By Kevin Egan

It’s February of 2016, and for the 30th time in the history of the state, the electorate in Ireland is preparing to vote in a general election. It’s a Sunday afternoon and there are five days left until polling, but, for the majority of people on the streets of Tullamore, the only count that matters is the one on the scoreboard at the end of the local derby clash between Offaly and Laois in Division 1B of the Allianz hurling league. Both counties lost their opening round games against Munster opposition and there’s a strong sense that the winner of this game is set fair to reach a league quarter-final, while the losing county will almost certainly have a tough relegation battle on their hands.

As crowds converge on the gates of O’Connor Park, one prominent election candidate is outside handing out fliers that also contain the team lists for the two counties, so understandably there’s more interest than usual in this particular piece of promotional material.

How many votes were won by this particular tactic is hard to tell, but as soon as this reporter gets inside the ground, it’s plain to see that it’ll cost this candidate some support among local GAA officials, who have seen a drop in demand for the match programme as a result of these fliers.

To a lot of people, that’s what a match programme is – a list of the players and the numbers they’ll be wearing, and once that function has been fulfilled, the rest is mere filler.

However, to a whole other community, getting their hands on the official match programme would be almost as important as the result of the match. The day of the team list on the programme being as reliable as the throw in time and the venue on the front cover might be long gone, but that doesn’t diminish the item’s value as a piece of GAA history in print.

When Covid-19 washed across these shores in March of 2020, life was changed forever for some people, and put on hold for many more. The national leagues were put on hold, the Croke and Hogan Cups went uncontested, and in the middle of all this, an event for GAA collectors all across Ireland also went by the wayside.

Keith Heffernan, a Portlaoise native and Maynooth resident, runs the ‘GAA Programme Collectors’ facebook page, and he had all his ducks in a row in advance of the event that was to be held at the LOETB Centre of Excellence, just beside O’Moore Park.

“After getting a lot of help from Paul Dargan (Laois PRO) and Tom Cleere (Vice Chairperson of Laois GAA) who gave us the room, we were all set to go. We had stands set up, collectors had brought material of every type from all across the country, and the interest was immense.

“It wasn’t to be in the end, but it will happen as soon as possible, I’m determined to make it so.

Like a lot of GAA supporters, Keith didn’t plan on getting into collecting memorabilia, he simply gathered programmes through a lifelong habit of going to games, and soon found his stash accumulating.

“Portlaoise were very successful here in Laois and in Leinster when I was growing up and my grandfather was president of the club. As a family we would have gone to every Laois match and soon you realise you’ve piles of programmes. I started to go through them one day and posted some of the more interesting ones on facebook, and I didn’t realise until then the community that was out there."

Once he became known for collecting programmes, more and more offers and swaps came to him.

“I don’t spend big money, even though you could if you wanted to. You look at some of the items that come up in the Fonsie Mealy auctions and there’s massive money paid, but most of mine comes from swaps, or people clearing out a garage or an attic and rather than just throwing everything out, they’ll drop a message and offer their collection to me. I’d spend a lot on postage all right, and I’m sure if something came up like the 1936 All-Ireland final between Mayo and Laois, I’d probably break the bank for that for personal reasons, but I generally wouldn’t collect All-Ireland finals for cost reasons.

Perhaps due to the strength of his club side growing up, Keith has a huge interest in club provincial championships, as well as underage competitions where he can look back and find some surprising names in different places.

“I love Sigerson programmes, I’ve a few from the 1970’s where you see lads that were in college together that you mightn’t expect, I’ve some lovely programmes from Arrabawn tournaments and Féile competitions, and one of my favourites is the 1964 All-Ireland U-21 football final between Laois and Kerry.

“Every so often you might get offered something from someone, maybe a big game from the 1940’s or 1950’s, and you might say to someone that before you give that away, you should get it valued. People mightn’t realise what they have and I’m not going to take advantage of anyone. This is just something that developed out of interest.

“I had a programme here from an All-Ireland camogie final in the 80’s or early 90’s, and I remember getting a message from a player who was involved. She was living abroad and was asking for a copy, I just sent her the programme because it would mean a lot more to her than it would to me.

Throughout the community, the same ethos is evident. Individual collections may have immense value, but for the owners, the joy is not in the monetary value, but in having the opportunity to share what they have.

On the field, Jim Whelan of Graiguenamanagh was an accomplished hurler in his own right. Leinster U-14, minor and U-21 medals with Kilkenny suggested that some day he might earn a Celtic Cross of his own, but that never turned out to be the case. However, he too began to accumulate a significant stockpile of programmes and other material unbeknownst to himself, to the point that he took the decision to build a shed and turn it into a small GAA museum.

Up until the lockdown, that GAA museum became something of a pilgrimage site for GAA collectors and historians, with a myriad of incredible items packed into the space.

“It was Heritage Week here and I took part in it, opening the shed and bringing in visitors who might be interested. I wasn’t inundated but there was a steady flow of people in and out over the week, and people could come in and stay for hours looking through everything.

A quick look across the room would tell you why. Although Jim’s collection of programmes is remarkable, it doesn’t stop there. Signed jerseys and footballs adorn the place, as do newspaper supplements from around the country.

“Some of the work that local papers do after their teams win All-Irelands is incredible. I’ve some feature supplements here from local papers in Offaly after the 1982 All-Ireland, the Kerryman did some marvellous features on their great teams, and there’s lots more.

Add in the best part of a 1000 GAA books and autobiographies, a selection of posters and pictures, including the 1974 All-Ireland winning Kilkenny team – “the first All-Ireland I was ever at” – and the magic of this place is impossible to ignore for any GAA supporter.

“I was always a collector without realising I was a collector. I used to keep programmes from everything I ever went to, and then when I was getting married, my Mam said I may as well take the boxes of stuff with me.

“I’m in the army so I came back from a tour of duty in the Lebanon and I spent about five thousand on the shed, got it dry lined to the last, and it’s the best money I ever spent.

“One day I had someone call to me and he was looking through stuff, and I had to head away to an underage training session in the club. I told him I’d be back in around an hour and a half, and he said ‘Oh I’ll be long gone by then’. Came back a little under two hours later and there he still was, reading stuff in the chair.

It’s easy to see how. With every All-Ireland hurling final programme going back to 1945, that alone would be enough to fascinate most – but then there are other gems.

Dick Fitzgerald, whose name adorns Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, wrote the book ‘How to Play Gaelic Football’ in 1915, and Jim got that in exchange for a batch of old All-Ireland tickets, while perhaps the jewel in the crown is a Tailteann Games programme from 1924, with Jim estimating that there might only be as few as a half a dozen of those in existence.

“I’ve no idea what any of it is worth, that’s not why I do this. I have a Leinster jersey here, it was worn by Tony Doran in one of the five Railway Cup finals he won between 1971 and 1975, I’m not sure which one.

“There’s another collector down in Wexford and he wanted a hurl that I had, it was a hurl used by Bobby Rackard. He already had a hurl of Billy Rackard’s and he was trying to put together a collection all the brothers. We made the swap and I’m delighted with the jersey, Tony Doran was a player I watched growing up and he’s happy with the hurl, and that’s how this works, that’s what it’s all about."

Back in 2016, Shane Dooley scored 0-12 and Liam Langton fired in a late goal in a 1-17 to 0-15 win for Offaly. The programme held by this Faithful County reporter became that little bit more valuable and a fraction more collectible as soon as Paud O’Dwyer sounded the final whistle, even though as Jim or Keith might say, it’s nothing to do with the monetary value.