The path of your life can change in an instant. Paul Bradley\u2019s did.<\/p>\n
Part of Tom Scullion and Jim McKeever\u2019s Derry senior football panel who were preparing to face Tyrone in the summer of \u201986, the Faughanvale man turned sharply during a training game at Greenlough. He had been riding the crest of the wave of top level Gaelic football for over three years when the jarring knee movement saw his body crumple, and his anterior ligament ripped unmercifully apart between two pieces of bone.<\/p>\n
What followed is one of the most heroic, yet largely untold stories in Derry\u2019s GAA circles. It\u2019s not the heroism of the bright lights, the media click, click, click, and the dramatic gesture. Instead, it\u2019s got longevity and an altruistic heart, more akin to the definition espoused by the former tennis great and social activist, Arthur Ashe: \u201cTrue heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley\u2019s path may have been altered on a May evening in 1986, but his destination remained stoically static.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/st-marys-1024×682-e1490265156940.jpg” imgwidth=”800″ caption=”St Mary’s University College, Belfast (2017)” align=”center” captionposition=”right” lightbox=”off”]\n
The ghosts of forty years of Ranch footballers companied Paul Bradley as he sat alone with his thoughts in the old Georgian mansion that was Trench House. It was west Belfast in early 1989 and Bradley’s knee was, not for the first time, in total agony.<\/p>\n
“We had no mobile phones or social media back in those days,” he reflects now, just over twenty-eight years later. “So I was waiting patiently on the rest of the lads coming back to see how the game had finished.”<\/p>\n
One hour earlier Paul Bradley had been playing in ‘the game’. It was the Sigerson Cup quarter-final of 1989, with the trainee teachers of St Mary’s up against University College Galway. Given what he had gone through during the previous three years, to this day, Paul Bradley isn’t quite sure how he had got back to a starting role with the Sigerson panel. But he had. Picked at corner back verses a hotly fancied Jordanstown team in the preliminary round, the young Derry man was again selected in the same position for the Galway game. He recalls being ‘clattered by a brute of a corner forward’ about twenty minutes in. He knew it was the end of an era yet his thoughts sitting there in the dormitory room were of events ongoing and the fate of his team-mates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a very small panel within a college completely dominated by girls,\u201d Bradley recounts of his St Mary\u2019s days. \u201cIt meant that if you lost a couple of players you were down ten or fifteen percent. To do what we did that year was a fantastic achievement, the same as what was achieved this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley is referring of course to the results of the class of 2017, expertly guided by Paddy Tally; recent events which resonated strongly within his own still tightly knit group of men.<\/p>\n
Semi-final victory over Queen’s pitched ‘The Ranch’ against UCC in the final, just two years after they had been admitted into Sigerson football. “Maurice Fitzgerald was the big name for them,” says Bradley. “But we beat them comfortably.” And 3-13 to 1-05 is a comfortable score line in anyone’s language. It had been achieved, like 2017, with a small, tight knit group of players with some outstanding individuals in a David vs Goliath encounter.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jimmckeever2706071.jpg” imgwidth=”300″ caption=”‘Gentleman’ Jim McKeever” align=”right” captionposition=”right” lightbox=”off”]\n
Playing alongside Paul Bradley among the Oakleaf ranks of the Ranchers in \u201989 was Seamus Downey and Danny Quinn. They were joined by Paddy Barton and Conrad McGuigan, who still works \u2018next door\u2019 to Bradley in Trench Road P.S. in Derry, as well as now household names like Jarlath Burns, John Rafferty, Iggy Gallagher and Malachy O\u2019Rourke. They may have been small in number but they were big on talent and even bigger of heart.<\/p>\n
Providing the glue was Jim McKeever, the very definition of the term \u2018class act\u2019. McKeever made a big impact on the young trainee teacher from Faughanvale. “When Jim spoke, everybody listened,\u201d says Bradley. \u201cHe was someone you looked up to. He just commanded respect, for what he had achieved himself as a player but also for the way he carried himself, his diligence and his knowhow.”<\/p>\n
If McKeever had been the footballing authority behind the college\u2019s maiden Sigerson triumph, then another man, according to Bradley was \u2018the driving force\u2019. \u201cPeter Finn, at the time, was a novice in Gaelic football,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was an athletics coach. We were fairly rudderless up until Peter\u2019s arrival. We didn\u2019t have a really recognised coach as such. He had a great head on him, with a great knowledge of how to coach and get guys fit, and more importantly, I suppose, how to motivate lads. He gave us a focus with a sense of camaraderie and commitment, a will to succeed. Jim was the brains behind it but Peter was very much the driving force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Useful attributes for a man who would go on to become Principal of the college itself.<\/p>\n
