‘KIND of a big deal’ was the typically irreverent way the late Aaron Devlin described himself on Twitter.
Those immortal words are now emblazoned on the sleeve of a slick new GAA jersey as a way of celebrating Aaron’s life and supporting the Meningitis Now charity.
In July, Aaron (23), one of the most precocious talents in Ulster football, was struck down with an aggressive strain of the disease and tragically died six days later.
On Friday morning, members of the Devlin family officially launched the new jersey at the Ballinderry Shamrocks club.
Matthew Nelson, a friend of Aaron’s from school, floated the idea of designing a commemorative jersey to brothers Ronan and Cóilín Devlin. After “15 drafts”, the Devlins are delighted with the finished article.
“There is the ‘Kind of a big deal’ on the sleeve,” explained Cóilín.
“In a few words, it encapsulates who Aaron was and what he was. Anyone who did know him will laugh at the statement because they knew his personality.”
Cóilín added: “The number 23 on the jersey was the age he was when he passed away and it was also poignant, because in one of the photographs going around at the time, was Aaron wearing the number 23 jersey after we won the Ulster final.
“It all seemed to fit. So we decided to run with the number 23 on the jersey rather than his favourite 10.”
The jersey went on sale on Thursday night and Cóilín says he's astounded at the demand.
“As far as orders are concerned, we went ‘live’ at 10 o’clock last night [Thursday] and we checked again this morning and there are already over 1,000 ‘likes’ on it. The way it has caught on, we could end up raising a sizeable amount of money for the charity, which is great because, from the outset, we just wanted the jersey out there and whether there were 100 people wearing it, it didn’t matter.
“But the more people that wear the jersey, the more money for the charity. It’s great for Aaron too because he would liked to have seen a couple of thousand people running around with a jersey with his name on it!”
Becoming involved in the design and launch of the jersey, Cóilín says, has helped him deal with the loss of his younger brother.
“It’s not a very happy time, but it’s all the wee positives you draw out of it actually gives you a lift, to be quite honest," he said.
“Even going back to the day of his funeral and walking out of the chapel to see the crowd that was there, gives you a real positive lift. It shows the effect that he had. He died young and he will always be remembered for the way he looked at that age.”
On behalf of his family, Cóilín expressed their heartfelt gratitude for the support they’ve received, particularly from the GAA community, in coming to terms with Aaron’s sudden death.
“There’s a lot of people out there who I’ve had this discussion with over the years; people who aren’t quite attached to the GAA,” he explained.
“They see you going to training three, four, five nights a week and they think you’re not wise. And you try to describe to them what it is that you’re doing and why you’re doing it – you find it hard to put it into words – but they can’t comprehend it and sometimes you can’t comprehend it yourself.
“There’s been manys a good times and manys a bad times, but when it comes to a scenario like this and what we’ve experienced first hand, the way the whole GAA community, including overseas, says a lot about the GAA.
"You’ll be out watching matches and you’ll give off about the GAA, the way football is played and the bickering from day to day… But you realise it runs a hell of a lot deeper than that. It’s definitely a damn good thing to be part of.”
Team-mates on the Ballinderry senior team for the last number of years, Cóilín (31) explained how he copes with life without his younger brother.
“It’s hard to really comprehend what's happened. Everybody reacts differently. We’ll never get over it, we’ll never get past it," he added.
“For me, you just keep yourself busy during the day and try and take as much good out of it as possible. I still tend to talk about Aaron as if he’s still about, cracking jibes at him as I would have done.”
A few days after the funeral, Cóilín and Ronan returned to training with their club and, although they sorely wanted to win this season’s county title for him, they fell at the semi-final stages.
“It was good to get back out on the field. It gave me a focus, a target. But it hit all the players hard. When we went out to train on the Wednesday after the funeral, Ronan and me knew a lot of the players wouldn’t know what to do or how to react," he said.
“The players around Aaron’s age were probably a bit lost because he would have been the leader of that age group. It was a strange atmosphere. So we tried to say a few words before training to tell the players to keep their heads up because that’s what Aaron would have wanted.
“As far as the [Championship] games went, it didn’t go great. We just didn’t perform that well in any of the games, apart from the Lavey game. In the other games, we were lacking something. What that was, I don’t know. Maybe everyone was trying too hard. It was a strange feeling after we lost in the semi-final. It was more sombre. It wasn’t massive disappointment, there was no great anger. It just didn’t happen for us. But we realised losing a football match wasn’t that important.”
At Friday’s jersey launch were founding members of Meningitis Now, Steven and Gloria Dayman. Thirty-three years ago, the couple lost their 14-month-old boy, Spencer, to meningitis.
“Back then, there were no charities, no help-lines,” said Steven.
“We had a haulage business then and we were doing quite well for ourselves. So at a stroke, it completely changed our lives and, from then on, we’ve been doing what we can to create a better understanding of the disease.
“Back in those days, the health experts told us we wouldn’t see a vaccine in our life-time. We’ve got four vaccines in the children’s immunisation programme now. There are still lots to do and there are so many different strains. But in 30 years, we’ve made a significant contribution.”
He added: “It’s really families like Aaron’s who are the driving force behind our activities and campaigning for more awareness around meningitis. This is our second time here and I think Aaron was an inspiration to any young person. One of the ways of coping with a tragedy like this is to do something positive.”
Aaron Devlin's commemorative jersey can be purchased on the Meningitis Now website via meningitis-now.myshopify.com or donations can be made via www.justgiving.com/AaronDevlin. Orders can be made at the Ballinderry club on Saturday between 10am and 12 noon.
