SOME marvellous memories of the way they were have been recounted in a magnificent book titled: Devenish, A Century In The Making.
And it took one of their own to do them justice as great clubman Sean Treacy spent more than two years of his life compiling a compelling history of the Blues that was launched in Garrison on Saturday night.
The Donegal border club were founded in 1917 and their victory in last year’s Fermanagh SFL final under Ballyshannon native Malachy Cullen (who is Sean’s brother-in-law) will probably go down as their greatest given their small panel.
But this tiny club have always walked tall in the Erne county, winning an impressive 10 county championships and 14 SFL titles in a period from 1960 to 2017.
The won six League titles in-a-row from 1962-1967.
And they won a stunning 12 county titles between league and championship in the period from 1960 to 1968, a record that will probably never be surpassed.
Their greatest ever player, the self-effacing PT Treacy played for Devenish from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s and was still playing club football in Belfast in the 1980s.
But they would have won even more titles in the 1980s and early to mid 90s, but for the fact that many of their stars were forced to emigrate for work during the summer months.
The book recounts how, in 1991, Devenish supplied the senior county full-back line and the senior county full-forward line when they beat Antrim in the Ulster Senior Football Championship.
They were Michael O’Brien, Bart O’Brien, Damian McGarrigle, Mark Gallagher, Brian Carty and Paul Coyle.
And the great Johnny Leonard came on and scored in the second half to leave an unparalleled seven Devenish players on the county team.
The book is packed full of match reports, evocative pictures, but most crucially, frank accounts of club meetings down through the year that give a unique snapshot into how this great club conducted its affairs.
The book was clearly a labour of love for Treacey and his efficient assistant Sean O’Loughlin and is also peppered with anecdotes, colourful stories and some brilliant picture of teams and all of the local legends that have mad this club unique.
But the author, a former Irish News Marketing executive, is a legend in himself, having virtually single-handedly availed of a number of necessary agents of funding which has resulted in some real state of the art facilities in a small rural club.
This 300-page plus book is a great read for any GAA follower but it is also a valuable social history of times gone past.
“This has been a real labour of love for me”, Treacy said.
“In 2017, we celebrated our centenary but that also meant we needed to record our history and the history of all those great people and their families who have made us what we are.
“It is very important for you to know where you come from if you are to know where you are going to.
“The Devenish club was founded in turbulent times but it survived because it had people who loved their native place, who were proud of their native place and never forgot where they are from.
“It is also for our youth who might not know about the great tradition that they are about to inherit.
“It is very important that this great tradition is handed on the next generations to keep the name of Devenish alive in the future.”