Having come through his first year at St Mary\u2019s, Paul Bradley\u2019s footballing lifeline hung in the balance. The injury, suffered training with the Derry senior team in May 1986 hadn\u2019t healed and he was unable to take much part in any sport, let alone top flight Gaelic football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t play any in second year,\u201d he reveals. \u201cIt took me a year to fill the gap. It was very hard. In second year at college I had no involvement with the game. I was a bit like a lost soul, probably took to drink like a typical student. In third year I became chairman of the club [at St Mary\u2019s] and that got me involved again.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Finn\u2019s prompting, however, which ultimately convinced Paul Bradley to give it one more shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought \u2018to hell with it, it\u2019s my last year of college. I\u2019m going to give it a go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sigerson_Cup.jpg” imgwidth=”350″ caption=”The Sigerson Cup” align=”left” captionposition=”left” lightbox=”off”]\n
Looking back on his decision he now sees the inevitable ending. He had done the training and competed in the challenge games. There was always a lingering \u2018but\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no great science behind it,\u201d he says of his attempted rehab. \u201cThere was none of the strength and conditioning programmes that you have nowadays. It was basically me doing my own thing. I probably wasn\u2019t building up the right muscles, or building them up enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having gained the number 24 jersey for the \u201989 Sigerson campaign, Bradley had added to his glittering medal collection. He also added a lifetime of social network.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the night of the reception in the guildhall in Derry in 1993,\u201d Bradley recalls fondly. Seamus (Downey) came out and stayed in my house that night. We partied all night that night! And we keep that contact yet. You know in Derry GAA circles, you meet the likes of Danny Quinn at matches. It\u2019s always great to see those fellas again.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 25th<\/sup> anniversary event was held in 2014, but it was an altogether more poignant meeting which took place on 13th<\/sup> August 2011. Cairde Catherine, held at Se\u00e1n Brown Park in Bellaghy, was a charity GAA day in memory of Catherine Quinn, Danny\u2019s wife, who had passed away a few months earlier following a long illness. It\u2019s an occasion Paul Bradley labels \u2018a special day\u2019, with his St Mary\u2019s group taking on a team of \u2018Derry All-Stars\u2019 for charity.<\/p>\n That decision to push one more time, to make his mark within the group had earned Paul Bradley a place in Ranch history. It earned him a Sigerson medal and it earned him lifelong friendships. But as the big Galway corner forward made the telling contact, the same knee ligament had ripped once more. \u201cThe rest is history,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the last game of football I ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n [aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1983-AIF-e1490265282159.jpg” imgwidth=”800″ caption=”All-Ireland Minor Champions 1983″ align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n\n \u2018He didn\u2019t lick it off a stone\u2019 is a uniquely Irish way of explaining a man\u2019s abilities traced back through his lineage. For a country obsessed with connections, reasoning Paul Bradley\u2019s devotion to the GAA doesn\u2019t take a lot of investigation. When John Bradley gifted lands to the St Mary\u2019s club for the playing of Gaelic games prior to the purchase of John McLaughlin Park in 1978, the dye was cast.<\/p>\n However, the push that was needed came from elsewhere. An epicentre for a footballing revolution in the county in the mid-60\u2019s, St Columb\u2019s College gave Paul Bradly the platform to see further. The balance of power may have shifted south to St Pat\u2019s Maghera, but exposure to top level schools football gave Bradley a desire for more.<\/p>\n \u201cTony Furey and Brian Trainor really had faith in me,\u201d he reveals. Furey (from Buncrana) and Trainor, a former Derry senior captain and Doire Colmcille club man \u201cpushed me on into county football at that stage\u201d claims Bradley.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a young fella coming from Faughanvale where there wasn\u2019t much history of playing county football, you really did need someone pushing you on, there to tell you that you\u2019re as good as anyone else, so go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n So he did.<\/p>\n Honoured in the inaugural set of Ulster colleges All-Stars and picked for the Derry minor panel under the tutelage of Eamonn Coleman, Bradley ran a tight ship from full back on a team that blazed its way to All-Ireland glory on September 18, 1983. On the day that Dublin collected 21st<\/sup> Sam Maguire, the Tom Markham Cup came north to Derry for the second time in the county\u2019s history. The game ended: Derry 0-08 Cork 1-03 with the young full back having a ubiquitous role in the game\u2019s only goal, as he explains:<\/p>\n \u201cFor some reason I was supremely confident going into the game (in \u201883). That wouldn\u2019t naturally be the personality I\u2019d have but for some reason I was confident in my own ability and in the team\u2019s ability to come out on top. It was one of those games, particularly in the first half, where any ball that came in, there was no doubting that I wasn\u2019t going to win it.