New horizons await Mayo's legendary Mary McGreal

by Michael Brophy

When people talk about volunteerism they normally complain about the lack of volunteers in our everyday lives.

However, we have some brilliant and trust worthy volunteers but we all agree that we need so many more people to step forward and become involved.

The decline in volunteering has many opinions but people’s main reasons rest with the dreaded Covid pandemic, family pressures, burnout and time restraints in general.

To be a good volunteer you need a skill set to deal with and communicate with people's needs and understandings in today's world where the pace of life is ever increasing for too few volunteers.

For the past 50 years Mary McGreal from the parish of Westport has enjoyed her role in volunteering with Mayo Community Games.

Mary gave her time freely to organisations, charities, community groups and made a vital connection in whatever role she was involved with.

Her time with community games in Westport was indeed an honour as she developed her area to compete in 19 different disciplines in one particular year.

At that stage Mary can recall Mayo Community Games having a total of 48 affiliated areas being registered.

This was only achieved by the wonderful volunteers at local level and a vibrant county executive.

Mary has very fond memories of a dear friend who unfortunately is no longer with us called Martin Keane who was affectionately known as Mr. Community Games.

Various clubs and organisations allowed their facilities and grounds to be used over the years and this has continued to the present day, thankfully.

As Mary stated, in her own words, it would be dangerous to mention everybody for the fear of leaving somebody out but she thinks Jim Ryan must be acknowledged for the use of the Claremorris track over many decades.

The county finals in earlier years was held over two days but is now condensed into one long day.

Mary has filled many executive roles in the Mayo Community Games set-up such as athletics secretary, which involved a huge paper trail involving entries for every single child and all their details before the modern day computer took over.

The county final events in Claremorris ran like clockwork thanks to a group of dedicated area volunteers who carried out their tasks with precision.

For many years Mary was the voice of community games in Claremorris and was heard loud and far on the public address system which sounded out from once you entered the grounds of the track.

Everybody was kept in check and nothing went wrong when Mary was behind the microphone.

Mary will openly admit that she gained great inspiration from the late Joe Connolly, founder of the community games and of which he became general secretary. Hundreds of thousands of children owe a deep debt of gratitude to Joe for his enormous contribution to their development and youthful enjoyment in the games.

In 1973 half a million children from around the country competed to qualify for the national finals.

Almost 2,400 finalists competed in what became known as the ‘Mini Olympics’ at Mosney Holiday Camp, Co. Meath.

This practice continued at Mosney for the next 35 years.

Mary recalls Joe Connolly being employed as a CIE clerk and had the wisdom and knowledge of how to organise special trains from most corners of the country to travel to Mosney train station where they were picked up the various county competitors and volunteers en route.

All the counties involved were kitted out in their county tracksuits.

The community games organisation that was founded by Joe was one of the few in the country that catered for the 32 counties at a time when that was not very popular in a different Ireland from today.

The display of the coloured tracksuits was a sight to behold in those times and especially to a new sporting organisation that was catering for the youngest generation of our children when there was very little else on offer.

On a personal level Mary was privileged to have known Joe, his wife Vera and their daughter Joyce, all of whom were involved in Community Games.

The games operate at four levels - area, county, provincial and national - and it caters for children who range in age from under six years to under 16 years in an annual programme which has over 50 events in over 28 different sport and cultural activities.

Its main aim is to encourage and foster community spirit and a love of sport and culture.

Community Games is built on incredible volunteers who make all the events possible. It's the likes of parents, guardians, mentors, teachers and volunteers who are the integral cog in the wheel of community games today.

It is not just about competitions and winning but about building lasting friendships, memories and experiences that all involved will carry with them for life.

Mary McGreal was heavily involved and was honoured to have worked in the PR section at the national finals and one of the jobs assigned to her was organising the seating on the viewing stand at the opening and closing ceremonies and welcoming the many invited dignitaries, including government ministers, TDs, county councillors, county managers, the Taoiseach of the day, who usually attended the opening ceremony and declared the games open, and our country's president of the day, who usually attended the closing ceremony and declared the games closed for that year’s competitions.

The opening and closing ceremony involves a parade of all the counties in their full tracksuits in their county colours with county banners and flags and marching in county numerical order as each county was assigned a number at the beginning of each year.

Mayo Community Games have been truly rewarded by having one of the best ambassadors any county could ask for over the past 50 years.

Earlier this year preparations were put in place to honour one of our own in community games, and the plan began by asking Mary McGreal's family to keep a secret as the plans got underway to arrange a small function to honour Mary in the town of Westport.

Invitations were sent out to the many executive members and officers who served with Mary over many decades of hard work.

Mary was eventually encouraged to attend a gathering which, according to the main planner, was just for a cuppa and a chat among a few close friends.

Little did Mary know that when she arrived at her destination that there was an ambush of friends awaiting her arrival.

The cheers and the clapping that greeted Mary was fit for a king or queen.

The gathering included founding members of Mayo Community Games, including the current county executive, the national chairman, Gerry McGuinness, former county chairpersons, secretaries and county executives members, close colleagues, former Westport community games officers and three generations of Mary's family.

All concerned had kept the secret that Mary McGreal was being honoured for her outstanding work as a volunteer on the ground for 50 long years.

Several speeches followed and everybody present heard about the commitment and dedication of an outstanding volunteer who kept the community games organisation running in her town, county, region and at national level like a well oiled machine.

Mary was presented with a beautiful Genesis sculpture, a bouquet of flowers and a retirement cake. She thanked all concerned and was so humbled to think that all present had gathered from all corners of Mayo to honour her.

During her speech Mary stated that she could not have done anything in life without the full support of her family.

As a result of being involved in Community Games, Mary has made lifelong friends in every county in the country. She saluted all the wonderful volunteers and none more so than the people down the years who kept Mayo Community Games to the forefront on the local, county, provincial and national stage and who continue to be involved.

Before leaving the rostrum Mary wished the organisation the best of luck going forward.

Community Games will live on as we wish Mary the best of luck in her new journey in life. Thank you for your professionalism, knowledge and enthusiasm which was always a valuable asset to all who served with you.

New opportunities will lie ahead and we wish Mary McGreal good health and prosperity in the next chapter of her life.