A local legend is something to be
But when you have also been a provincial hero, then you are really in the limelight.
However, here in Fermanagh, in the lovely land of wood and water, we have a local and provincial hero who is the stuff of myth and legend.
The myth part is not his own fault as the fit and feisty 78-year-old P T Treacy has stayed very clear of publicity, yet is still recognized in many quarters as Fermanagh's greatest ever player.
And he still plays five-a-side football in Newtownards.
But he is also equally recognized as one of Ulster's greatest ever forwards and won four Railway Cup medals from 1963 to 1967.
And for one of those he displaced the great James McCartan on the 40.
Meanwhile shrewd judges of Gaelic football like Peter Quinn and Brian McEniff reckon that the Devenish and Fermanagh icon was one of the Province's greatest ever icons.
He was a lean and hardy six feet, could leap like a salmon and score from almost any angle.
And he had the sharp footballing brain of a Sean O'Neill and could read a situation in a heartbeat.
On the field he was an absolute gentleman, but when necessary he could handle himself and one former opponent described PT as hard as whip cord.
At the age 36 P T was playing at full forward for Devenish against Teemore in the 1975 county final and a high ball came into the square.
He knew he might not make it but started to run slightly away from the flight of the ball.
Such was the fear of the Teemore defence and the apprehension of their keeper Peter Quinn, that the ball ended up in the net as they were al sure PT could gain possession in the most unlikeliest of circumstances.
Quinn later described this as a measure of the genius of PT.
But a greater measure of his true quality is that he was an automatic choice on Ulster teams that contained the likes of Sean O'Neill, Paddy Doherty, Tom O'Hare, Patsy O'Hagan, Joe Lennon, the McCartan's (Down) Charlie Gallagher (Cavan) and P J Flood and Sean Ferriter (Donegal).
A few years earlier P T was the main man on the 40 when Fermanagh won their first ever All-Ireland Junior title in 1959.
He would have walked on to the great Down teams of 1960, 1961 and 1968 and was living in Downpatrick for a period and actually trained with that ground- breaking team.
And despite a number of tempting offers, P T stayed with his native Fermanagh.
"I was born in the townland of Gurteen, Garrison one of a family of ten, six boys and four girls".
His great love of GAA came from the voice of the late great Michael O'hEithir, like many of his generation.
His local club was Devenish and his uncle Patsy, Michael Joe O'Brien, Danny McGee and Paddy McGee played for that famous club.
His earliest memories are of the opening of the Devenish GAA field in 1948 when a crowd of 5000 watched Fermanagh play New York when he was just eight years old
But it was when he and elder brother John James went to St Colman's college as boarders in the early 1950s, that his footballing skills were sharpened.
He had good company as the McCartan's and some other Down luminaries, along with his older brother John James Treacy who was an outstanding defender and later coached Fermanagh to the Ulster senior football final in 1982.
"I went to St Colman's in 1950 and my elder brother John and JJ McDermott were there already, and Bernard Gilligan and Dessie Neilan from Garrison were also there, so that made it a bit easier".
"Father Sean Treanor was in charge of the teams in St Colman's and it was all about practice and more practice as well as fitness training.
"And we would play at least twice at the weekend and every day after classes we played football".
PT was on the Fermanagh minor squad for four years and played in 1956, '57 and '58.
Midfield was his natural spot in his earlier years and later played on the '40'.
But it was the Railway Cup that really brought PT to a wider audience.
"I played from 1963 to 1966 and I have four medals. My biggest memory is of 1963 when I hadn't played in the semi-final but James McCartan was dropped and I got his spot at full forward and played the game of my life getting 1-4 and I got 'Sports Star' of the Week in the Sunday Independent.
"I was playing on Greg Hughes of Offaly who was full back for Leinster."
There were a lot of Down men on those famous Ulster teams like Leo Murphy, the McCartan's, and Patsy O'Hagan along with Treacy.
