Limerick GAA club remember life president following his passing

FLAGS hung at half-mast at Kilteely-Dromkeen GAA grounds as the club said a fond farewell to its life president Ted O’Dea.

It was fitting in a way that Mr O'Dea passed away on the night the Limerick hurlers completed their historic four-in-a-row.

A lifelong supporter, Mr O'Dea, aged 92, watched the game in St Michael's Nursing Home accompanied by beloved wife Breda and eldest son Tim. Later that night he slipped away in his sleep, quietly and without any fuss, just like the way he lived.

Mr O'Dea gave great service to Kilteely-Dromkeen GAA club over the decades, playing hurling and football in the 1940s and 1950s, before becoming involved in an admin capacity for more than three decades.

He was chairman of the club for eight seasons from 1981 to 1988 which included the centenary year celebrations of 1984. He then served as club treasurer from 1989 to 1998. He has been a long-serving life-president since then.

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It was through his initiative in the mid-1980s that a field committee was set up with the aim of purchasing a suitable playing field to serve the growing needs of the club.

The first permanent home for the parish clubs was acquired in 1987 and quickly developed to provide a firm base for the fine facilities that Mr O'Dea was so proud of now.

Some of his proudest moments with Kilteely -Dromkeen included 1989 when the junior footballers won a county title with three of his sons on the panel and in 1994 when Limerick played Galway in a senior hurling match in Kilteely to mark the opening of the new field.

On a beautiful July evening, a guard of honour led by the club’s adult team lined his final visit to the grounds he knew so well.

All of Mr O'Dea's family have been involved with the club, both on the playing field and in the committee rooms with his son Noel the current club chairman.

It is this tradition of volunteering, passed down from generation to generation that allows clubs around the country to survive and thrive.

May he rest in peace. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis.