Sport has that great power to move us all

Sport is often said to be the most important of the unimportant things.

The power in sport for those of us who are often consumed by it is its ability to change our state, our emotions, in such emotional ways. To be part of a collective, of something bigger than ourselves.

Now people have different levels of grá towards different sports.

Ireland’s unexpected win over Portugal followed by their dramatic late win over Hungary in the World Cup qualifiers showed how soccer can really unite the country.

The high drama of Troy Parrott’s hat-trick in Bucharest has the potential to join Stuttgart, Genoa and New York in the pantheon of great Irish soccer moments. I say potential because I am not certain it will be quite at that level if Ireland don’t qualify for the World Cup through the playoffs in March.

But the sense of pride in one’s own place, at village or county level, is one of the great elements of the GAA for me.

And so you can see a massive meaning behind different successes.

While it was a poor year for Mayo’s long quest to end the wait since 1951 for a senior All-Ireland (imagine it will be 75 years next year), there was no shortage of drama on the Mayo GAA club scene.

The junior final may have been devoid of excitement late on as Kiltimagh pulled away from Eastern Gaels but the drama was in them getting out of their group on just two points thanks to scoring difference.

And it was in them finally getting over the line in MacHale Park after three heartbreaking intermediate final losses in the previous decade.

Kilmeena won the intermediate title with a late Caolach Halligan winner seeing them past Moy Davitts in a ding-dong tussle.

Moments of pure drama can often be off Broadway. In the intermediate relegation play-off between Louisburgh and Burrishoole in Islandeady, Dylan Prendergast conjured one. His team were a point down and a breach by Burrishoole gifted him a late 20 metre free to bring the game to extra-time.

With his management urging him to tap it over, Prendergast demurred, bringing the ball back outside the two point arc to win the game for his club. Miss and he would never be forgiven but he scored and it will never be forgotten. It was even brought up at a local council meeting, Louisburgh-based Cllr Chris Maxwell hailing Prendergast’s kick.

If you are from Westport, the Mayo senior final and replay is one that will be hard to shake. If you are from Ballina, you will never want to forget it.

Ballina led 0-9 to 0-1 in the first-half of the drawn game but Westport roared back into contention and led by two near the end.

Step forward Frank Irwin who showed nerves of steel to convert a two-point free with the game’s last kick. We marvelled at his composure and calm with so much pressure on his young shoulders. He didn’t lick it from the wind, of course, as the son of a former All-Star, Gabriel Irwin.

The replay was the opposite. This time it was Westport who looked invincible and unbeatable. They made Ballina look like novices and powered into a ten-point lead with just ten minutes of normal time to go. It looked like an unassailable position.

But with the new rules and the momentum wave that teams can ride, you never just know.

It was stretching credibility but Ballina somehow, incredibly, surged back into the game.

Two goals – with question marks over both, it must be added – had them back in the mix but they still trailed by two with time running out.

Step forward Evan Regan to take the responsibility and leadership to convert an amazing two-point kick from play. From the kick-out, Ballina won possession and worked it to Regan for the winner. Both plays, he admitted, were set plays, moments they had prepared for.

Ballina will still be pinching themselves this Christmas not that they are county champions but how they wrested this title. No matter how successful Westport are from here on in, this game will haunt them. The agony and ecstasy of sport writ large in one game.

But, dare we say it, it’s only sport.

Because as dramatic as that game was, no moment was as moving and filled with emotion as Crossmolina’s All-Ireland intermediate win last January.

They looked like they were set to lose to Ballinderry, trailing by a point late on when one last attack engineered a penalty.

Straight away, the magnitude of what was about to happen became apparent.

Conor Loftus was their penalty taker all year. The final was moved back and played in a shadow of grief following the tragic death of Conor’s fiancée Róisín Cryan.

In the greater scheme of things this game did not matter one iota but, on another level, sport can often be a great escape for so many different people in so many different ways.

No one would have been surprised if Conor wasn’t able to play but play he did.

He played out of a sense of duty to his club and showed the power of the human spirit.

A point would bring the game to extra-time but Conor was going to lay it all on the line. He was going for goal to win it there and then. Miss and Ballinderry were champions. It would be trite to say he was never going to miss, that such a moment was pre-ordained. But, in the long wait as the Ballinderry goalkeeper was changed (their starting goalie was black-carded), the weight of the moment was huge. There was something far beyond sport about it, it was spiritual and you willed with every fibre of your being that Conor would score.

Not because it might make him feel better but simply because he had suffered enough and has always come across as a very decent, good guy. Everyone watching must have been willing him on. Even Ballinderry people must have felt conflicted – wanting to be All-Ireland champions but not wanting Conor missing a last-second penalty to be how it was achieved.

The calmest person of them all appeared to be Conor himself. After all the waiting – with full-back Kevin Mulhern waiting with the ball as a foil until the time was now – he stepped forward and cooly slotted it low into the corner of the net.

We could but marvel at Conor in that moment – having the character to not just play but to stand over a kick wrought with pressure and win the All-Ireland title for his club.

It resonated with anyone with a heart. It showed bravery, courage and leadership. The perfect teammate.

The final whistle sounded on the kick-out. The power of the moment was captured by the emotional hugs Conor received from his teammates and by Ballinderry’s Ryan Bell coming up to embrace him, recognising the perspective that losing an All-Ireland final paled into insignificance to what Conor had experienced.

And while there was joy for his teammates to climb the steps and lift the cup, Conor disappeared down the tunnel before then, which was very hard to watch. One cannot begin to imagine what was going through his mind. One hopes such a moment as winning an All-Ireland title for his club, for his teammates, provided a crumb of comfort.

It was not a day for celebration for him but his spirit and his duty enabled his friends and his teammates to taste life at the summit of all of Ireland.

Is there any better example of the selflessness that underpins the GAA than the spirit and duty Conor Loftus showed? It was a moment far beyond sport.