"That had an influence on me and we brought what we learned in Down with us to Fermanagh".
P T's first job was working with the Civil Service in Downpatrick where he got to know the great GAA man Maurice Hayes who found out about the young Treacy.
"I played for Downpatrick for a year and he got me to train with the Down team that won the All-Ireland in 1960".
A year previously a 20-year-odl PT was the lynchpin of that team where Fermanagh beat Antrim in the Ulster Junior Final and Paddy O'Hara was their manager.
Paddy then switched over and managed Fermanagh for the duration at the behest of Tom Fee and John McElholm of Fermanagh.
"We beat Dublin in the semi-final, Kerry in the Home final London in the overall final.
"It was a great victory for Fermanagh but it was a good feeling and a lot of people were celebrating.
"I was never into celebrating things as it just was not in my nature.
'I didn't drink or smoke and that meant nothing to me but you don't get carried away".
As one well known Fermanagh GAA source said:
"P T's magnificence was only surpassed by his modesty".
He played with Devenish from 1960 to 1975 and he scored a penalty in the county final of that year. And he knew he had to hit a good one as former Fermanagh player Fr McQuillan was in goals for Newtownbutler.
He has won five championships and six leagues with Devenish in the 1960s from 1960-1967, including an appearance in an Ulster club final in 1964.
"There was a lot of experience and talented youthful players who were of a similar age and that was a great help".
P T lived in Enniskillen, Omagh and Dungannon and travelled from these locations to play for his beloved Devenish.
He played with Devenish from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s.
P T played for the county from 1956 to 1973, but his career was far from over, when he went back to Belfast.
In 1975 he was back in Belfast and started training with Carryduff along with his brother Eugene and managed to get his place on the senior team and played with them until 1986 when he was almost 50.
He and his family tasted tragedy when his son Brendan was killed in a car crash in 1986, and they had played together, father and son, on the same team for two years.
And he still followed Fermanagh and Devenish avidly over the years.
P T had the misfortune to have his Fermanagh county championship medals stolen when he lived in north Belfast.
"The house was burgled, and they were going out the back door as we were coming in the front door.
"They had ransacked the house and took all the medals, jewellery and other items and this was in the early.
'The Devenish club stepped in and replaced all the stolen medals but I never got the Ulster Railway Cup medals and of the one surviving of those I gave to my mother-in-law.
P T played full forward on the Railway Cup team and it remains a cherished memory.
And he is adamant that it should never have been scrapped.
"At that time it was held on St Patrick's Day in Croke Park before thousands of people.
"I am very sad that this competition has ended.
"I can't understand why as all the players are in favour of it but nobody else it.
"It is always a great honour to represent your province.
"It is very sad and it gave people like me from weaker counties the chance to play at a higher level".
But he is less effusive about the International Rules.
"I have no interest, they should forget about it and try and improve their own game".
When asked about Fermanagh's All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo in 2004, he is adamant that the Erne County should have won.
And he is equally convinced that Fermanagh would have won the drawn Ulster final against Armagh in 2008 if hey had the services of the mercurial Rory Gallagher, who was working as an analyst for the BBC on that occasion.
"I hope Rory Gallagher goes well with the current Fermanagh team but if he had been playing that day we would have won as we missed so many free kicks and if he had been playing he would have pointed every one of them.
"That is very sad too.
"Fermanagh have had some good teams recently and I only hope they all pull together.
"To be honest, I was hugely disappointed that Peter McGrath left Fermanagh, he is one of the most decent people and I know him very well.
"It saddens me that he had to go".
So what does Devenish mean to him?
"That is in my blood and we were very successful and there is a great pride of the native place and am really proud that they won this year's SFL".
But Devenish, Fermanagh and large parts of Co Down will remember the soft -spoken P T Treacy who was one of the Province's greatest ever forwards.
Not too many people know that but journalists like Tony McGee and Denis O'Hara saw him when he was truly invincible.
Different class.
