IN THE WAKE of the All-Ireland triumph for Armagh, there was the usual connecting of the dots that any champion team receives. The small and big things that went into it. The people involved.
Inevitably, the tragedies to go along with the triumph. And none suffered more than the people of Madden Raparees last winter, when the club secretary Paddy Grimley was killed along with his wife Ciera and their friend Ciara McElvanna as they returned home from Paddy’s 40th birthday celebrations and were caught in a crash on the Gosford Road.
Next month, it will be the year’s anniversary. The couple left three children behind. Ciara McElvanna was the wife of Kevin, a former Madden player and a panel member of the first Armagh team to win the All Ireland in 2002.
It’s a tragedy beyond articulating, but Paddy’s brother, the Armagh midfielder Niall, has inspired everyone with how he deals with it.
Not something that can ever be conquered. No timeline on the grief. But still, you go on.
Grimley’s abilities have been well signposted for many years now. His awesome athleticism brought him International Rules recognition when it was still a going concern and he was just starting at county football.
He didn’t get a single minute of football with Armagh right up until they faced Derry in the group stages. He came in and was dominant, and never looked back.
In the aftermath of the All-Ireland win, an on-field interview was sought, and he responded by saying, “I’ll go see my family [to celebrate] because this isn’t about the medal or the cup for me.
“I’ve been through a lot this past eight-and-a-half months. I lost my brother and there’s not a minute goes by where I don’t think about him.
“That was for him and I just wish he was here to see it. He wouldn’t believe it. Every night I was turning out to train, I was just doing it for him.
“I just wanted to put a smile on his children’s faces because they deserve it. They’re amazing.”
Grimley’s season did not end with that glorious day in late July when he played an astonishing role in delivering Armagh’s second All-Ireland title.
He has kept going with his club Madden Raparees, who are now into only their third senior county semi-final in their 90-year history.
The Grimley name resounds through the club. The late Pat Grimley, who would have been Paddy’s grandfather, was married to Nelly and he was the forerunner of what anyone might term the ‘great clubman’.
All in, he was grandfather to the following players on the present team: Niall, Liam, Conor, Eoin, Shane and Ronan Grimley, and Jamie and Joe Sheridan.
That gives you a bit of a flavour of how small this community is, nestled in between the Monaghan and Goland Roads, with Armagh city to the north east, Keady to the south east, and to the west, Middletown, with whom they would have dogged it out as local rivals for many years.
They face Lurgan’s Clan na Gael in the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh on Saturday [throw-in, 5.30pm].
Thing is, they have been building towards this for so long. After winning the intermediate championship in 2013, their development was hampered by a restructuring of the leagues.
A few years back, they won Division 2A to get up among the big boys through league football.
In 1998, they came from nowhere to reach a county title, but at times the Armagh football championship was like a slow bicycle race, and they were duffed by Crossmaglen Rangers in the final by the Baker’s Dozen margin.
Last year, they reached the semi-final and were put out by Rangers. In the other side of the draw, Clan Na Gael beat Lurgan rivals Clann Eireann.
At the end of last year, Madden landed a coup. Mark Harte and his managerial partner Adrian O’Donnell had finished up a spell managing their club Errigal Ciaran in Tyrone.
Madden were on their case early on. The reports are of a focused pair, massive on squad discipline, but with the honours to back it up.
A decade ago, they won the Fermanagh senior championship – the New York Cup – with Roslea Shamrocks.
They went from there to Pomeroy Plunketts, where Harte’s own grandfather Peter hailed from before he moved to Glencull to be sacristan at the St Malachy’s Church.
They won county and Ulster intermediate titles, but as soon as they did, they knew they would be on the move. They simply could not manage against Errigal Ciaran and so they ended up in Derry’s Ballinderry.
On they went through spells at Down clubs Tullylish and Clonduff, before they landed a big ambition in Errigal and brought them to the Tyrone title in 2022.
When they agreed to take Madden, it was before any of the tragedy that was to unfold. But then Harte in particular is well used to it.
Few would forget that in the immediate aftermath of his sister Michaela’s tragic murder in Mauritius in 2011, Mark went over to represent the family as they repatriated her remains, and continued to go over for subsequent court cases.
His most public comments on the tragedy came in an Irish language documentary screened in 2013 when he spoke candidly about the difficulties of the trial, but stressed his commitment to representing his family.
He said, “Things happen in this life that we don’t understand, that we will never understand. But what choice do we have? Stop everything? Stop enjoying things, stop taking part? That’s not how we are. We’ll get on with it.”
It’s easy to sound trite and difficult not to.
But that attitude is what has sustained and sustains Madden now.
On they go.
