Roscommon man to be awarded Top GAA Club Award

December 20th, 2005
by Weeshie Fogarty

 Tommy Regan has been chosen as the recipient for a prestigious Hall Of Fame Award by his club Killarney Legion. The award which is presented each year to a person singled out for life long dedication to his club is recognized as one of the top awards in Kerry. Indeed it is fair to say that Tommy is richly deserving of this honour as he has given over forty years continuous service and is still as active as ever, to the Killarney club both as a player and an administer.

You will not see his name plastered all over the national or local newspapers, he will not be invited to the glittering GAA functions which fill the calendar at the end of the playing season, nor will you hear his name being spoken about when plaudits are being handed out left right and centre at local and Munster level. On the other hand many years ago when our own county board ran an awards scheme for die hards such as this Tommy was recognized. He has never seen the inside or indeed probably never got near the outside of the cooperate boxes at Croke Park and indeed I can vouch for the fact that he begs, steals, (in the figurative sense), and borrows when the occasion demands to secure a ticket for the big matches, if not for himself then he will do all he can to obtain one for his dedicated GAA wife or one of his family.

There are many like him all over the county, men and women toiling away at the grass roots of the association. These are the people on whom the GAA is built, the unheard, the unknown, the unsung heroes, dedicated to the cause. The cause, for them, there is only one cause outside their families, their club. They would have grown up with it, meetings would have been held in their kitchens, hundreds of club jerseys would have been washed in the back kitchen of the home, often, and I have seen this, left the washing machine in a broken down state. The family home becomes a second club house with callers late at night discussing the all consuming state of affairs. And the one magnificent trait about the unsung worker is, the older they get the more dedicated they becomes to the cause.  It would have have dominated every awaking hour of their lives, more or less, they celebrate a club win like an All Ireland victory, while defeats can affect their moods for the following days. These grass roots dedicated workers will do anything for their little club, it is the centre of their universe, I know, I meet them everyday in my sports travels around this county, and to a man and women they are the salt of the earth.

In 1988, a man named Vincent Doyle died in Killarney, his name will mean little to our readers, he was brother to the late Denis Doyle who won All Ireland senior medals with Kerry in 1913-14, they lived in New St. Killarney. He was one of the founder members of The Legion club in 1929, my club, nevertheless on his death a perpetual cup presented to the by his wife Nor has left a lasting mark on the members. The Vincent Doyle Memorial Cup has been awarded as a Hall Of Fame to the recipient chosen by the club officers each year since 1990. It honoures services rendered both on and off the field and this year it goes to a man who typically fill the criteria described above as the unknown hero of the small club

Tommy Regan born in Breandrum just one mile outside Boyle in the county of Roscommon, his mother Maureen still lives there, his father Joseph died in 1971.  He took up the position as restaurant manager in the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney in 1961; he retired from that post four years ago and is now the manager of the classy four star Fairview Guest House right in the heart of Killarney town.

He has given magnificent to service his club, playing minor, under 21 and senior in the green and white, helping the senior team to a much sought after oDonoghue Cup victory, (East Kerry) in 1967. Following his playing days he threw himself body and soul into the administrate side of affairs and has occupied numerous positions, and still dose, as he toils away behind the scenes. He has been involved in training/coaching teams in all grades. He served as an exemplary treasurer for a number of years and has backboned massive fund raising activities, and in fact the club has just completed a superb massive new complex at their grounds in Dirreen and Tommy was deeply involved in those fundraising drives over the last few years.

He is ever present at all club matches, meetings and many other events. The official club photographer he has captured for posterity on camera the many and varied happenings of this urban Gaa club. His keen eye for a club shot has resulted in literally hundreds of photos, freezing for ever in print images of people and club events which would have been lost forever in the mists of time.  He is at present the club register, a position with the changing face of the GAA is vital in the successful running of his club. However this is only one of the many works he continues to devote every spare minute of his time to, he is without a shadow of doubt one of the true unsung and unheard heroes of the GAA.

He played his first game as a minor in 1961 the year Sean Moriarty met him in the now demolished Glebe Hotel and recruited him for the Legion, he played centre back all those years ago. He follows his home county Roscommon with great interest and says only for the superb display of the late Tim Kennelly in that 1980 All Ireland final they would certainly have won, "the selectors left John o Gara on Tim far too long and a change would have made a great difference", he recalls. Croke Park he agrees should be open to other sports, "Open the gates and show it off to the rest of the world, is a magnificent place and we should fear no one". He has high praise for Sean Kelly, saying that he stuck out his neck in pushing for the opening of the stadium and has been one of the best presidents in many years. "I watched Sean come up through the ranks, with Kilcummin, East kerry, Kerry, and Munster and he always did a superb job, he was always opening new horizons".

His own club mate Johnny Culloty comes in for equal praise, "it's amazing to see him involved in all aspects of the club for over fifty years, he is still training teams and involved year after year, he is what all great club men should be". His favorite players are Mick o Connell, Seamus Moynihan, Mick o Dwyer, Matt o Conner, and Maurice Fitzgerald. Away from the GAA, he has fierce admiration for oarsmen Paul Griffin and Gillian o Sullivan our Olympic walker. "Their dedication to training is unbelievable" he adds. So what's the difference in his opinion between Kerry and Roscommon? "Here in Kerry the supporters are terrible difficult to please, nothing will do only to win the All Ireland every year, and the players are only as good as their last game, nothing like that at home, Paudie o Shea was hard done by when he mentioned the Kerry supporters, they certainly are hard to please. I love my club and I have no regrets following my forty plus years involved, I would do it all over again. Now we have a magnificent new complex, as good as any in the thirty two counties and with the under age section of the club winning many titles the future is certainly very bright".

In a year which his beloved Legion won for the first time in their history, (founded 1929), the Kerry Intermediate football championship, no man deserved the Hall Of Fame more. He joins an illustrious, star studded galaxy of former Kerry football greats, many of whom played against the great Roscommon teams of the forties. The great Roscommon player Jimmy Murray would be very familiar with some of them. Legends of Kerry such as, Jackie, and Denny Lyne and Teddy o Sullivan of New York Polo Grounds fame, Johnny Culloty, Donie Murphy, John C Cooper, Jimmy Redpath, John Joe Sheehan, and Lui Nolan. All men who wore the famed green and gold at some grade. Tommy Regans work for his club has been a life long labor of love; it would take many hours to fully document his life's endeavors. No man deserves the honour more. The Vincent Doyle Memorial Cup, so called after one of the club founder members will be presented to Tommy at the clubs annual social on New Years Eve in Killarney, (the event is sold out). Roscommon's loss was Kerrys gain and no one gained more than the famed Killarney Legion club. The genial dedicated Tommy will be certain to receive a tumultuous round of applause when he steps up to accept an award which in some small way recognizes his life's work. Well done my friend, welcome to The Hall Of Fame.

Tommy is married to the former Mary Regan from Rathmore and she too is a dedicated follower of the green and white, they have two sons David and Brian and three daughters Majella and Caroline while Louise is married to Kerry GAA activist Donie Sheehan's son Paul.

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