GAA - Striking up the perfect tune

From singing in a four piece band to setting up hurling in Dernaflaw.  From Gormanston College to play alongside his three sons – Peter Stevenson spoke to Seamus McRory about his hurling journey. \THE name Peter Stevenson is synonymous with the halcyon days of Derry football in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  The well-known former Derry inter county footballer and hurler won an All-Ireland Colleges’ Hogan Cup medal in 1965, is the holder of three Ulster Senior championship football medals, an All-Star award in 1975, a County and Ulster club football championship medal with Ballerin in 1976, two All-Ireland Junior Hurling championship medals in 1975 and 1982 and nine County hurling championship medals. Whereas all GAA supporters are aware of his many outstanding exploits on the football field not as many are as familiar with his fantastic input to the game of hurling. In the past, especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s, a plethora of famous Cork men such as Jimmy Barry Murphy, Ray Cummins, Denis Coughlan, Teddy McCarthy and Offaly’s Liam Currams won All-Ireland titles in both codes. Before that former Taoiseach, the late Jack Lynch won All-Irelands in hurling and football in the 1940’s.  However all of these talented individuals were very much the exception when it came to any county player either playing or promoting both games.  For most others, regardless of their versatility, time did not allow nor did circumstances permit them to adopt the dual role.  In Peter Stevenson’s case, particularly considering there was no apparent hope of any meaningful success, it makes his contribution to hurling, both as a player and a coach, all the more remarkable and praiseworthy. After having taught for three years in an English ethos Primary school in Ballykelly, where cricket was the prominent game, Peter obtained a post in Dernaflaw PS in 1971.  This was a rural area of his native Dungiven parish where it was expected that, as a Derry county footballer, he would coach Gaelic football to the boys in the school.  There was one problem, however. He was also singing in a four-piece pop band called Spanish Lace. When Derry were beaten by Down  in the 1971 Ulster football final Peter became somewhat disillusioned  with the lack of apparent progress on the field of play and for a while hung up his County football boots and concentrated on the band. About a year later, in November 1972, came his catharsis moment. Anna Mullan, the school Vice Principal, said to the Principal Pat Holloway one day at lunch time.  “You know, Master, we were sold a bit short with this man.” With a glint in her eye and just a hint of a smile she added the immortal words. “We thought we were getting a Derry footballer but instead we got a pop singer!”  This was a remark that got him thinking and one that would have a profound effect, not only on his life but on the future of hurling in Derry. “On further reflection I realised that Anna was right so I resolved to do what was expected of me from the beginning. But I was going to be a proper Gaelic Games coach and teach the boys both main codes - football and hurling.  So in the spring of 1973 I called to Liam Hinphey who had introduced hurling to the students of the local St Patrick’s Secondary School. I told him that I was thinking of starting hurling in Dernaflaw and would he get me some sticks? When the sticks had not arrived two months later Liam told me that he had done nothing about them as he did not think that I was serious. He obviously did not know me as well then as he would later on. DUE SOUTH I told him that I needed his help as I knew nothing about hurling. So he arranged that both of us would attend a teachers’ coaching course for prospective tutors in Gormanston College, Co Meath the following August. John Mullan, Anna’s husband, drove us in his yellow Cortina car to Portadown where we got the train to Gormanston.  For five days I immersed myself totally in hurling coaching. There was not a more attentive or excited pupil on the course. At twenty seven years of age, my love of hurling was born.” When he returned to Dernaflaw School in September the first coaching session took place in Paddy Mullan’s field which was adjacent to the old school playground. Liam Hinphey supplied him with hurleys, came out from Dungiven town and showed the boys the basic skills of ground striking and blocking. “After that I was on my own, well almost on my own. My trusted companion was an inch-thick manual which had been given to everyone on the course in Gormanston.  As the boys’ skills improved it dawned on me that there was no outlet for them to test themselves since there were no Primary schools in the county playing hurling. So I approached Dermot Beatty in St Canice’s PS in Dungiven town, Raymond Brady Drumsurn PS, Brian Holloway, Ballerin PS, Eugene Conway Fincarn PS in Banagher and Terence McMacken, St John’s PS Coleraine.” Peter is effusive in his admiration for all these fledgling hurling coaches and their absolute eagerness ‘to give it a go.’ Their total commitment played a very important role in the subsequent development of hurling in Derry. He would also say that they were never given the credit that they truly deserved. For Peter one mentor stood out above all others. “I cannot complete this interview without singling out Phonsie Boyle who agreed to coach the Drumsurn boys, even though he lived in Dungiven.  