THE TALE OF the 2024 Footballer of the Year begins, and one day will end with his club in the east side of Galway city – St James’.
But away from ‘The Jimmies’, you can head out west to Connemara, where Paul Conroy’s father Seán and mother Ann grew up, immersed in the Irish language and Gaelic football.
With Connemara not exactly teeming with opportunity, he signed up for the Irish Army as a young man. When he joined the Western Command he went along to Gaelic football training, and was immediately identified as a full-back with something about him.
Soon after, he was winning the Army All-Ireland competition. After the game, Dermot Earley approached a Cadet from the winners to enquire about the rangy young lad at full-back, half-hopeful of a Roscommon connection.
Bring the story on a number of years. Seán is now married to Ann. The two have settled in Renmore on the outskirts of the city.
Two clubs, Renmore and Mervue had been co-existing in each other’s orbits for many years. But when it came to fielding minor teams, they would amalgamate. Eventually, it just seemed like the easy thing to do would be to merge, and so they did in 1994.
Still it took another 13 years before the identity of both clubs would fizzle out and a complete merger occurred from juvenile level up. Mervue’s maroon was blended with the Renmore green and off they went.
By then, Seán Conroy had made the pitch his second home. Summer evenings were whiled away kicking the ball back and forth to his sons Seán and Paul, and daughters Aine and Martina.
Along with Seamus Burke, they put their minds to bedding in the club in the best possible way; bonding through success.
“The two of us started coaching at a very young age and Paul always had this great talent,” Burke says.
That’s where Paul Conroy developed and grew up.
“Going back to when he was young, there’s very little said about his (father) Seán,” Burke says.
“He was a great man and unfortunately, he got cancer and died two years ago. Paul didn’t go to a Gaelscoil or anything, they just spoke Irish at home and he picked it up that way.”
Seán Conroy gave outstanding service to @galway_st. He served as an underage coach and was involved with many successful minor, U21 and senior teams. The club would like to take this opportunity to offer our condolences to the Conroy family.@Galway_GAA@GalwayBeoOnlinepic.twitter.com/DyjhMajm8y
It led to his job teaching Irish and Business at Coláiste Bhaile Chláir in Claregalway. In 2022, he was named as the GAA’s Irish language ambassador at a function in Croke Park.
“He was so skilful,” recalls Burke.
“He was always the main man on our teams, even going back to U12, U14, we won two U16s and he was our leading light. We won two minor titles. He was minor captain for Galway in 2007.”
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That season, Galway beat Sligo and Leitrim in the round robin (in Connacht), before beating Sligo in the semi-final and Roscommon in the final. They took care of Carlow in a quarter-final and Kerry in the semi-final, before journeying to the final when they beat a Derry team containing Chrissy McKaigue by a single point.
With the county, Paul Conroy had Alan Mulholland in charge from the U16 days. They continued their relationship through minors, and immediately after minors he was brought into the senior panel by Liam Sammon.
Mulholland still had him for the U21 (grade with Galway) and from 2011 to 2014, when he was the county senior manager.
“He was always a little bit special. He was always a very good footballer. I think it’s interesting in how he has got better as he ages,” says Mulholland.
“The way the game has evolved has possibly helped him, but then he helps himself too. Twelve years ago the midfielders were going up and down the pitch.
“These days now, I think it suits Paul’s skillset. He gets a bit more time on the ball, he can pick out a pass and he can sit in the pocket and pick off points from 45, 50 metres out.”
Mulholland continues, “It’s interesting. We started off in 2006, ’07, he was our midfielder back in (the) minor age group.
Lifting the All-Ireland minor trophy, 2007. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO
Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO
“And he was always very good with the ball in his hands. We used to coach it with the fellas who might have been very good workers, let’s just say, but we always were working a gameplan whereby we could get the ball into Paul’s hands, back when he was 16, 17 years of age.
“That’s the way we organised a team, got lads who would do the heavy lifting and then Paul would be able to express himself on the creative side of things.”
Some young men feel they have to become this overbearing, broody presence with captaincy. That wasn’t Conroy. He never came down hard on those that didn’t possess the same dedication or drive. But what he did, was show up, train hard and show his quality.
“A few guys around that era mightn’t like it, but he was the best player,” says Mulholland.
“When you have kids that age, there is always a respect for the guy who is the best. And it was easy to pick Paul as captain because he was the best we had and on the ball, he was the most creative, the most skilful.”
He picked up a Connacht title in his first year of senior football, but it wasn’t until 2016 until Galway managed to snaffle the next. They added another in 2018 before achieving the three-in-a-row this year.
