Former Toome’ hurler O’Meara honoured by Tipp in New York

By Peter Gleeson

The ‘Big Apple’ was awash with Greyhounds recently, but thankfully these were not the four-footed kind but the Toomevara Greyhounds who had travelled to New York to celebrate with one of their own who was being honoured by the New York Tipperary GAA Club.

Former Toomevara star, Declan O’Meara, was the guest of honour and he in turn had invited former County and Club chairperson, Donal Shanahan as his special guest.

The party also included Paddy Shanahan, John Grace and outgoing Vice Chairperson Seamus Delaney, who presented a framed collage of photos of Declan and his family, who had been part of Toomevara GAA on and off the field for generations.

Donie presented Declan with a hurley that he originally had loaned to Declan during an underage match in Nenagh one evening and which Declan used to score four points from sideline cuts.

The parish of Toomevara, and in particular the GAA community - including his former playing colleagues - were delighted to see Declan being honoured by the Tipperary GAA community, so richly deserved as it is for the glorious service he gave to the golden era of Toomevara hurling.

REPAIRING HURLEYS

Declan’s father, Paddy, spent many hours repairing hurleys when funds weren’t as readily available as today for new ones.

Declan’s mother, Margaret, washed sets of jerseys when washing machines were a rare luxury. This is the loyalty borne of a true appreciation of the value to the community of one’s local GAA club. Margaret was also a member of the club committee for many years and did Trojan work with the revived camogie club.

His sister, Regina, was also a source of pride for Declan when in due course her camogie skills were recognised by club and county.

Declan’s family, including his eldest brother, Denis, continued to encourage the young star in his hurling career and his brother Michael was a great help and support throughout his career and they played alongside each other on many great days.

Declan was to benefit in the early years from the renewed enthusiasm in the local school and in the club for hurling and the appreciation of the need to develop the inherent skills that all Toome’ lads seem to be born with. This vital support and encouragement was to be critical if success on the playing fields was to come.

In Toomevara National School the club were blessed to have Neil Williams as principal teacher. He was a great influence on the young Declan as he was to so many of the stars of the club for years to come. This nurturing of his skills by Neil was accompanied in due course by the guidance of Joe McGrath when Declan was playing at Under 16 and Minor Grades for the club.

ALL IRELAND DEFEAT

In 1986 he played for North Tippeary Vocational Schools who lost the All Ireland final to Galway. Declan’s success and skill at underage level resulted in him being called up to the County Minor team and captained it in 1988 following in the footsteps of his brother, Michael, who captained the team a year earlier when Declan and Michael played together in the blue and gold. He also lined out with the County Under 21 team.

This group of young Toomevara hurlers were now growing into hurling stars for the club and Declan won three County Senior Medals between 1992 and 1994. In the first of these in 1992 it took a replay against the mighty Thurles Sarsfields to claim the elusive title. This was one of Declan’s proudest moments in his glittering career as his brother Michael was Captain and it was the club’s first Dan Breen title in thirty two years.

To win titles in North Tipperary is hard work as Declan would attest to. Most clubs are strong and he always believed that Lorrha were the hardest team to beat. He remembers great challenges against them. Declan gave many outstanding performances for his native Toomevara in defence where he was very reliable against whatever opposition came his way.

MUNSTER CLUB WIN

The next highlight was in 1993 when that county medal was added to with a first Munster club winners’ medal.

In 1994 Declan’s skill was vital to the club winning the Dan Breen Cup and the O’ Neill Cup (Munster Club title) but sadly the All Ireland title was to elude this great team of men when Sarsfields of Galway won out on the day. He was part of the Toome’ team that won the Under 21 A Hurling Championship in 1990.

Declan had come to the attention of the Tipperary senior management by this time and he was part of the extended Tipperary panel on the Senior Munster Championship winning team of 1993.

He was also a very good rugby player and lined out for Nenagh Ormond RFC from 1983 to 1997. That year, 1997, also saw Declan manage the Toomevara Minor team that won the County title when they defeated Golden Kilfeacle in the final.

NEW YORK

Declan had to earn his living during the week and for eleven years he was working in Green’s Joinery Works in Moneygall. He then spent one year working for Toomevara company Dimensional Construction.

Then the call of the ‘Big Apple’ found him travelling across the Atlantic to the great city of New York. Here his skills saw him as a construction supervisor for Nordic Custom Builders which is owned by Silvermines natives Eamonn Ryan and Joe Grace. In 2005 he met Melissa Fogalstrom and they married two years later and now have two sons, twins Colin and Declan.

The GAA often celebrates our heroes when they have gone to their eternal reward but thanks to Tipperary New York GAA a fitting tribute was made to a hero of more recent times.