C'mon Athboy in Green
This Christmas Jamie McGrath might take some time to reflect on a remarkable year for him.
A year when he lined up against Ronaldo at a packed Aviva Stadium earning his sixth international cap; reality meeting the dream he cherished as a youngster; the deam that he would grace the big stages as a professional football.
Never stop dreaming because dreams DO come true." So said teen idol Justin Bieber and it's surely fair to say dreams have come through for the Canadian singer who at 27 is already one of the best selling music artists of all time.
Jamie McGrath is a few years younger than Mr Bieber yet he knows too something of how childhood dreams can morph into reality.
Back in June the Meath Chronicle decamped out to Athboy to interview McGrath - and during a very pleasant hour or two - blanketed in the warmth of hospitality extended by family members including Jamie's mother Brenda and father Kevin - we got a sense of how all-too-brittle youthful aspirations could be transformed into tangible reality.
McGrath had been called up to the Irish senior squad for the first time for end-of-season friendlies against Andorra and Hungary. The call up ensured that the following day, when the Chronicle visited, there was a stream of visitors to the McGrath house, with locals wanting to extend their congratulations. The phone had also buzzed constantly. "It's unbelievable," said Brenda.
During the course of a conversation with family members Jamie's aunt, Emma Jane, produced a book he had as a child. It's called: 'When I Grow Up I'm Going to Play for the Republic of Ireland.' On the front was a drawing of a footballer in his Ireland jersey. And here Jamie was, years later, about to step into Disneyland.
Sure enough Jamie went on to make his senior debut against Andorra, becoming, only the second Meath man to be capped at senior level by the Republic of Ireland (after Darragh Lenihan from Dunboyne in 2016). Now he has six caps to his name including two gained in recent months against Ronaldo's Portugal.
Yet even before he stepped onto the big stage that is international football, McGrath had already achieved one dream - that of becoming a professional footballer. "It's probably the best job in the world. As a kid you always wanted to become a professional footballer, I did anyway," he said. "You have to feel that sense of privilege, feel you are lucky because everyone is the schoolyard wanted to be a footballer."
Now McGrath has gone beyond merely earning his wages from the game. Now he is an established international. It has has been quite a journey for the young man; a journey that started in earnest turning out first for the local club before venturing on to ever greater heights.
There were spells with Cherry Orchard and UCD before tasting life as a pro with St Patrick's Athletic and Dundalk. He enjoyed tremendous success at Oriel Park when Stephen Kenny was the gaffer. League and cup titles were garnered, golden nuggets of experience picked up on the domestic and European fronts. All along the way, you suspect, McGrath was driven by that dream to make his mark in the game. Driven. Focused.
Then the call came from Scotland. St Mirren wanted to sign him. Some years before he had been offered a chance to go to Peterborough Utd. It was an opportunity of sorts but his parents wisely wanted him to gain an education. He subsequently went on to earn a business degree in Maynooth. He kept working on his football career and by the start of 2020 the chance was there to savour life in Scotland.
Every move by a professional footballer from one club to another contains an innate risk. McGrath's decision to join the Buddies has proved a success. Proof of that can be seen in the way McGrath was nominated St Mirren's 'Player of the Season' by supporters at the end of the 2020/'21 campaign.
Not that it has been all sunshine and light. The Scottish Premiership is a hard, uncompromising place to earn a crust. It requires braveheart resilience and an inherent confidence to go to places like Ibrox and Parkhead and perform.
Other places such as Aberdeen or Dundee on a cold, wet December night are no places for the faint-hearted. The locals are not into warm-hearted demonstrations of Highland hospitality once the game is underway.
In that interview with the Meath Chronicle back in June, the young Athboy man talked of how, during a game against Celtic, the then Hoops captain, Scott Brown, kept talking to him. And it wasn't all soothing words of encouragement.
"He was in my ear a good bit. I tackled one of their players late and he said he wasn't letting me away with it, he was going to do me later on in the game. You could tell he is a born winner, he wants to do win." Some time later McGrath was to receive a good luck message from none other than the bould Scott Brown.
Christmas can be a busy time for footballers in England and Scotland. The flurry of games usually played around that time ensures players have to step away from the gorging and the drinking normally associated with the festive season.
Not that's a big issue for McGrath. He'll have a few pints back home in the summer with his dad but during the season he rarely if ever touches the stuff.
He's also careful what he eats - and when. He'll consume meat during the week but not a day or two before a game. Instead he'll opt for quorn mince or chicken.
Over this Christmas he's very unlikely to let much pudding and brandy butter cross his lips. A professional football means just that, being professional.
Life as a full-time pro can be demanding and pain doesn't always arrive with a defeat. In October McGrath picked up a painful hip injury against Rangers. Now he's back. Back 'living the dream,' a term that carries a certain humorous quality when uttered in casual conversation. In Jamie McGrath's case it's true.