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have as vivid a memory of the second half but what I do remember is pulling my man down and conceding a penalty! There aren\u2019t too many can say they conceded a penalty in an All-Ireland final. But I got away with it thankfully.<\/p>\n \u201cBut \u201983 was brilliant,\u201d exclaims Bradley. \u201cIt was all completely new to me, playing at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1983-Party-e1490266225634.jpg” imgwidth=”250″ align=”left” captionposition=”left” lightbox=”off”]\n Playing alongside players like Damian Cassidy, Dermot McNicholl, Brian Kealy and Johnny McGurk are memories that Bradley still holds dear. His enthusiasm for the time is tangible and seems to pivot on the role of Coleman – a minor winner in 1965 himself – who had reinforced the message of Trainor and Furey in Bradley\u2019s head, as he recalls:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019You are as good as anyone else\u2019, Eamonn always told us. \u201cHe was always driving you on. He never accepted that what you were doing was good enough. He always looked for that extra improvement. He would have found fault with you, but equally praised you for what you did right.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way that we weren\u2019t going to have high targets. It wasn\u2019t just to play matches, to represent the county. Our goal was to win the Ulster championship every year and then go forward into the All-Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were playing for him to a certain extent. You knew that if you didn\u2019t produce your best, or come out on top with your man, then Eamonn would be there telling you that. He was always looking for more, always expecting better.\u201d<\/p>\n And things did get better again. Picked to lead Derry minors in his second year \u2013 a team including Enda Gormley, Danny Quinn and Damian McCusker – Bradley took the Fr. Murray Cup home from Clones as an UIster-winning captain. Filtered through the lens of perspective, defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final didn\u2019t leave a lasting sore, as Bradley reasons:<\/p>\n \u201cThat particular team punched above its weight, but it was Eamonn who got the best out of us. That was the hallmark of his unique skills.\u201d<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n [aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1984-Ulster-Final-e1490265378426.jpg” imgwidth=”800″ caption=”Ulster Minor Winning Captain 1984″ align=”center” captionposition=”left” lightbox=”off”]\n\n With the book snapped shut on his playing career Paul Bradley graduated from St Mary\u2019s and was fortunate to find employment almost immediately. St John\u2019s P.S. in the Creggan area of Derry City would be his base whilst he found his feet in the world again, a world outside of the playing of Gaelic football.<\/p>\n It was Faughanvale\u2019s then senior manager, Se\u00e1n O\u2019Neill, who immediately recognised the opportunity that life\u2019s path had lain down. A mind enriched by the teachings of Coleman, of Finn, of McKeever and Tom Scullion, and of Trainor and Furey, Paul Bradley had amassed a wealth of knowledge of Gaelic football and understood what made successful teams. O\u2019Neill saw his chance and got his man. Drafted in as coach of the Faughanvale senior team, Bradley is quick to acknowledge another influence with close ties to the club at the time:<\/p>\n \u201cWe had great links with Mickey Moran at the time,\u201d says Bradley, \u201cwho obviously went on to do great things himself. Mickey gave us pointers on how to lead teams and how to structure training. We took a lot from him and we did pretty well, all things considered.\u201d<\/p>\n Coaching through the early nineties \u2013 a heady time in Derry football \u2013 Bradley and O\u2019Neill took their team to the first division where they were more than competitive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were competing with the likes of Lavey and Bellaghy who, at that stage, were hitting the mark at All-Ireland level,\u201d states Bradley. \u201cWe finished in the top four of five places in division one and as I recall got within a few points of that Lavey team who went on to win the All-Ireland in \u201991.\u201d<\/p>\n The journey was fun while it lasted but as Bradley knew better than most, nothing lasts forever. Freshness and rejuvenation are the hallmark of any great team, or club, and it was a challenge that the St Mary\u2019s club couldn\u2019t meet at that particular time.