"He was a big reason why I joined. It was just great to get a chance then to play with him and under him. He's gone in with Meath now, he's an excellent operator. Summerhill has been brilliant, the whole setup is top class."
