Despite being involved in several All-Ireland finals, David Brady’s favourite sporting event came in 1984 in Ballina’s under 10s town league final.
The former Mayo footballer was on Tuesday’s Off The Ball and spoke passionately about the occasion that ignited his love for sport.
“I always go back and people need to be very cognisant of it. You were 14. You were 10 years of age at one stage. William Butler Yeats - there’s a poem but I don’t know it - but there’s a line, ‘Tread softly on my dreams.’
“For me, the U10 town league final in 1984 was the greatest sporting event that was ever had.
“The town league final was Ballina split into four teams. United, Fitzgeralds, Pats and the Quay. I played for the Quay. I’m from the Quay.
“For me, there must have been 88,000 people at it. As a 10-year-old, it lit something in me. We won two points to one,” Brady said.
The Ballina native was particularly appreciative of his sporting mentors as a child and believes they helped him in many ways outside of sport.
“But I’m going back to ‘tread softly on my dreams’. My manager, my coach. The teacher in the Quay school, St Oliver Plunketts, where I went, was Hugh Lynn.
“Massive, massive influence. You can say it’s in your career but it’s in your life.
You know what? The people who are in those situations do not realise the effect [they have]. They don’t.
“I played rugby at the same time and I’ll never forget a guy called Mr. Dunne. It was around 10, 11, 12 - that age. Don’t ask me where he’s gone. He was from Limerick
“But he taught me rugby as well. But at that age they’re so influential. For Mr. Lynn for me, he never really taught me anything about football.
“It was nearly how to conduct yourself. After a game, if you got a hug off him, he’d lift you 2 foot off the ground. But you felt as if you were 22 foot,” Brady commented.
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