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the end of the 1990\u2019s as a senior manager I could see problems arising,\u201d Bradley recalls. \u201cWe dropped down into the second division and then the third. We were leading an increasingly older band of players with very little young players coming through. It was an impossible challenge to keep producing results year in year out with the same group of players. Not only were the players getting older, but the younger players who were coming in just didn\u2019t have the same attitude of appetite that was required in order to make their mark. That was the reason I decided to get involved in underage football.\u201d<\/p>\n Of all the experiences: Croke Park, Clones, Sigerson, Senior Club, you get the strong impression that Paul Bradley is most at home when immersed in developing underage teams along the Lough Foyle shoreline.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve managed at all levels,\u201d says the man who has also played at every level of the game. \u201cI managed everything from our u6s right up to our seniors. It hasn\u2019t been without its trials or its tribulations, and criticisms and everything else that goes with it, but definitely the good outweighs the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n He possesses an immense knowledge of life, of what it takes to leave a mark. It\u2019s a phrase he uses repeatedly: \u2018Leave your mark\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI always remind our coaches of the following: experience is fantastic, but if you haven\u2019t got the passion and the enthusiasm and the competitive will to succeed then you really are going nowhere. Young players these days are very quick to see that if you\u2019re not as interested as they\u2019d like to be, then they won\u2019t be. If you\u2019re enthusiastic and keen and out there for the right reasons, and making it enjoyable, then they\u2019ll stand by you.\u201d<\/p>\n As has now happened in Faughanvale.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015-COVER-JUNIOR-HIGH-RES-20151007-201926217.jpg” imgwidth=”200″ align=”left” captionposition=”left” lightbox=”off”]\n Winners of the Derry JFC in 2015, reaching the Ulster final, the St Mary\u2019s club have done so largely with the players Paul Bradley introduced to the game as primary school pupils, moulding them into adulthood along the way. Over two thirds of the current club senior team on any given day in recent years is 21 or under. The mistakes of the past, not bringing freshness year on year, are no longer in evidence. It\u2019s an impressive transition, framed by the foresight and dedication to make it happen.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to see the bigger picture at underage,\u201d explains Bradley. \u201cSure, you get criticised along the side-line for results at times but I always stress the bigger picture. If we can bring two, three, four lads through the system every year then we\u2019re achieving our goal. If we win a trophy or two along the way, that\u2019ll be brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Derry\u2019s best kept secrets, perhaps by design, Paul Bradley is a hero as defined by Ashe.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m never one to blow my own trumpet,\u201d he explains of his motivations. \u201cMy own family don\u2019t know half of this. I have a cupboard full of medals and cuttings from every match I played in with Derry. I don\u2019t talk about it around the club either, but occasionally people do bring it up to me; that if it weren\u2019t for the injury I could have been playing in \u201993. Who knows? That may or may not be the case. I don\u2019t think you can look on things like that.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me the GAA is about what you put back into it rather than what you get out of it. I played for a short number of years and got a hell of a lot out of it. I have a cupboard here with Ulster, U21 and All-Ireland medals, Sigerson medals. There are guys here in the club who have toiled away for years with only a B championship medal to show for it. From that point of view I\u2019ve a lot to be thankful for too.\u201d<\/p>\n And for the future of his own club within his own county, Bradley has ideas about the next steps:<\/p>\n \u201cI always compare ourselves in Faughanvale to the likes of Lavey, Bellaghy and Dungiven. They\u2019re similarly sized areas.\u201d He refers to role models and talks about figures that keep excellence in GAA culture alive; his beacons of example, pillars of discipline. In his own mind he\u2019s clearly sketching out what makes teams and clubs great. After all, he\u2019s been there, he\u2019s done that.<\/p>\n He explains: \u201cWith Bellaghy you have the Diamonds and Danny Quinn, with Lavey you have the McGurks and the Downeys. At Faughanvale, we have nothing like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Having spent a lifetime preaching his philosophy of the Derry footballer to all his teams, Eamonn Coleman wouldn\u2019t have agreed with the last point.<\/p>\n \u2018You are as good as anyone else\u2019.<\/p>\n Wise words.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/84-Ulster-Captain-1.jpg” imgwidth=”800″ align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The path of your life can change in an instant. Paul Bradley\u2019s did. Part of Tom Scullion and Jim McKeever\u2019s Derry senior football panel who were preparing to face Tyrone in the summer of \u201986, the Faughanvale man turned sharply during a training game at Greenlough. He had been riding the crest of the wave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n