Later that year he got tangled up in a collision with Sean O’Shea and broke both his legs in a Super 8’s game against Kerry in Croke Park. He faced 18 months out and at 29, many felt his career may have been over.
Encouragement came from an unlikely source when Everton and Ireland soccer player Seamus Coleman dropped him a message on Instagram and later called him to offer his encouragement. He’s been a closet Toffee ever since.
That December he married Caroline. The two have a son Páidí.
With wife Caroline. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
And still he kept going, through some lean-ish times until recently when they have been thumping down the door of Sam Maguire, getting the briefest of glimpses before it slams shut again.
“There might be something in that; winning something early and the expectation that brings. The notoriety you get and the exposure you get,” says Mulholland.
“And then it’s expected of you to go on, to not only play for Galway, but win an All-Ireland with Galway.
“Maybe that dynamic was there that Paul feels he has to give it everything right to the point where he exhausts every chance of winning an All-Ireland.
“He might have given it up a few years back if we had made a breakthrough. But we have broken through a ceiling now where we weren’t (before). We were getting beaten by Mayo, we weren’t getting to All-Ireland finals or semi-finals, getting to Croke Park was the height of our ambitions.
“Over the last five years he would have realised there is a chance this could happen and he cannot pack it in now.
“A sort of ‘What if they win it without me?’ You wouldn’t want to bail out then!”
With son Páidí at Croke Park. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
There’s no doubt that at 35 now, he has never played better. Over the last three years, he has played more championship games (21) in the six years before.
What does it mean to the club to have the Footballer of the Year as a member?
“Getting Player of the Year was an enormous achievement. He missed out for a few years there with All-Stars, but to get the two (awards) in the one year was unbelievable,” says Seamus Burke.
“It means everything to the club. Paul has put the club on the map anyway, but this year really in particular.”
After winning the Footballer of the Year crown, he has divided his time doing other people favours and the club haven’t been quite able to nail down a date to honour their most famous son. But it’s in the pipeline.
In October, the Milltown club organised a night to honour Noel Tierney, the full-back of the Galway team that won three consecutive All-Ireland titles from 1964-66.
Tierney was named Footballer of the Year the first of those wins. 60 years on, he was pictured at the night with his 1964 Footballer of the Year trophy, alongside Conroy.
Unfortunately for St James’, life has taken Conroy to Peterswell, where he has built a home.
“I can’t see him moving back into Galway now,” rues Burke.
“But he is an amazing man, really. Every fundraiser we do, any chance to see the children around the club, he is there.
“There aren’t words, really (to sum him up). On and off the field.”
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'He was always a little bit special' - The Galway veteran, the Footballer of the Year
THE TALE OF the 2024 Footballer of the Year begins, and one day will end with his club in the east side of Galway city – St James’.
But away from ‘The Jimmies’, you can head out west to Connemara, where Paul Conroy’s father Seán and mother Ann grew up, immersed in the Irish language and Gaelic football.
With Connemara not exactly teeming with opportunity, he signed up for the Irish Army as a young man. When he joined the Western Command he went along to Gaelic football training, and was immediately identified as a full-back with something about him.
Soon after, he was winning the Army All-Ireland competition. After the game, Dermot Earley approached a Cadet from the winners to enquire about the rangy young lad at full-back, half-hopeful of a Roscommon connection.
Bring the story on a number of years. Seán is now married to Ann. The two have settled in Renmore on the outskirts of the city.
Two clubs, Renmore and Mervue had been co-existing in each other’s orbits for many years. But when it came to fielding minor teams, they would amalgamate. Eventually, it just seemed like the easy thing to do would be to merge, and so they did in 1994.
Still it took another 13 years before the identity of both clubs would fizzle out and a complete merger occurred from juvenile level up. Mervue’s maroon was blended with the Renmore green and off they went.
By then, Seán Conroy had made the pitch his second home. Summer evenings were whiled away kicking the ball back and forth to his sons Seán and Paul, and daughters Aine and Martina.
Along with Seamus Burke, they put their minds to bedding in the club in the best possible way; bonding through success.
“The two of us started coaching at a very young age and Paul always had this great talent,” Burke says.
That’s where Paul Conroy developed and grew up.
“Going back to when he was young, there’s very little said about his (father) Seán,” Burke says.
“He was a great man and unfortunately, he got cancer and died two years ago. Paul didn’t go to a Gaelscoil or anything, they just spoke Irish at home and he picked it up that way.”
It led to his job teaching Irish and Business at Coláiste Bhaile Chláir in Claregalway. In 2022, he was named as the GAA’s Irish language ambassador at a function in Croke Park.
“He was so skilful,” recalls Burke.