Two evenings a week the ‘Boyler’ walked the 11 mile round trip to play an important part in those early days.” As a result of all this activity a North Derry Primary Schools Hurling League began, with the six competing teams playing nine-a-side for safety as well as numerical reasons. The following year, 1975, Tom Magill entered a side made up of three schools from the Lavey area and Seamus Doherty did likewise with Ballinascreen. Now there were eight teams playing hurling at Primary school level and the North Derry primary schools hurling league had evolved to become the Derry U12 Hurling League for clubs rather than schools. The success of this initiative by Peter and his fellow hurling visionaries was not measured in terms of trophies acquired, but in the establishment of a scenario that provided the opportunity for young boys from a wide geographical area to play hurling. Further incremental success came in 1977 when for the first time a proper U14 competition took place with nine teams participating. For Peter Stevenson this was the ultimate reward for all his painstaking work that he and his fellow mentors had initiated. In fact one could say that these men played a central part in developing hurling as we know it today in Derry. “For me personally, it was extremely satisfying to see such wide spread enthusiasm for hurling in so many parts of the county.  Our magnificent, ancient game was now properly organised on a structured basis within the county. That visit to Liam Hinphey and the subsequent embryonic games in Paddy Mullan’s field had all been worthwhile,” the former All-Star told me when I met him recently. KEEPER OF THE FLAME As a hurler, Peter’s first game was as a goalkeeper for Dungiven in the semi-final of the 1973 Derry championship against Ballinascreen.  After beating them Dungiven went on to defeat Lavey in the County final. At the age of twenty seven he had won the first of his eventual nine county championship medals. The following Easter Liam Hinphey organised a club trip to the hurling stronghold of Kilkenny. As their bus was coming into Castlecomer and as they only had thirteen players Liam informed Peter that he would be playing outfield instead of goalkeeper. “Liam reckoned as I was training regularly with the Derry football team I would be fitter than some of the other players. As well, since the previous September there was not a day when I did not spend at least half an hour practising. I also took part in the practise matches which Liam held on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. It was in those games that I learned to hook and block. So when I discovered that I would be playing outfield in Kilkenny I was not unduly worried. “When we arrived at the James Stephens club we were met by our accommodation hosts. I stayed with Dinny Brennan and his wife Babs.  Later on we played the James Stephens club in a football match.  I reckoned this would be handy enough but I was wrong.  My immediate opponent was a big, strong, young lad who was exceptionally hard to handle.  We shook hands after the game and I asked him what his name was.  Brian Cody,” he answered.” On the following day Peter played his first hurling outfield game, scoring a point from the right half forward position.  On Easter Sunday they travelled to play Tipperary side Moneygall.  Peter and Dungiven were really learning their craft from the cradle of the master hurlers. “After that trip to Kilkenny I realised that my skill levels had increased considerably.  I also now became the regular midfielder both for Dungiven and Derry. We won the county championship in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977.   In the 1976 club final against Lavey my football county colleague and present Slaughtneil football manager Mickey Moran was in goals.  Immediately after the game Mickey and I swapped the Dungiven hurling jerseys for Derry County football ones to play Tyrone in a National League encounter. I think Anthony McGurk did the same with his Lavey jersey. (Nobody mentioned player burn out in those days).” Up to this time the Dungiven hurling team was made up of players from Banagher, Drum, Drumsurn and, of course, Dungiven.  Cathal Ferris, Joe Irwin, Laurence Moore and Adrian Devlin came from Drumsurn.  Drum supplied Anthony and Dermot O’Hara, while Banagher had upwards of a dozen playing at various stages. BANAGHER MAKE THE STEP After 1976 Banagher were strong enough to field a team of their own so Dungiven lost the services of Seamus Stevenson, Paddy Murphy, the McCullagh brothers, Anthony O’Neill, Sean and Dermot McCloskey, Dessie Burke and many more. Dungiven won further hurling titles in 1979 and 1981.  The 1981 Ulster club semi-final against Antrim champions Cushendall was a game Peter will never forget. “I was playing centre half back and for the first time I really felt the years catching up on me.  I was thirty five and marking Danny McNaughton who was one of the best hurlers in the country.  