Paddy Durcan
In our latest ‘My Club' feature, Mayo senior footballer, Patrick Durcan, tells us all about Castlebar Mitchels GAA club.
By John Harrington
Castlebar Mitchels were founded in 1885 and take their name from John Mitchel, the Young Ireland leader who was banished to Tasmania in 1848 after being found guilty of treason.
It took them just three years to win their first ever county title in 1888, but success was more sporadic afterwards with the next county title coming in 1903 before a 27 year wait for their third in 1930.
They went on to win a three-in-a-row from ’30 to ’32 and then again from 1944 to ’46, but the most successful decade of all was the 1950s when they won seven county titles in what was a golden era for the club.
Their current playing grounds, McHale Park, was officially opened in 1931 and when the Mayo footballers won the county’s first ever All-Ireland five years later the team was backboned by Castlebar Mitchels men like Paddy Quinn, Patsy Flannelly, Tom Burke, Paddy Moclair, Henry Kenny, Josie Munnelly, and Jim ‘Tot’ McGowan.
When Mayo then won back to back All-Ireland SFC titles in 1950 and ’51, four Mitchels men played on both teams – Tommy Byrne, Eamon Mongey, Mick Flanagan, and Peter Solan.
Castlebar Mitchels have also had a long tradition of hurling as well as football in the club. Indeed, in their first 40 years of existence they won more county senior hurling titles (5) than county senior football championships (2).
Hurling remains vibrant in the club - this year Mitchels won the Genfit Mayo Senior Hurling League Final.
But in recent years the footballers have grabbed most headlines after emerging from the doldrums by winning three of the last four Mayo county championships as well as two Connacht titles.
For more information on Castlebar Mitchels, visit their website http://www.castlebarmitchels.com
Paddy Durcan
Q: What are your earliest memories of playing for Castlebar Mitchels?
A: Every saturday morning I would have been down with the U-8s and it all would have kicked off from there.
Q: Would there have been a long history of involvement with the club in your family?
**A: **Yeah, my mother, Mary-Ann, played for Mayo ladies for a good couple of years. There was always a strong connection with the club in the family, I would have a couple of cousins now playing for the Mayo and Donegal minors this year.
Q: Is your dad a Donegal man?
A: No, my dad is from Mayo, I've an uncle from Donegal so the cousins are on that side. And I've a cousin from my dad's side who's also a Mayo minor this year. So there's a strong football tradition in the family.
Q: How you much success at underage level with Mitchels?
A: I suppose it started at minor when we won the minor championship in my last year in the grade and then after that we won two U-21s. We're in a good patch with the seniors now too. So I suppose it all first came to fruition at minor and I've had some good years ever since then.
Q: Castlebar is pretty big town, so presumably the club would have a good pick of players?
**A: **Well, the club hasn't always been that strong. 10 years ago they would have been intermediate, but it's definitely come into a good cycle now in the last couple of years.
The structures are good now in fairness and there's great work going on behind the scenes. We're in as good a position now as we've been in a very long time.
Q: The club won three U-21 county titles in a row from 2010 to 2012 so presumably the senior team is founded on that generation?
**A: **Yeah, that's the backbone of the senior team now. I would have been on the 2012 U-21 team myself.
castlebar mitchels
Q: The club won the Senior County Championship in 2013. Was that your first year playing senior?
**A: **Well I played just one game in 2012 when I was a minor, I played in the county quarter-final. So 2013 was my first real year with the seniors, yeah.
Q: That must have been some experience so to win a county senior title in your first year.
A: Yeah, it was the first time we'd won it in 20 years so it was huge. We've since won three in the last four so we want to keep it going.
Q: What was it like though as a young lad to be part of that 2013 win?
A: Great, I really enjoyed it. There were a couple of us, I have a twin brother as well (James), in our first year so it was just brilliant to be part of it because it was such a huge deal for the club. 20 years was too long really for Castlebar to go without winning a county title really and that win in 2013 was the start of the journey that has brought us to where we are now. It has built massively since then.
Q: I'm sure the older guys on the team were telling you that you didn't appreciate how big a deal 2013 was?
A: Yeah, to be sure they were. One of the lads, Kevin Filan, I'd say he had been playing for the previous 19 years before he finally got that medal in 2013. So I'm sure he wasn't too happy seeing a lad come in at the age of 19 winning it in his first year! Ah no, it was just great.
Q: How big a deal has the recent success been for the town, because football had been in the doldrums for quite a while really?
**A: **It's been huge, absolutely huge. That success in 2013 really laid a foundation that we've been building on ever since and the support has just increased since. The club is in a great position now.
Q: Beating reigning All-Ireland Champions St. Brigid's in the Connacht Championship Final was another huge achievement?
A: Huge, huge. We beat them after extra-time. As you said they were reigning All-Ireland champions and it was up in Hyde Park so we were up against it. But we had belief in ourselves because we had played them in a challenge match earlier that year and while they were a right good side that experience gave us confidence in ourselves that we could go to Hyde Park and beat them.
We had already beaten Corofin in the semi-final before that and we were probably given even less of a chance going into that game so winning it gave us even more confidence. We really didn't doubt ourselves at all going into that Connacht Final.
It was tough, a very close game, but we were always confident we could get over the line.
Paddy Durcan
Q: What was it like playing in an All-Ireland Senior Football Club Final as a teenager?
A: You're in such a bubble you're just trying to focus on the thing. For the town and the supporters it was huge, but it's probably only when it's been and gone you realise how big a deal it was. We've lost two finals now (against St. Vincent's and Ballyboden St Endas) so we just have to try to get back there again now.
Q: Getting to two All-Ireland Finals is some achievement, but how tough was it to lose both of them?
A: Yeah, look, it's disappointing. We fell short on two days. But we have just got to get back there. I definitely want to get back there.
Q: The age profile of the team is good so that gives you a chance?
A: Yeah, it is a young enough team. The core of the team would have been drawn from those U-21 winning sides.
Q: The club scene in Mayo has always been very strong, so three county titles in four years is a fair achievement.
**A: **Yeah, it's very strong, it's very competitive. There are 16 teams there and they're all tough. You have to play six games to get out of Mayo and it is difficult, but we have to just keep going.
Q: Would Breaffy be your biggest rivals?
A: Yeah, I suppose Breaffy and Ballintubber would be the two because they're strong enough at the minute. There would be good competition there at the minute, the clubs in our part of county are doing well right now. The three of us have done pretty well so that adds to the rivalry.
Q: The club has embarked on a three-year development plan...it seems as though Castlebar Mitchels are very well-run?
**A: **Yeah, they're very active in trying to improve the club as a whole and I think it's great. They've been very practive in terms of improving facilities and structures, so hopefully that will continue.
It's a great club, and I've enjoyed so much getting the opportunity to play with such a good club and so many good people. I'm just going to try to keep putting my own best foot forward for the club.
