Al O'Donoghue

Al O'Donoghue talks about his involvement in the GAA down through the years. His father's enthusiasm for Gaelic games rubbed off on him and he started to play. Things were basic back then and they didn't have the best of facilities, but things were often rough on the field of play so you needed to be tough in order to survive. Al recalls travelling to support the Cavan team and later travelling to play with various schools and clubs in Meath, Dublin, Galway and Kerry. In Kerry he worked as a teacher, coached youth teams and played with a local club, all the time maintaining his involvement with Cavan GAA. He played with some of the great Kerry players and remembers his time there as if it were yesterday. He later moved back to Cavan and played with the county team. He trained teams at all levels and with varying degrees of success, and also found time to try his hand at refereeing, take up administrative positions and become involved in tutoring coaches. He has experience at all levels of the GAA and his vivid recollections shed light on what it was like to be involved in the Association at a time when things were often much more volatile than they are now.