'The Quiet Man' of Na Magha will never be forgotten

The family of Seán Mellon have discovered that his legacy extends far beyond hurling and camogie in the short time since his passing just over 18 months ago.

Na Magha CLG hosted the second annual Seán Mellon Festival at Pairc Na Magha last Saturday, an event which is viewed as the perfect way to honour a giant amongst men when it comes to hurling in Derry and the North of Ireland.

Hundreds of families gathered at Pairc Na Magha in honour of Seán on Saturday, including Blackrock, who travelled all the way from Cork, having developed a relationship with Na Magha, thanks to the hard work of Seán through the years.

Bridgeen McCaul, Seán’s sister, was one of many family members there to take it all in on the day.

“I just think it’s wonderful,” she said. It’s a great legacy he’s left behind. I always think that as long as Na Magha is going, he will always be talked about and always be remembered which is lovely.

“I didn’t actually appreciate what a great thing it was that he helped to create all those years ago. We’ve always been hurling and gaelic and you take things for granted when you’re younger and you don’t appreciate what you have. It was only after he died that I realised what a wonderful thing this was.”

But Seán’s legacy extends beyond the hurl as Bridgeen and so many different family members have discovered.

“Recently I’ve heard his name mentioned in a couple of different cases,” she explained. “There was a young fella getting into trouble in school, but he said that he felt the only person who ever gave him the time of day was a man named Seán Mellon when he was younger. There’s also one of the mothers here, who is actually a teacher, when she was in primary school with Seán, he spoke Irish, even though it wasn’t on the curriculum. He just threw in words, and she loved it, so she went on to study and she is now teaching through the medium of Irish, and she said it was Seán who influenced her, so he’s everywhere. Different stories just filter in out of the blue and it’s great to hear. We miss him very much.”

Each individual will remember Seán in their own way, but one thing everyone can agree on is his nickname.

“His granddaughter did a project for school and it was a video of people talking about Seán and that was part of her exam,” Bridgeen continued. “I talked about him being a quiet man, he was quiet-natured, quietly spoken, no aggression and he was not confrontational. He would have been one for turning the other cheek. He was the quiet man personified. But it wasn’t just me; everyone talked about him as the quiet man. Even at home when we were all children, he was so quiet and he never got into trouble. He was always so good.”