Interview
Mike Finnerty
IMAGINE you’re 20 years of age and it’s the biggest day of your life. You’re going out to play in the All-Ireland club football final at Croke Park with your friends, neighbours and twin brother alongside you, and your family sitting in the stands.
You’ve dreamt about this day since you were old enough to dream and all you want to do is perform to your best, get the most out of yourself, and try and help the team to win.
That was Paddy Durcan on St Patrick’s Day in 2014 when he sprinted out on to Croke Park with Castlebar Mitchels.
A day when nothing went according to plan — Mitchels lost to St Vincent’s but that was only half the story of a traumatic experience for their fleet-footed half-back.
“I’ve had a really big problem with blisters on my feet since I was 16 or 17,” the DCU student explained to The Mayo News.
“I’ve been over in Belgium to see a specialist and I’ve been all over Ireland too, trying to get it sorted out.
“Unfortunately, the day we played St Vincent’s in the All-Ireland club final my blisters were really bad and I was in serious pain.
“My feet cut up really badly during that game and, I know it probably sounds terrible, but I didn’t even want to come back out for the second half. I was just in so much pain.
“It was very disappointing, I’d trained so hard to get there and I just wanted to perform.
“But when I went in at half-time I just couldn’t believe the extent of the cuts. My feet were in bits.
“It was just so hard to focus then on the second half, and it affected my performance. And the worst thing was that it was uncontrollable. There was nothing I could do.”
Listening to Paddy Durcan reflect on such a horrible turn of events twenty months on, you can still hear the regret in his voice mixed with a determination to learn from the experience.
He has tried everything and anything since to try and address the issue, but still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.
“I’ve seen specialists, tried about ten different kinds of insoles, I’ve spoken to dermatologists, but nothing has worked,” he noted.
“Earlier this year I did some running mechanics with the Mayo physios, basically teaching me how to run properly.
“That has helped a little bit, just correcting how I was running and landing on my feet. But it hasn’t gone away completely.
“I strap my feet up every night before training, and I strap them up before games, and I’m just trying to manage it as best I can.”
Articulate, talented and levelheaded are just three of the attributes that quickly become apparent once you watch and listen to Paddy Durcan.
He turned 21 back in September, but hasn’t had a chance yet to mark the occasion properly due to football commitments.
With his first season as a Mayo senior panelist behind him, and a second county championship medal now in his back pocket too, the second year Business Studies student has been juggling college, club and county commitments for months.
“I really enjoyed the year but I feel I have a lot of improving to do, and there’s an awful lot more in me,” he admits.
“There were lots of personal highlights: my very first game in the FBD League against IT Sligo, my league debut down in Kerry, coming on in the Connacht Final, and coming on against Donegal and Dublin in Croke Park. It was gradual, step by step.”
Next Sunday Durcan comes up against his friend and fellow student, Ultan Harney, who also happens to be one of Clann na nGaels’s main men.
“We’re very good friends, we’d spend a lot of time together.
“I don’t know a lot about Clann na nGael as a team, but I’m sure management will have us well briefed by Sunday.
“We’re probably getting a bit more praise than we deserve after the County Final, but to beat Clann we’ll have to perform.”
