Navan celebrate centenary with historic book launch

RUGBY

Anyone who walked into Navan Rugby Club earlier this month and wasn’t aware of the significance of the occasion and why a large crowd had gathered in the spacious clubhouse would have received a strong clue of what was unfolding from the balloons that fluttered over some of the tables.

On each of the light blue, navy and yellow balloons was a logo that indicated how Navan RFC was celebrating its 100th birthday.

That date was also significant. Back on the 3rd September 1925 eight men gathered to form Navan RFC. The club was up and running.

Handwritten notes miraculously have survived from those early meetings and are reproduced in the book – Navan Rugby Football Club/100 Years: 1925-2025 - which was launched on the big anniversary night.

It is a publication that was compiled over 14 months or so by a committee headed by Catherine Brady (daughter of club legend Dick Brady) who received resounding and widespread praise for her leadership and wisdom in guiding the project from the kick off to the final whistle. She in turn highlighted the tremendous work of the book committee and many others who helped out in ensuring the project became a reality.

Edited by former Meath Chronicle editor Ken Davis the book is a high-quality, impressively-produced body of work, detailing the travails and triumphs of a club that has become an integral part of the local sporting landscape.

As well as informative text, photographs dotted through the pages serve also serve to vividly record events from bygone days.

“It’s such a relief to see the book finally in print having read it online since we started,” observed club President Eddie Lyons who was also on the book committee. “People have been brilliant in rooting out old programmes, memorabilia. My colleagues on the committee also went out interviewing lots of people, former members, players.

“The biggest challenge was trying to keep it to a manageable size because we gathered together so much material.”

The story of Navan RFC is that of successive generations of local people who made it their business to help in one way or another to ensure the club stayed in the game – volunteers, players, coaches, mentors of various kinds, medics as well as benefactors willing to dig deep. Then there were those who did the essential task of washing jerseys back in the day before laundries. There were the people who marked pitches, put up goalposts, cut the grass. Many people, many roles.

Published by Navan RFC and mainly financed by the club’s donors, supporters and backers, the book is a detailed, nostalgic reflection on the sometimes turbulent first century on the road.

Naturally the great days are highlighted and savored. Memorable days such as the 10 victories achieved in the venerable old Provincial Towns’ Cup competition; the promotion to the AIL in 2009, the big time, or the astonishing achievement of the u-20s in claiming the 2017 All-Ireland McMullen Cup, the first Leinster team from outside Dublin to do so.

Yet also chronicled are the barren years, the struggles, the setbacks. There was, for instance, the 1950s. The club had no home; nowhere to call its own. Money was tight. Emigration hit as hard as any crunching tackle. It was a time when the sparkle of silverware was as elusive as a fleet-footed opponent. Only gradually did things get better.

“As the club entered the 1960s, it resembled a nomadic organisation without any of the pillars or structures in place which could nurture growth. Success on the pitch, too, was sporadic and lacked consistency,” the book recounts.

It was then a group of determined club people began to gather funds. Approximately four acres was wisely purchased at Balreask Old, Boylan’s Field on Swan Lane, in 1961 for £600. It was a place they could call home. The years passed, the ground was developed. The club grew, moved on.

One of those people who was involved in the collection of funds to buy the land at Balreask Old was local businessman Paddy Tehan. He was one of those in attendance at the launch.

Many other faces from the club’s past were also correct and present. People such as George Parkinson who came from Cavan and joined Navan in 1964, helping them to win a Towns’ Cup two years later.

There was Mick Aughey who has been involved with the club for an astonishing 56 years “on and off.” He filled many roles over the years including assistant coach and, in later times, the recorder of games for analysis. It was about doing what he could do to help out in whatever way he felt he should. Volunteerism at its best.

He recalled the time when on winter nights, the floodlighting for training at Balreask Old was what could be described as basic. All the illumination on offer was provided by a single bulb. “In the old clubhouse we had a water tower and there was one light that used to hang off that. That was our floodlighting for training.”

There was also in attendance that great stalwart of the club Gerry Williamson – and so many others who gave so much in one way or another.

This was a real gathering of the clan. A birthday bash with meaning. They were joined by a plethora of local politicians with the club’s current chairman, Stephen Mackeral, skilfully filling in as MC for the night, like a out-half orchestrating affairs from behind the scrum.

The significance of the launch was reflected in the fact that Irish Rugby Football Union President Dr John O’Driscoll made it his business to attend.

Someone who played for Ireland and the Lions – and a cousin of Brian O’Driscoll – Dr John spoke of how the modern-day Navan RFC with its fine clubhouse, its thriving youth system, its vibrancy is “a testament to the dedication of generations.”

The modern club, he added, is also a tribute to those volunteers who worked, and continue to toil quietly behind scenes, without fuss. The “unsung heroes” who “establish and maintain high standards.”

Further significance was given to the night by the presence of the President of the Leinster Branch Moira Flahive. She pointed to the astonishing growth of women’s rugby in Navan over the past 25 years; how there are now 90 adult male players and 80 adult female players. “I don’t know of any other club with those kinds of numbers,” she added.

She paid tribute to the female players from the club who went on to represent Ireland at various levels including Marie Louise Reilly who made 54 caps, played in three World Cups and was part of the Irish team that won the Grand Slam in 2013.

Flahive referenced one story from the 100th anniversary book that intrigued her. It related to how the club’s very successful fund-raising dance on St Stephen’s Day 1938 in the pavilion at the Showgrounds (now Pairc Tailteann) ran 35 minutes beyond what the licence had allowed.

The secretary of Navan RFC, founder member, the legendary WM Kirk had to attend court on behalf of the club. The licence was renewed but only under certain conditions including the one which stated “that no sitting-out of couples of opposite sexes be permitted in motor cars, parked in the vicinity of the said premises.”

Another former international Jim Glennon spoke of his very close affinity with Navan and how he played his first Towns’ Cup game with his club at Skerries.

He spoke of the friendship and “affinity” he always found in Balreask Old with games on Sunday afternoons often followed by social events that stretched long into Monday morning, with genuine, lasting friendships the final result.

Ken Davis referenced the tremendous “teamwork” shown by the members of the book committee and the many contributors; their dedication to the cause mirroring, he felt, the sense of shared purpose that powers the club ever onwards.

"Apart from teamwork, there are many other words and phrases that come to mind when talking about Navan RFC," he said. "Passion, commitment, persistence, tenacity, fortitude, not forgetting partying on an epic scale! But the one word that sums up Navan RFC more than most, I think, is pride. Pride in the club, pride in each other, pride in all the achievements over the decades, pride in this clubhouse and grounds, but most of all, pride in the jersey."

He went on to thank the efforts made by the book committee members particularly Catherine Brady "whose remarkable capacity for staying on top of all aspects of this project was something to behold. In all honesty, if anyone deserves the lion’s share of the credit for getting this particular ball over the try-line after what felt at times like 257 phases, it’s Catherine."

Before proceedings for the night were brought to an end, a presentation was made to Catherine Brady of a memorial vase and bunch of flowers.

It was further recognition for her unstinting efforts in overseeing the gathering of a torrent of raw information (along with many photographs) and collating it all into book form.

She, the book committee, sponsors and those self-same contributors, certainly did the Navan RFC some service in recording the club’s first 100 years on the go.

Now it’s onto the next 100.