HE wasn’t a big talker but when Kieran Sands spoke, the words came right from his heart. It wasn’t what he said, it was how he made them feel and none of the lads who played for him will ever forget that.
A Ballyholland man through-and-through and a Down man to the core, he travelled the county with his club and the country with his county and he left a lasting legacy on his beloved Harps who still mourn his tragic death in 1995 when he was just 33.
On Saturday the Kieran Sands Memorial Tournament will be played for the 25th year at Ballyholland and the band of brothers he took from U12 level all the way through to an historic Down minor championship success in 1991 will gather to remember the man who picked them up, dropped them home, washed their jerseys, fed them, trained them and turned them into winners and life-long friends.
One of those players was Shane Mulholland who went on to star for Down at senior level and is a successful manager himself these days.
“Kieran was football through and through,” Shane explains.
“A big Ballyholland man, a big Down man… He would have gone everywhere, all over Ireland, to watch Down and he would have gone anywhere to watch Ballyholland – any game at any level, he would have been there.
“Once he was connected with managing our team he could have appeared to watch you playing for the Abbey in the middle of Tyrone or wherever it was. You’d look up and see him standing on the bank because he would go anywhere to support any of us. He had an interest in all the players he was working with.”
Ballyholland may not be regarded as one of Down’s premier clubs but they held their own at underage level when Sands and Sean Mulholland took over a talented group of young lads and moulded them into a unit. From U12 to minor level, the Harps won a league or a championship trophy every season.
“That wouldn’t have happened only for Kieran,” says Shane.
“Back in those days his car would have been full of lads. There was never an issue like: ‘Sorry, Shane can’t make it tonight because mummy can’t get him a lift’. Kieran would have lifted everybody. It would have been a tour of the area picking boys up and dropping them home and I think that helped the camaraderie in our group.
“The craic in the car on the way to matches was always great and he was instrumental in that.”
Just outside Newry, Ballyholland has neighbours in Burren and Mayobridge to the south and east so the catchment area for the club isn’t particularly big. However, Kieran was able to cast the net wide and bring in some youngsters who weren’t attached to their local rivals.
“We picked up a few strays here and there,” Shane adds.
“We got a couple of boys from the Warrenpoint Road which is Newry Shamrocks territory and lads from Newry Bosco territory and Corrinshego (just over the county line in Armagh).”
And those lads stayed with the Harps. Youngsters like Cathal Rushe, Kieran Hartigan and Sean O’Hare developed into Down minor and U21 stars and became senior stalwarts as Ballyholland progressed to win the Down Intermediate Championship.
“Kieran went out of his way to get those boys involved,” says Shane.
“If I told him about somebody who was in my class at school he would have went to his house, knocked the door, introduced himself, talked to his parents and asked them if the lad could play for us.
“They would say: ‘If you pick him up and leave him home, that’s alright’. We picked up boys like that and the squad beefed out and we became a really strong team.
“Kieran was always dead straight with us. He told you exactly what he thought of how you were doing and how you were playing! He wouldn’t have been Mr Tactics but he got a lot out of all the fellas.”
Read more:
Club Championship dreams... The contenders for Ulster's intermediate and junior titles
Danny Hughes: The GAA have work to do to make our games better
Findon fired up for all-Lurgan championship opener
Success led to success and there were finals every season. The Harps lads developed on a routine that you won’t find in and coaching manual or nutrition guide: Tea, sandwiches and buns at the Sands house. Whatever was in the pastry worked a treat.
“We all went to Kieran’s mother’s house on the morning of the game,” says Shane.
“His mother Rita and his sisters always baked so there was buns and cakes and apple tarts and all… That was the pre-final routine and we were very lucky that it happened all the way through underage for us. It became a big thing that we would go to the Sands’s house.
“You’re talking maybe 25 lads in there and it was a free-for-all for sandwiches and buns and whatever. Looking back on it now, they were all the things you shouldn’t be eating but it’s what we did and I put it all down to camaraderie.
“Kieran had a knack of making everybody feel part of it and whether you started or whether you were a sub you were in it and, like anything else, when you’re winning it always helps.
“He had a real sense of how to build team spirit, he just seemed to know how to do it and because he was going out of his way for fellas he built this great sense of loyalty.”
Tragically, Kieran Sands died in an accident when he fell while working on a building site on May 23, 1995. Shane recalls how he, like the entire Ballyholland community, was stunned and saddened by the shocking news that 'Nip' was gone. Over 28 years later, you can pick up the tone of that grief in his voice as he explains: “He was a young man in his early 30s and then, bang, he was gone.
“It was a big shock to Ballyholland. I was 19 at the time and he was the first person I knew that died. I remember crying and it was the first time I had experienced crying over someone passing away… For a lot of us it was the same, it had a big impact on us and the club.
“We were all young lads so we never really got a chance to pay him back for what he did for us at underage level. In later years the payback for him might have been what we achieved for Ballyholland.
“The club was a Division Three team when we got to senior and we got up into Division One. “Kieran’s core group of underage players did that but he never lived to see it, he didn’t see any of the intermediate championship wins and it’s always a shame for me that he never got to see what we went on to do. Six or seven of that crew played for Down at minor, U21 or senior level and he would have loved seeing the lads in the red and black as well.”
Where does the time go? A quarter-of-a-century passes in the blink of an eye. Ballyholland named their second pitch Kieran Sands Park and the youth tournament named in his memory has been played annually since 1997.
“This year we’ve made a huge effort to get the entire squad together if they’re in the country,” Shane explained.
“We’re all going to be there on Saturday and I know the family love the fact that we remember Kieran every year with the tournament and that we’re all still involved in the club refereeing, or coaching, or umpiring or whatever it is.
“The bond was always there, it’s very strong and he created that. I think that’s what was special about the man.
“It’s the old adage about coaching kids: They don’t remember what you say but they remember how you made them feel… He just epitomises that for me because I can’t remember one technical or tactical thing that Kieran said to me but I knew that he had my best interests at heart.
“He was out for me, he would have backed me and he would have done anything I had asked him. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the feedback was harsh! He would have told me what he thought whether it was good or bad but it was always well intended.
“No-one ever fell out with Kieran. Ever. No-one said a bad word about him and even now, 28 years’ down the track, we have a WhatsApp group together and we put the message on a couple of weeks ago: ‘Lads, tournament is on, it’s 25 years, are you all going to be there?’ And it was yes-yes-yes-yes-yes… Everybody will be there if they can.
“It’s a lasting testament to the man.”
A GAA man is what he was, as good as any. He'll never die so long as his name is spoken.
