Declan O'Connell (third from left, with glasses) enjoying the special brand of Munster craic at Gloucester's Kingsholm home.
By Diarmuid O’Flynn
BEFORE tomorrow's Heineken Cup game in Thomond Park, in the Munster Supporters’ Club Bar under the West Stand, there will be a special occasion to celebrate the memory of a special individual.
At the heart of Munster's famed support is the Munster Rugby Supporters’ Club, and at the heart of it, from conception to full-grown club, was its first chairman, Charleville’s own Declan O’Connell.
“A giant of a man, in every respect,” remembers Mick Galwey, captain of the Munster team in the early years of the Heineken Cup. “Larger than life, I don't think there was ever a more dedicated Munster supporter. I remember the early days, before all this took off - you knew every supporter by name, and most of them would have been related to the players - parents or whatever - but there was a handful of others and they were amazingly loyal. Declan was most prominent among those – he stood out from the crowd, no matter where he went!”
Declan Kidney, coach of Munster through all the years of near-misses in the Heineken Cup until the breakthrough finally came, in 2006, remembers him.
"I always think of the game against Padova, our first ever away win in Europe, and we had the parents of John Kelly and Anthony Horgan and just a handful more. We then played Colomiers away that year, in the quarter-final, and the following year we had Saracens away, and that’s when it really started. There was a core of maybe a hundred or so, that started to build, gathered momentum, and within a couple of years it had really taken off. We always had great support at home but now we had it in the away matches as well, and that became an integral part of Munster’s success.
“These people were digging deep into their pockets to go on these trips, making all kinds of sacrifices to be there – as a player or as a coach, you couldn't but be affected by that kind of effort. Another aspect of it too, you’d come back to the airport after a big game and there they’d be, offering their support, and that was whether you'd won or lost."
Last September, in his late 50’s and still in his prime, hale and hearty, Declan O'Connell was suddenly proved mortal after all. Larger than life he was, all his life - his death devastated his family, left his beloved parish diminished. Friday night, then, in the Supporters’ Club Bar, a setting he would have truly appreciated, Declan O'Connell will be immortalised, a plaque unveiled in his memory, to stand forever. “It’s fantastic that a supporter is being honoured in this way in Thomond Park,” says Mick Galwey, “And most fitting that it’s Declan. Munster owe a huge debt to fellas like Declan who did so much in the background."
*Read the full version of this tribute to Declan O'Connell in tomorrow's Irish Examiner
