Wexford senior hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald, reflecting on some of the golden moments of his career at the EirGrid Official Timing Sponsorship launch. EirGrid, the state-owned company that develops and manages the flow of electricity across Ireland, has been a proud partner of the GAA since 2015.
By Cian O'Connell
Four months of inactivity due to the Covid 19 pandemic provided a stark reminder about how relevant sport is to Irish everyday life.
Davy Fitzgerald has played and managed at all levels of hurling so is completely aware of the difficulties endured for people of every vintage.
The summer spent with Sixmilebridge culminated in another Clare SHC title, while the winter possibilities with Wexford supplies hope too.
Having no matches to watch in the spring and early summer months was testing, but the return of club action brought joy and debate: simply what was craved.
"It did have a big effect," Fitzgerald admits. "I see the effect it had on the everyday person who is just waiting to go to games, who wants to hear about games. It does have an effect.
"The effect it has on our life in general in Ireland is incredible. Sport, GAA is so important.
"And even people at home I meet in Sixmilebridge they come up asking you, 'how do you thinking you'll do at the weekend? I can't wait.
"They see it on Clare TV or whatever the story was. It was something to talk about. It was something to do.
"The importance of sport, the importance of GAA, especially, we have found out all about it, and it is very, very important."
Davy Fitzgerald celebrates following Sixmilebridge's Clare SHC final win last Sunday at Cusack Park.
Valuable lessons were learned with Fitzgerald stressing how vital it is to spend precious moments with family members.
"Do you know one of the big things I will take out of this is to spend more time around my mam or dad if I can," Fitzgerald says.
"I really enjoy going down to mam and dad a lot more. I live a very short distance from them. Spending time with the people that really matter instead of rushing around the place."
Fitzgerald tried to implement small ideas. "Get myself in a bit better health," Fitzgerald adds.
"I have a nice bit of weight loss that I want to try and keep off. I feel way better, more energetic.
"It's spending time with the people that really matter in your life, giving them a bit more time and making sure that you are as healthy as you possibly can be.
"It was massive for me, in them things. Very important. And you know what, I can actually remember one evening, my sister lives right beside my Mam and Dad, just being out at her place and two or three of the neighbours passed up the road.
"We were well spread out, but we were just mad to chat and talk away. We must have spent 20 minutes, half an hour, just talking away. You know what, that had been all lost.
"That was something that we used to do years and years ago and it was actually fun, actually good. You were mad to talk to people that you mightn't have talked to because you were rushing around the place."
