THE Hightown Road in late September, a small crowd of socially distanced supporters watching on from the sidelines. It’s a long way from 80,000 crammed into Croke Park, red and black flags fluttering, from sun-soaked Ulster final days when anticipation rolled down from the top row of the Gerry Arthurs stand and into the stomachs of those walking behind the band.
As a player, Ross Carr reached the very pinnacle of the sport – twice – as Down were crowned kings of Ireland in 1991 and ’94. During a glorious period in Ulster football history, Carr lived out all of his childhood dreams and more.
And yet, walking from the field in north Belfast on Saturday evening, the sun that had illuminated a perfect day preparing to bid a final farewell, a familiar feeling of satisfaction settled in the Hilltown man.
It wasn’t just because Ardoyne Kickham’s had beaten St Comgall’s in the Antrim junior football championship final, though that had been the top priority since their first session at the ‘Crickey’ back in February.
Instead, the real sense of warmth comes from reflections of an experience that was not only completely unexpected, but also served as a welcome reminder of everything he loves about the GAA.
“I’ll be honest, getting involved in football again was the last thing I had any interest in,” said Carr.
“Over the past few years I’ve lost some great friends - Timmy Doyle in 2018, Eamonn Burns last year, and then John Murphy got sick just after Christmas time. My enthusiasm was gone.
“I spoke to the people at the club, then I went and met with the players and sometimes you just get a gut feeling on something. There’s no science involved in it, just a feeling. I remember coming home to Teresa and saying ‘I’ll maybe give this a lash’.
“And what that led to was the most enjoyable and humbling experience I’ve had. It has been incredible.”
From a playing perspective, Carr soon found there was plenty to work with. Different players’ soccer commitments would have to be managed, but the personnel was in place to help realise their ambitions.
Off the field, the pride of place, gra for the game and the dedication of all those involved made an immediate and unshakeable impression.
“You’re going down into the city, and they are pretty quick with their lips,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s black and white, there’s no grey whatsoever, but I couldn’t get over how close-kit they were, and just how proud they were in where they come from.
“If you take Philip McTaggart, the chairperson, for example. Philip set up PIPS [Public Initiative for Prevention of Suicide] as a result of losing his own son – just imagine that being your legacy, never mind anything else. In the depths of personal devastation, you’re thinking of others.
“Joe McNeill plays for Crumlin Star, he’s been with Cliftonville and other Irish League teams. He’s head of Ardoyne youth club which takes in people aged between five and 25 six nights a week.
“Joe’s brother Aidan is involved with the WAVE trauma centre, their other brother Ciaran is in a community centre in Ligoniel, Conor Carter and Mick Mills teach within the community… it’s like a country area in the city, if that makes sense.”
Yet, despite those similarities, in so many ways it was also a world apart from the Clonduff club where Carr made his name.
There were challenges in north Belfast he hadn’t come across before but, crucially, there were also solutions.
“I had no expectations, because you can only have expectations based on experience. I had nothing, so I went into it with my eyes completely open to whatever might happen.
“It’s a community that has had incredible challenges over the years and now they face incredible social challenges. The suicide rate among young people in north Belfast is shocking, and then you have normal issues like health, housing, education.
“The pandemic probably helped us a wee bit because it meant we were left with such a short season and - while I don’t want to make little of the current situation - it is also something that has been used in the political domain, in the media and in political circles to take the emphasis off issues that need addressed.
“Historical issues like mental health, depression, suicide, drink, drugs, housing, education – issues that have existed for a number of years and that continue to exist, on top of this pandemic.
And yet, through all of that, what I have found is a community whose default position is incredible resilience, and a determination not to be beaten.”
How the club reacted during the pandemic, immediately jumping to the aid of its community, spoke volumes of those leading from the front in Ardoyne. And once lockdown was lifted and clubs across the country were given the green light for a return to action, they soon followed suit on the field.
Drawn in Group Two of the junior championship, the initial target was four games in four weeks. Come through that, and another three weeks could bring them back to the final – almost a year to the day since a devastating defeat to St Patrick’s, Lisburn.
Their motivation was ready-made; the doubters didn’t stand a chance.
“I was asking fellas to train on a Wednesday night and a Sunday morning at 9am. People laughed at me and said ‘you’ll not get them boys out of bed at nine o’clock’. They were proved wrong.
“We have a couple of fellas who are separated from their partners, or who had kids when they were younger. They maybe only see their kids on a Wednesday night or a Sunday, and yet they turned up to training and took their kids with them, instead of using that as a reason not to train.
“That, to me, is f**king awesome. I was blown away by that. He’s not playing for a Cargin, or a Kilcoo, or a Slaughtneil – he was playing for a team that doesn’t win, but that’s how much he wanted to play.
“Really, the whole thing brought home to me how important the GAA is across the board. If you look at what the club did for their community during the pandemic in terms of foodbanks, food deliveries… they’re just an awesome crowd.”
The commitment shown saw Ardoyne top Group Two before beating Ballycastle to advance to Saturday’s decider at the home of St Enda’s.
Despite comprehensively defeating St Comgall’s earlier in the championship, there was little to choose between the sides when they went head to head on Saturday, late insurance scores from Joe McNeill and Cormac Mullan eventually seeing the Kickham’s across the line.
“Probably on the back of last year, and also with the passing of Jimmy McLaughlin who was a big man at the club, the boys felt that shouldn’t be the ending for them.
“Yet while Saturday was a great achievement for them, and I’m delighted that they won, when I saw the commitment they made over that period of time, they got what they deserved. Pure and simple.
“They didn’t steal it, they didn’t just turn up and get lucky. They put in the work and it paid off.”
They won’t forget the celebrations, or 2020 as a whole, in a hurry – and the same goes for their manager as, despite the haul of All-Ireland and Ulster medals, the raft of personal awards, this year has been an enjoyable as any Carr can remember.
“It means as much to me to be involved with Ardoyne this year as it does to be involved with any team I’ve been with – probably because it was so unexpected and so unplanned.
“I’m not saying it was better than winning All-Irelands or winning club championships, but it’s at a different stage in your life and you have more perspective.
“Maybe it was after Timmy, Eamonn and John, then in the last few years you lose your parents… there’s a whole lot of things that you don’t think of when you’re growing up, but as you get older you probably get more emotional.
“But there hasn’t been one day where I wasn’t in better form heading down the road than I had been heading up. They were just class.”