He gave me a roasting that day and years later, when we became good friends, he would love to hear me describing how good he was that day. Sadly he was taken from this world too soon.” Dungiven also won the County Senior hurling championship in 1982 and 1984. In 1973 Peter had become the first person to introduce the coaching of hurling to the boys in Dernaflaw Primary school. Nine years later in 1982 the influence of Peter’s coaching in Dernaflaw bore fruit when three of his past pupils played in the Senior final against Banagher. When Dungiven won the 1984 Senior final no fewer than ten of the twenty one strong panel had been coached by him at Dernaflaw school – Brian McGilligan, Eugene Kealey, John A Mullan, Jackie McLaughlin, Cathal O’Donnell, Martin Bradley, Niall Mullan, Conor Kealey, Seamus Kealey and Eoin Mullan. Listed as a sub, as he was recovering from injury, this was the last time that Stevenson wore the Dungiven hurling jersey. Though he had retired from Senior club football at the end of 1982, he was persuaded shortly afterwards to finish his football playing days with Drum, a junior club also situated in Dungiven parish. HURLING IN DRUM Now two years later and having relinquished his hurling playing duties with Dungiven he was happy or so he thought to fade into the mists of time.  However the hurling bug had really taken root in his psyche and within a short time, in 1985 to be exact, he became actively involved in introducing hurling to his now adopted Drum club. With moral support from Anthony O’Hara he encouraged some past pupils from Dernaflaw to take up the camán again. These were lads that he had coached in 1974 and 1975 but who had stopped playing. Kevin O’Kane, Josie O’Kane, Liam Millar, Jude Moore and Patrick Millar joined with himself, Anthony, Dermot and Kevin O’Hara to form the nucleus of Drum’s first Senior hurling team. Others like Kieran Farren and Sean McCaul who had played at St Patrick’s Secondary school also enrolled. Just five years after they had started they surprised everyone by beating Ballinascreen in the 1990 Senior Hurling Championship semi-final. Beaten by Lavey in that year’s final they were relegated the following year to Intermediate ranks. In the first round of the 1991 Derry Intermediate championship Drum beat Na Magha from Derry City in the first round. What was most interesting about that game was that Peter himself was centre half back and his three sons Rory (18), Paul (15) and Niall (14) lined out alongside him. Age eventually catches up with everyone on the sporting field but it took longer than most to overtake the doyen of Dernaflaw.  After injuring his left knee in an awkward fall. Peter’s last club game, at the ripe old age of forty six, took place when Drum played Ballinascreen in 1992. Peter started hurling for Derry in 1974 and was midfield against Roscommon in that year’s All-Ireland Junior hurling final which they narrowly lost. They made amends the following year when they defeated Louth by thirteen points, to claim the title.  1975 and 1976 were two historic years in Peter’s career. In 1975 he was named as a sub on the Ulster hurling team and replaced his namesake and fellow County man Seamus Stevenson of Banagher during the course of the game against Munster. He captained Derry footballers when they won the Ulster final against Down, won his third county hurling medal when they beat Ballinascreen and was awarded an all-star award in football. At the beginning of 1976 he had the honour of being selected both for the Ulster hurling Railway cup team at right full back and as captain of the Ulster Railway Cup football team at right half back. What is of even greater significance is that he played for both teams immediately after each other on the same day in Croke Park.  Some player.  Some achievement.  To compound his versatility five months afterwards he captained the County footballers again to back-to-back Ulster titles. “My outstanding memory from the hurling game against Leinster was watching the skill and wizardry of the man that I was marking –the hurling legend that was Eddie Keher.  He simply oozed class in everything that he did.” Peter recalled. The next most important date at inter county hurling  level was July 1982 when he managed and played on the team that won the All-Ireland Junior championship for the second time when they beat Monaghan in Croke Park on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-7. “Looking back, I can still recall the dedication of all the players, most of whom were busy with football at that time of year and it would be remiss of me to exclude them in this interview and to thank them again for their loyalty and comradeship.” The team panel was: Tony Tracey, John McCullagh, Anthony O’Hara (capt), George McCullagh, Cathal Kelly, Peter Stevenson, Dermot O’Hara, George Murphy, Brian McGilligan, Eddie Kealey, Sean McCloskey, Dominic Kealey, Paddy Donoghue, Plunkett Murphy, John A. Mullan, Mickey McCloskey, Eugene Kealey, Tony McFlynn, Pearse Mellon, Mickey McCloskey (McArt), Kieran McLaughlin, Stephen Foster, Raymond O’Kane. “Brian McGilligan was three months short of his 19^th birthday and we all know what he did in 1993.  I was proud to be his teacher and football and hurling coach at Dernaflaw PS.  Plunkett Murphy would go on to captain Derry to the 1987 Ulster Senior football championship and lead them out against Meath in the All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park.  The above twenty three were not all the greatest of hurlers but they were all the greatest of men.” Eventually the eternal youth of Derry GAA succumbed to the ravages of injury and the march of Father Time. Peter Stevenson’s last occasion to hurl for Derry was against Armagh in Lavey in 1986. “I was forty years of age but looking back, they were the best sporting years of my life - and it was all thanks to that wonderful game called hurling.”