Spreading the joy to those who can't be there: Meet Ballinrobe GAA's club commentators

EVEN in the age of GAAGO, BT and Sky Sports, Ballinrobe GAA Club are providing a streaming service that is unrivaled anywhere in Ireland.

In the coming weeks, hundreds of locals and expats will flock to Flanagan Park and beyond to watch the men in maroon and yellow strut their stuff.

But hundreds more who’d like to be there, will be kept abreast of every kick, whistle, holler, belt and gasp thanks to the club’s dedicated team of commentators.

Because of Padraic Costello, Ryan McCormack, Gerry O’Malley, Aoife Donnelly, Elaine Treacy and Tom Carney, Ballinrobe are broadcasting more games on Facebook Live than any GAA club in Mayo.

For a club that fielded 29 teams and played 275 competitive games last year, that is an incredible achievement.

This mob of mini-Mike Finnertys and Micheál Ó Muircheartaighs don’t just do senior men’s games either.

“We’re covering underage, we’re covering ladies, and we’re covering mens’ with relatively limited resources,” O’Malley tells The Mayo News from their perch inside the commentator’s box in Flanagan Park.

Ballinrobe has produced no small number of stellar print and broadcast journalists over the years.  

But while the Ballinrobe ‘club radio’ phenomenon is the brainchild of Liam Horan, formerly of the Western People, Mayo News, Irish Daily Star and Irish Independent, none of their current ‘match day panel’ are professional journalists.

Ranging from 15-year-old extraordinaire Ryan McCormack to 70-year-old club legend Padraic Cos’, this crew are an unlikely but very effective team.

There’s no shortage of talk with them, for sure - The Mayo News spent the guts of an hour in their company when we called to Flanagan Park one sunny Saturday morning.

But few could have imagined that they’d assemble a team like this when Tom Carney and Liam Horan first pressed ‘go live’ on an app called ‘Spreaker’ at an intermediate game back around 2014.

“It was difficult,” recalls Carney, who went on to commentate for Midwest Radio and Mayo GAA TV.

“Liam was the main commentator and I was the co-com and it was basically that, it was just saying what you see.”

With skills of persuasion honed over a decades-long career in journalism, Horan soon roped in Padraic Costello, a man who has played and refereed the game for over 60 years.

Did he ever imagine he’d end up doing something like this for his club?

“I didn’t, but I’m always open to anything within the club,” explains the easy-going local legend they call ‘Cos’.

“I’m passionate about football and I love commentating on tight games. There was a game here myself and Ryan [McCormack] done against Davitts and it was brilliant. It was up and down that field and it was so passionate, intense, hard tackling, moving, there was no passing back, up and down. in my head I was actually playing it, I was playing it,” he adds.

“I was cutting into these open spaces and taking them on and I can get fired up for that then, it comes so easy, it just flies out.”

Later, the bold Horan got Aoife Donnelly involved - a Dublin-based garda who played Minor for Mayo before Ballinrobe established a senior ladies team.

Herself and Elaine Treacy are among the only female commentators in the entire country, never mind Mayo.

Some years ago, they covered a Minor league final as an all-female commentary duo - a feat acknowledged in a tweet from the great Cora Staunton.

“I’d like to take a bit of pride in that because they were my U-14s at one point or another,” says Donnelly.

“It was one of the first Minor leagues we’ve had in such a long time but to have two women covering a female Minor team winning a county final, that was one of the better ones.”

Ballinrobe Community School have also enjoyed their coverage, including the All-Ireland Senior ‘B’ title win of 2017 and the girls All-Ireland Junior ‘C’ victory earlier this year.

Some teachers have even been known to leave their phones chirping away on a low volume in class to keep on top of games. Like the day local woman Cliona Feerick tuned in from her classroom in St Jarlath’s College to hear BCS record a famous victory over Connacht’s fabled footballing nursery.

Ballinrobe’s club commentators have forged quite a reputation, unsurprisingly, one that saw the six of them - plus Liam Horan - jointly win the Club Person of the Year award at Ballinrobe’s GAA’s recent dinner dance.

“We’ve had messages from Dubai, from New York and Australia, people listening in from both sides, whichever teams are playing,” says O’Malley.

They get plenty of compliments and half-serious finger-wags offline too.

“I do get a lot of feedback the times we do it,” says Costello.

“You could be down in Tesco shopping or whatever it is and someone would come over and say ‘Jeez it was lovely to hear that commentary the last evening and it was grand’.”

And being the eyes and ears of those who can’t be there is something they never take for granted.

“There’s a lot of people that check in when they are sick in hospital or getting an injury. They like to check in as well,” explains Costello. “It’s a great service for all.”

All it takes to provide it is a smartphone, a notebook, and a group of people who love their club.  

Who needs GAAGO when you’ve got Ballinrobe GAA.