A STRANGER in a strange land, Naoise O Baoill felt like he’d been plucked from home and marooned on the other side of the world when he arrived in Donegal in the winter of 2009.
Sydney had been scorching hot but Gweedore, a shade over 10,000 miles north, was cold, damp and horrible.
And if the climate was harsh the culture was a mystery.
He didn’t have a word of the language and the game they all played – Gaelic Football – made no sense to him.
Fast forward nine years and Naoise, now 21, has lined out for the Donegal minors and he could do this interview about Sunday’s Ulster club final against Scotstown in Irish (but I couldn’t).
“It’s been a crazy journey,” he says with a laugh.
Naoise’s life has been full of twists and turns.
His elder brother and sister were both born in Japan (his mother is from the island of Kyushu) but his dad, a Gweedore native, wanted one of his children to be born in Ireland. Naoise was the one.
He came kicking and screaming into this world in Letterkenny University Hospital but didn’t hang around long. A few months later, the family moved back to Japan and a few months after that his dad was offered a job in Australia with Commonwealth Bank.
Sydney was home for the next 11 years and then the opportunity arose for the O Baoills to move back to dear old Donegal. The memories of his early days in Gweedore will never leave him.
“It was a culture shock,” he says.
“Especially the climate, I was used to so much heat. I remember at Christmas in Australia we’d go to the beach and have fun there.
“I remember my first training session with Gaoth Dobhair… I mean, it was freezing.
“It was pissing rain – I’d never seen rain like it in my life – and it was freezing, it was just a horrible experience. I didn’t want to go back.”
Moving to Ireland is one thing, moving to the heart of the Donegal Gaelteacht is another. Even when people spoke in English it was hard to get a handle on what they were saying but when they spoke their native tongue - Dia dhuit Naoise - the little lad with the oriental looks and the Australian accent just did not have a notion.
“The language was very hard to get used to,” he says.
“I speak fluent Irish now. Me and dad speak it at home, but when I first came I didn’t have a word.
“Dad didn’t move at the same time as me and mum and my brother and sister, he had to finish work in Australia, so I used to ring him to get him to help me with my Irish homework because I literally didn’t have a clue what was going on.
“You’re on the other side of the world… stranded (laughs) and you just have to get on with it.”
Then there was the football. Growing up in Gweedore the club is where it’s at and if you want to make friends and be a part of the scene, you need to get in there with the rest of them. That’s what he did but it took time.
“I knew nothing at all about it,” he says.
“I played soccer and did athletics in Australia and my brother played a lot of Aussie Rules
“Dad brought us to a GAA camp in Sydney when I was 9 or 10 but when I moved here I hadn’t a clue about anything.
“I couldn’t play for a while, I used to just sit on the bench. I’d say it took me two years until I actually felt part of it.”
Luckily he had an ally in the camp in his cousin Daire O Baoill who is the same age. Daire took him under his wing and they’re more like brothers than cousins now. Many of the team-mates he met in his early days are now close friends.
“I’ve known the lads since I came here, they were the first friends I made,” he says.
“At the first training, Tom Beag Gillespie (the coach) introduced me to the boys and we became best friends from there. I knew I was in a good place.”
Astute mentor Gillespie quickly spotted something in the new recruit; a talent and a competitive energy that he has nurtured since.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, he got the best out of me and I took off from there,” says Naoise.
“It was just training, Tom just showed me what to do. I didn’t know the rules or anything but he knew my strengths and he helped me build on them. I wouldn’t be where I am without him, he is the main guy in Gweedore for us – that whole U21 team would see him as our coach, our manager because he put a lot of time into us.”
Gillespie moulded an exceptional group of young players into a streamlined footballing force and Gaoth Dobhair rose through the ranks in Donegal and went on to win the Ulster U21 title last year.
“When we were younger there was never a kick pass involved in the game,” Naoise explains.
“We used to run the ball every time because we had serious pace with Cian Mulligan, me, Daire, Kieran Gillespie, Niall Friel...