“He was always the main man on our teams, even going back to U12, U14, we won two U16s and he was our leading light. We won two minor titles. He was minor captain for Galway in 2007.”
That season, Galway beat Sligo and Leitrim in the round robin (in Connacht), before beating Sligo in the semi-final and Roscommon in the final. They took care of Carlow in a quarter-final and Kerry in the semi-final, before journeying to the final when they beat a Derry team containing Chrissy McKaigue by a single point.
With the county, Paul Conroy had Alan Mulholland in charge from the U16 days. They continued their relationship through minors, and immediately after minors he was brought into the senior panel by Liam Sammon.
Mulholland still had him for the U21 (grade with Galway) and from 2011 to 2014, when he was the county senior manager.
“He was always a little bit special. He was always a very good footballer. I think it’s interesting in how he has got better as he ages,” says Mulholland.
“The way the game has evolved has possibly helped him, but then he helps himself too. Twelve years ago the midfielders were going up and down the pitch.
“These days now, I think it suits Paul’s skillset. He gets a bit more time on the ball, he can pick out a pass and he can sit in the pocket and pick off points from 45, 50 metres out.”
Mulholland continues, “It’s interesting. We started off in 2006, ’07, he was our midfielder back in (the) minor age group.
“And he was always very good with the ball in his hands. We used to coach it with the fellas who might have been very good workers, let’s just say, but we always were working a gameplan whereby we could get the ball into Paul’s hands, back when he was 16, 17 years of age.
“That’s the way we organised a team, got lads who would do the heavy lifting and then Paul would be able to express himself on the creative side of things.”
Some young men feel they have to become this overbearing, broody presence with captaincy. That wasn’t Conroy. He never came down hard on those that didn’t possess the same dedication or drive. But what he did, was show up, train hard and show his quality.
“A few guys around that era mightn’t like it, but he was the best player,” says Mulholland.
He picked up a Connacht title in his first year of senior football, but it wasn’t until 2016 until Galway managed to snaffle the next. They added another in 2018 before achieving the three-in-a-row this year.
Later that year he got tangled up in a collision with Sean O’Shea and broke both his legs in a Super 8’s game against Kerry in Croke Park. He faced 18 months out and at 29, many felt his career may have been over.
Encouragement came from an unlikely source when Everton and Ireland soccer player Seamus Coleman dropped him a message on Instagram and later called him to offer his encouragement. He’s been a closet Toffee ever since.
That December he married Caroline. The two have a son Páidí.
And still he kept going, through some lean-ish times until recently when they have been thumping down the door of Sam Maguire, getting the briefest of glimpses before it slams shut again.
“There might be something in that; winning something early and the expectation that brings. The notoriety you get and the exposure you get,” says Mulholland.
“And then it’s expected of you to go on, to not only play for Galway, but win an All-Ireland with Galway.
“Maybe that dynamic was there that Paul feels he has to give it everything right to the point where he exhausts every chance of winning an All-Ireland.
“He might have given it up a few years back if we had made a breakthrough. But we have broken through a ceiling now where we weren’t (before). We were getting beaten by Mayo, we weren’t getting to All-Ireland finals or semi-finals, getting to Croke Park was the height of our ambitions.
“Over the last five years he would have realised there is a chance this could happen and he cannot pack it in now.
“A sort of ‘What if they win it without me?’ You wouldn’t want to bail out then!”
There’s no doubt that at 35 now, he has never played better. Over the last three years, he has played more championship games (21) in the six years before.
What does it mean to the club to have the Footballer of the Year as a member?
“Getting Player of the Year was an enormous achievement. He missed out for a few years there with All-Stars, but to get the two (awards) in the one year was unbelievable,” says Seamus Burke.
“It means everything to the club. Paul has put the club on the map anyway, but this year really in particular.”
After winning the Footballer of the Year crown, he has divided his time doing other people favours and the club haven’t been quite able to nail down a date to honour their most famous son. But it’s in the pipeline.
In October, the Milltown club organised a night to honour Noel Tierney, the full-back of the Galway team that won three consecutive All-Ireland titles from 1964-66.
Tierney was named Footballer of the Year the first of those wins. 60 years on, he was pictured at the night with his 1964 Footballer of the Year trophy, alongside Conroy.
Unfortunately for St James’, life has taken Conroy to Peterswell, where he has built a home.
“I can’t see him moving back into Galway now,” rues Burke.
“But he is an amazing man, really. Every fundraiser we do, any chance to see the children around the club, he is there.
“There aren’t words, really (to sum him up). On and off the field.”
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Footballer of the Year GAA Gaelic Football Paul Conroy