ALL his playing days, Gary Agnew wore a black Cooper helmet that he’d modified into what almost became his trademark.
Red and white stripes of insulation tape were stuck down the middle and across the two wings, marking the colours of the beloved Lámh Dhearg, whom he represented with such distinction.
A thoroughbred Hannahstown native, Agnew was one of the stars of the St Oliver Plunkett’s primary school team that won their first and only Raffo Cup while he was P7.
Half that team was from Lenadoon and with no natural GAA home to go to, they felt the natural place was Lámh Dhearg, where they could be with their friends.
And so formed a team that would go on to defy the odds in both hurling and football when they won an Antrim minor championship double in 1992.
Agnew did goals for the hurlers and played full-forward for the minor footballers. He returned to nets to make it a treble when the club’s U21 footballers won their championship that year too.
Even though he went on to distinguish himself over almost two brilliant decades with the club, it is the minor hurling final that he is best remembered for.
The upstarts from the city, with no real legacy in hurling, travelled into Casement Park and stunned a Loughgiel side that had beaten them the whole way up from U14.
Agnew was captain that day and his two saves in a four-point win are the stuff of legend.
“We had such a performance in that match and nipped them by four points,” recalls his former team-mate, Paddy Tumelty.
“It wouldn’t have been only for Gary, his two wonder saves. I remember them better than a couple of points I scored myself or Paul Maxwell’s winning goal.
“One of the saves, down low, how he flicked it over the bar – it was the save of the century in Casement Park. They were unreal.”
At the age of 45, Gary Agnew sadly passed away on Friday.
The tragedy felt by those left behind is magnified by the stripping back of the grieving process.
When some of Gary’s former team-mates arrived at the back of the house with flowers on Saturday afternoon, they sat outside the back wall talking in to Jamesy Agnew, sat in the garden.
His friends couldn’t even offer a hug.
Jamesy kept the grounds at the club for years, and in an era where money was tight, he lovingly looked after the sticks by coating them in linseed oil to strengthen them so that parents wouldn’t have to fork out for new ones.
“We can’t even carry Gary to his final place. All we can do is maybe wear the club gear and stand guard over him,” says Tumelty.
“When this Covid blows over, we’ll raise a glass somewhere, we’ll put his picture on the wall and we’ll tell our kids and the young ones we coach about this great big goalkeeper who had a never-say-die attitude, and the heart of a lion.”
Tumelty recalls how he’d step into the showers after a game and you’d almost be able to read the O’Neills brand off the bruises on his body.
“You could see the rim of the ball, where it hit him. He was just so brave. He was the best shot-stopper I ever saw.
“He’ll never be replaced. His spirit will never die, like our wee ’92 team, coming up against these hurling giants from north Antrim and football giants from south Antrim. Big Gary had a huge hand in all three.”
The football team beat an equally fancied St John’s in their decider, where Gary played on the edge of the other square and formed a deadly little-and-large partnership with Cormac Carmichael.
Standing well over six foot, he had “these big broad shoulders and an even broader smile”.
Quiet and good-natured, ‘Garso’ had made his name in Antrim hurling circles very early, having been on Antrim county squads the whole way from U14 through to U21.
Every year on the day of the All-Ireland final, he and his brother Conor could be found in the clubhouse, taking a few pints and soaking in the day.
The pair were close, and spent a lot of time around the stock car races at Nutt’s Corner, which Gary took part in when he was younger.
Alongside his long-term partner Maureen, hurling was his great love. Lámh Dhearg hurlers moved in unchartered circles in the early 2000s, working their way into Division One and the senior championship for the first time in the club’s history.
They brought Cushendall down to Hannahstown for a championship round-robin game one year and made them pay for taking the challenge lightly.
“It’s not the warmest place, it was a foggy night and we had to turn the old rickety floodlights on. The big county men were rested, they expected to give us a hiding, and we ended up beating them by a point.
“Gary Agnew that night, the saves, the puckouts, and using the home advantage and the umpires’ bad eyesight to the best of our ability, we ended up beating them,” laughs Tumelty, one of those Lenadoon boys who came down to play after making friends at primary school.
By day, Gary worked for the AA. His friend and former team-mate Mark McKenna recalled on Facebook coming home late one night in the snow and meeting Gary, who he reckoned had saved the life of a man in his 70s who had been trapped after his car overturned.
‘’Shows what type of person Gary was,” read the post.
The Cooper helmet and the red number one jersey he wore will be draped over his coffin. All his friends can do is line the road and watch him go by.
A candle blown out far too soon.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
