‘I didn’t work miracles - I just wanted to give Donegal what it deserved’

This Sunday at O’Donnell Park in Letterkenny, Donegal welcome Galway in the Allianz League Division 1, with the stand at the ground being officially named after Dr Jimmy McDaid.

Seventy-three-year-old Dr McDaid, who is the honorary president of St Eunan’s, is now in his 50th year as a serving doctor in Letterkenny and during his time as Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, served the clubs of Donegal well.
He admits now that he was only giving the county what he felt was right.

Dr McDaid had spent his years lining out for Termon since its formation in 1963 and then St Eunan’s into his forties on uneven pitches with muddy goalmouths and very poor changing facilities.

“At the time I took office in 1997, Donegal was 17th on the list when it came to sporting grants,” he says. “But in terms of population and size it was sixth so I just pushed that, with Charlie McCreevy, who was Minister for Finance, and a man who had a keen interest in sport.

“At the time facilities weren’t great and there was an effort being put in to improve them - so I did what I could to help the various clubs and organisations, be it Gaelic games, soccer, hockey, golf or rugby. I didn’t work miracles - I just wanted to give Donegal what it deserved.

“O’Donnell Park was one of those that we looked at. For a ground in a town that was growing at the rate Letterkenny was, it was important to have a worthwhile facility. I always found that for all the complaints that people might make about politicians, there were few when they could see you were trying to improve sporting infrastructure.”

Of the naming of the stand, Dr McDaid admits he is “honoured” and is proud to be around to see it. “I went to a lot of official openings ‘in memory of’ and one thing I always felt that it would be nice to honour the person while they’re still alive,” he says. “So often when a ribbon was cut you'd hear someone say ‘such and such would’ve loved this’ so I’m delighted to be lucky enough to see my own in person.”

Growing up, the McDaids lived in Termon and James’ father Charles was good with his hands, firstly working as a bicycle mechanic in Kilmacrennan and selling on his work and then helping bring a new form of media to the north-west - television.
“Some of my earliest memories are of my father on a roof, aiming an antenna here and there, with someone in the house checking to see if the picture was transmitting,” Dr James recalls. “I was the go-between, shouting up ‘left a bit or ‘back to the right.’ The televisions were a great success.”

In those days it was ITV and BBC and Dr McDaid said his interest in sport came from the grainy black and white images. He recalls watching the 1959 FA Cup final between Nottingham Forest and Luton Town but two years later at the Wembley showpiece saw the football team he still supports to this day. He can still recite the team from that afternoon, one to 11.

“I’ve been supporting Burnley for over 60 years and remember the cup final of 1962, when they were beaten by Spurs who became the first club in the 20th century to win the league and cup double the year before. We would be glued to Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon”.

Charles had died as a young man of 45 in 1955 and Nellie McDaid was left with four young children and a fifth on the way. James at just five years of age was the oldest, then there was Bridget, Grace and Hughie, before Mary soon arrived.

“Hughie was a great help on the farm and my mother worked hard,” Dr McDaid adds. “The decision was made that I would be the one to attend secondary school at St Eunan’s College as a boarder and I headed into Letterkenny on the Creeslough bus.

At the time, Letterkenny felt like a world away. The neighbours clumped together to help pay for my education and that’s something we will never forget and are eternally thankful for.

“For some reason I always wanted to study medicine, although then getting into university wasn’t based on points. There was an A class and my class, the B class, so one of my subjects was Greek, with Michael Cullen, and he helped me get an honour which enabled me to study at University College Galway.

As a nixer, teenager James worked at the Nestle factory, under Harry Blake, and his job there was to tot up the gallons of milk in queues of silver barrels that were left in by the various farmers. Whilst at St Eunan’s, the ban on soccer was only lifted in 1965 and it brought a new element to sport.

The 50-year reunion of the class of 1967 at St Eunan's College, which took place in 2017, with Dr James McDaid front right

“You’d get a couple across the backside if you were caught playing soccer before that,” Dr James says. Then in Galway, alongside Kieran McGee from Fanad who also attended St Eunan’s, he helped the university to three All-Ireland Collingwood Cup titles in four years - two with Dr James as captain - and the one they lost against UCD in 1969 was because of a bizarre rule when the score finished level, a countback of corner kicks was the decider. “We would’ve won four in a four-in-a-row, only for one corner kick,” he laments.

Gaelic football was still strong in Galway when James - as he was then - moved there in 1967, with the Tribesmen winning Sam Maguire in 1964, 1965 and 1966. Dr McDaid would later live in Salthill near a mainstay of those sides, Enda Colleran, and would become a brother-in-law of Liam Sammon.

In the summers of the late sixties, he had his eyes opened to the world in New York city and arrived in Massachusetts on the overnight bus on July 19, 1969 - the morning of the Chappaquiddick incident. Senator Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy had negligently driven his car off a narrow bridge, causing it to overturn in a tidal pond, which resulted in the drowning death of his 28-year-old passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

“We arrived in early morning and the world’s media were there, so much so we were priced out of any accommodation such was the demand and ended up sleeping on the beach,” Dr James recalls.

On the pitch, he lined out in the maroon himself, not for Galway, but locally with Termon, and was a 1973 Donegal JFC winner alongside his brother Hughie, who stole the show in an 0-11 to 0-10 victory over Gleann Cholm Cille in the final, described by the Donegal Democrat as "the best ever."

That was the year James returned to Letterkenny to start life as a doctor and the shift-working made it easier to join St Eunan’s.

Friends were made like Joe Winston, Seamus Hoare, Seamus Durcan, Packie O’Donnell, PJ Hoey, Frankie Campbell, Charlie Collins, “so many to mention”.

In 1983, St Eunan’s won the Dr Maguire following victory over Ardara. “I remember being asked to play by Peadar McGeehin, who said they were stuck for numbers, in an early game in Killybegs,” Dr James says. “It was a terrible day and I was ‘called upon to do my duty’ and although I wasn’t a main player or anything like that, we enjoyed our football.”

Dr McDaid still enjoys his football and life. He enjoys his golf and fishing too. Sunday’s game sees two of his favourites cross swords at a venue that will eternally have his name on it.

“Donegal is a fantastic place to be brought up and I’m always thankful to the good people here,” he says. “And Galway was a place I loved studying and still love it today. It’s a wonderful city and county and I’m so thankful to everyone at St Eunan’s who made this possible.”