Offaly village stunned at sudden death of long serving community activist

THE closely knit community in Ballinagar was rocked on Saturday morning when news emerged of the sudden and tragic passing of one of its best known citizens.

Jim Dolan was immersed in Ballinagar life for all of his seven decades. A passionate GAA stalwart, he was a fiercely proud Ballinagar man and was involved in several other community organisations.

He was also a familiar figure in Tullamore Harriers Athletics Club, where he was a member for several years and a prolific winner of medals in masters throwing and field events in particular.

The wider Dolan family is synonymous with the Ballinagar area and his passing is especially sad and poignant as the whole area is currently on a high thanks to their football exploits. They performed brilliantly to win the Intermediate Football Championship this year, beating parish neighbours Raheen in a fiercely fought final. They have continued that form into the Leinster Club Junior Football Championship, beating the Carlow and Louth champions and are preparing for the semi-final against Ellistown of Kildare in Tullamore this Saturday.

Jim's eldest son, Jimmy is the Ballinagar GAA Club secretary while daughter Bernadette is on the committee, looking after the healthy club initiative there, youngest son David played junior “B” this year and his passing has cast a shadow over the whole area. Jim was at the intermediate final win over Raheen and their Leinster quarter-final win over Wolfe Tones of Louth just two weeks ago and he was very proud of their displays, the way their exciting young players were playing.

He gave decades of service to Ballinagar GAA Club, as a player, committee member, trainer of underage teams and a general foot soldier. While he played football with the parish team of St Mary's in his younger years in the 1970s, his driving force was Ballinagar and his home area was where his heart and almost exclusive focus lay.

He was corner back on the Ballinagar team that lost to Kilcormac in the Junior Football Championship final in 1981 and he was a sub when they won that championship in 1988 and lost to Doon in the intermediate final a year later. He had the rare distinction of playing football with both his father and son – he lined out with his father Paddy at the start of his career in the early 1970s and played with young Jimmy near the end of his in the 1990s. This was something he wanted to achieve and he was delighted to do so.

For a number of years in the early 1990s, Jimmy was a very enthusiastic backer of Ballinagar fielding a second team in junior B, working hard to make sure fixtures were filled before numbers meant they couldn't field two teams. He helped look after schools and underage teams in Ballinagar for years, trying to ensure every young school going child in the area was introduced to football at a young age.

The late 1980s and early 1990s was a busy period for Ballinagar GAA Club as on field success was followed by off field developments. Relying on local landowners for training fields for decades, Ballinagar were one of the last clubs to purchase their own playing field and Jim was a driving force with this. He was one of the people who approached a local landowner Noel O'Brien about selling and was delighted when this came to fruition in 1989.

The pitch was levelled and drained and dressing rooms erected, culminating with a 1993 official opening by then Director General of the GAA, Liam Mulvihill. Jim was one of many who put his shoulder to the wheel in those years as members and locals did a lot of the work on a voluntary basis. He took obvious pride as the whole project took shape and he continued to work for the club for several years afterwards as well as serving on committee.

For much of the 1990s and on, Jim looked after mowing the pitch as well as helping line it out for games where he helped out as a steward. With son Jimmy and a new generation driving things on, Jim was also delighted to see recent developments, including construction of a stand and gym.

Several years ago, he advocated the club buying additional land behind their playing pitch and was disappointed when they didn't bite the bullet at that time but they have subsequently added to their landmass and facilities.

His Ballinagar interests went way deeper than the GAA. He was one of the people who promoted and worked to help secure and develop the new cemetery, beside the GAA pitch, in the 1990s and he also helped to maintain this. He was very upset when the Ballinagar Church was gutted by fire in 2004 and helped fundraise for a very impressive reconstruction job.

Known locally in Ballinagar as the “the Red”, his distinctive red hair and flowing locks were also familiar running the roads in Ballinagar and then in Tullamore Harriers. He took up running in the 1990s and soon joined Tullamore Harriers. He ran a few marathons in this spell, often fundraising for projects close to his heart in Ballinagar.

He was on the committee in Tullamore Harriers' for years and continued to walk up there most evenings until near the end. He could be relied on to help the club field teams in inter-club competitions, often throwing in the field events where it could be hard to get people to participate. He regularly won medals in Offaly masters' championships as well as provincial and national ones and also helped out with training some athletes.

Jim was also a member of the Leisure Centre in Tullamore Court Hotel, enjoying the banter and conversations with others up here until his last days.

His wife Catherine, nee Conroy, was a member of the Offaly team that lost to Tipperary in the first All-Ireland ladies football senior final in 1974. Jim and family were very annoyed when Catherine was not invited along with other members of that Offaly squad to a Late Late Show special on the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of ladies football earlier this year. Jim was not afraid of confrontation and confirming that Catherine is suffering from dementia, they expressed their displeasure in a letter that was published in the Tribune but the fences were mended when Catherine attended and was introduced to the crowd at the Leinster senior ladies football final in Croke Park in May.

The wider Dolan and Conroy families have contributed powerfully to all aspects of life in Ballinagar and Jim was so proud of his home area. A non drinker, Jim had a sense of fun about him and enjoyed people and conversation. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him. His funeral and burial will take place on Tuesday at two locations very close to his heart, St Joseph's Church in Ballinagar and the cemetery a couple of hundred metres up the road.

He is survived by his wife Catherine, sons Jimmy, Enda, Kevin and David, daughters Catherine, Deirdre and Bernadette, brothers Pat and Denis, sisters Mary, Josie, Brid, Margaret, Martha, Judy, Lily and Teresa, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and a large circle of friends.