“Tom Beag used to bring us down, there’d be no footballs and he’d just run us, run us into the ground so we’re used to it. Why change it now when it’s successful? We won so many trophies at underage because of it, so why change it now?”
Nine players from that side started the Ulster Senior Championship semi-final win over Crossmaglen in Omagh a fortnight ago and Gaoth Dobhair’s well-rehearsed running game ripped the Armagh side’s defence to ribbons.
Darkness had fallen before the last of the players left the on-pitch celebrations to return to a dressingroom that was packed with smiling faces and laughter. But that wasn’t always the way with Gaoth Dobhair.
“I was there when we got absolutely hammered by Glenties,” Naoise recalled.
“It took time for us to really adapt to senior ball. At the start it was a really toxic environment to play football in, boys were fighting and people didn’t really get along. They were talking behind each other’s backs and the senior boys mightn’t pass the ball to us in games or even in training.
“There was a big divide but now they have accepted us because they know our potential and they appreciate the younger boys more than ever. We’ve become a unit.”
Now young players like Michael Carroll, Niall Friel and Cian Mulligan, all All-Ireland minor winners with Donegal, have slotted in alongside experienced stars like Neil and Eamonn McGee, Kevin Cassidy and Odhran MacNaillas who has been a Rolls Royce in midfield this season.
“I just can’t get over Odhran, he’s the most talented footballer I’ve ever seen,” says Naoise.
“He’s so naturally gifted, he’s unreal and Kevin Cassidy this year has been in the form of his life.
“The McGees are two headers, they’re good craic. Neil is a leader in the group so we all listen to him and there is a calm side to him in the way he gets on with the lads. People maybe don’t see that but it’s there.
“Me and Eamonn have a strong bond, we get on really well, we have the same interests and he is good to talk to. If I was in a scrap I’d definitely want Eamonn in my corner.”
Eamonn McGee – an All-Ireland winner with Donegal in 2012 – is six-foot plenty and well able to handle himself on the field. At first glance you might not say the same for Naoise.
“I’m 5’4” or 5’5”,” he estimates.
“I’ve never measured myself but sure, if I did, I’d still be small anyway.
“I don’t see it as a problem if I can be an asset to the team, I’ll be that and I have no fear.”
His fearless nature has not gone unnoticed.
“He is so small and you look him and think: ‘This man’s not going to last, he’s going to come up against some brute who’s going to clean him out of it’,” said McGee.
“But he has been a big player for us.”
Naoise adds: “Oh yeah, boys have tried to hit me but I think I just get away from them too quickly.
“I think they know that the older boys have my back as well so they’re not going to do anything stupid.
“I don’t think anyone would want the McGees up in their face.”
A fortnight ago against Crossmaglen, Naoise covered acres of the Healy Park turf, linking the play, tackling back, breaking forward in support of the ball… It was a tireless display that was typical of the side and his cousin Daire bagged a first half hat-trick to kill off the Armagh champions.
“We knew we had the players and we had the quality,” he said.
“We knew we had to stick with the gameplan and we know that if we work well and we play well there’s no team that is going to stop us.
“It was an Ulster semi-final, it was further than the club has ever been so there were nerves and what-ifs but we looked after ourselves and played to the gameplan.
“Daire getting a hat-trick was pretty nuts as well and winning that game reassured us that we could do it
“But we know Scotstown are going to be a strong unit, an absolutely quality team.
“We have to prepare for what’s coming and do our best to beat them and take them head-on.”
O Baoill is studying Bio-Medical Science at Maynooth University and spends his weekends working in Teach Mhici, one of the pubs in Gweedore. As men and women sup their drinks, all the chat is about the football these days.
“I don’t know where you would get this kind of family feeling,” he says.
“Everyone puts their heart and soul into it, the parish is one big family just striving for the same thing.
“This year it has become so big – even when I’m working the locals are always chatting about the football. It has completely taken over!
“After a few years of bad football and 12 years without winning a title this is the year when it has completely turned around. There is a buzz in Gweedore and we are happy that we’ve given that to them.
“It’s great to be a part of it.”
Good luck. Adh Mor. ????.
