THIS TIME TWELVE months ago, arranging to meet David Harte and taking an hour out of his afternoon was a big ask. Time was very much a commodity for the Ireland captain and his team-mates as they found themselves immersed in preparations for a historic Olympic campaign.
Harte was one of the fortunate few who play hockey for a living, but many of the squad took career breaks, made huge sacrifices and essentially put their lives on hold for the cause. It was all-consuming.
In the weeks and months after Rio, several of the panel took a step away from the national team, and in some cases the sport altogether as they were simply unable to start and commit again after the exhilarating highs of the Games. The return to normal, everyday life was a tough adjustment to make.
Harte didn’t have the luxury of taking a break and had no choice but to get back on the wagon and go again, with club commitments meaning he was back in Holland not long after the heartbreak of Ireland’s elimination at the hands of Argentina in that final game.
It meant he wasn’t able to fully reflect on the Olympic experience, and the year as a whole, until coming home to Cork over the Christmas period when family and friends helped him take stock and look back on the achievements, sharing memories from both on and off the pitch.
Not only did Harte lead Ireland at the Games but he played an integral role in SV Kampong’s Euro Hockey League victory, as the Dutch club won hockey’s equivalent of the Champions League for the first time in their history.
In February, his consistent performances and outstanding contributions at both club and international level were once again recognised as he was named World Hockey Goalkeeper of the Year for the second year in a row, beating off counterparts from Argentina and Belgium who were the Olympic gold and silver medallists respectively.
Harte is the only Irish player to receive the distinction, and the award once again reinforced his standing as the best shot stopper in the game.
“I was lucky enough to win it,” he says, in typically modest fashion before deflecting the praise on his team-mates. “I was blown away to get it for a second year but it’s down to a hard working group, an individual award in a team sport doesn’t mean that much in the grand scheme of things.”
He has a point, but at the same time we don’t produce many truly world-class athletes, the type who are considered the best of the best in their respective sport, so Harte’s achievements, try as he might, cannot be understated.
When you think of Irish hockey, you think of David Harte; the imperious 6 foot 5 inch goalkeeper standing tall between the posts and leading from the front. He is the face and voice of Irish hockey and the leader of the group.
The 29-year-old has blazed a trail and has done what no Irish player has ever done before. He has put Ireland on the hockey map, flying the flag at the biggest global tournaments, including the lucrative Indian Premier League, and brought the game to new levels here.
“I think it’s just the way I was brought up, I’ve always been kept grounded. I might be goalkeeper of the year but when I’m home I don’t get my dinner served first,” he jokes.
Harte’s humility is further evident when someone briefly interrupts our conversation having recognised him as they passed. Once they confirm it is indeed David as opposed to his twin brother Conor — ‘you’re the goalkeeper, right?’ — they congratulate him on his latest accolade.
“Yeah I was lucky enough to win it,” he says for the second time in the space of a few minutes, almost embarrassed by the praise.
It’s something he has had to get used to, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the Olympics, but the reality is Harte doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.
Hockey’s status as a minority sport on this island is largely responsible for that but even still it’s rare Harte would be recognised in public, unless it’s in his hometown of Kinsale where the hockey following has swelled over the last number of years owing to the heroics of the brothers and the Irish team.
In actuality, Harte’s profile is far greater in Holland and India than at home to such an extent that he would regularly be stopped for autographs and selfies by young fans. That would never happen in Dublin.
“The way it is and the way it’s going it won’t happen,” he admits, fully aware of the small support base here and the team’s return to relative obscurity following that brief semblance of exposure last August.
“It is lovely though when you’re walking down the street in Kinsale and people will stop and congratulate you. To have that support from a town with such a GAA, rugby and soccer background is lovely.
“Outside of that, you can walk around free and nobody will recognise you. In Mumbai and Holland it’s different and I’d be walking down the street with my girlfriend or in a restaurant and you’d have people coming up to you asking for a selfie. That’s a lovely feeling because where hockey stands in sports in Ireland, it’s unlikely to happen back home.
“It is a bit surreal as it catches you off guard and maybe that’s a fault on our part, we don’t consider ourselves to be public figures. I was in the airport on the way home to Dublin recently and a guy came up to me and asked me was I David Harte and I said ‘I am’ and he just said you’re a brilliant goalkeeper, keep it up.
“He was a Dutch businessman on his way to Dublin and it’s things like that, they have a very nice effect.”
Harte makes that trip from Amsterdam to Dublin, and vice versa, regularly to report for national training camps and whenever he gets the chance, his itinerary will also include driving south to the village of Ballinspittle to visit family he said goodbye to at the start of this remarkable journey nine years ago now.
The goalkeeper came from a GAA background — his father, Kieran, played in goal for Tyrone in the 1972 Ulster SFC final — and during his formative years hurled for Courcey Rovers while also playing football, badminton and tennis.
“Dad was from Tyrone and Mum was from Kerry,” Harte continues. “We were always encouraged to play sport but never pushed. Dad used to be the coach of our hurling team at U14 level and there’s a famous quote from when myself and Conor we born.
“As soon as we were born, he turned to my mum and said ‘Croke Park, here we come.’ I don’t know if he meant he was hoping we’d play there or we’d just go and watch Cork in an All-Ireland final with him but people joke he’s disappointed we didn’t continue with the football or hurling.
“But I think he was just happy to see us play any sport and they’re both just incredibly proud of what we’ve done and hopefully they’ll be able to continue to support us around the world for many years to come.”
It was his parents’ decision to send Harte to boarding school up the road at Bandon Grammar School, where hockey and rugby were the main sports, which ultimately shaped his sporting career, and in turn, his life.
“The rest as they say is history,” he laughs.
However, it took a while for Harte to fully buy into hockey as a sport, particularly when hurling had been sacrificed as a result of his transition into secondary school, and it wasn’t until his parents threatened to take him out of Bandon that he gave it a proper chance.
“I didn’t enjoy it too much at the start,” he explains.
“The lack of physicality was a big thing and the rules too. I was training outfield and just wasn’t enjoying it and I was actually skipping training for a while as I just didn’t want to go.
“I was very close to being pulled out of school because the reason we were boarding was to get involved in school activities and then study but I wasn’t doing that. My parents understandably said look if you’re not doing that we’re not going to waste time and money.
“I was very, very close to leaving Bandon but I said I’d give goalkeeping a go as some of the other lads were making it look pretty difficult. I don’t think I even went in for a training session, just put on the pads for the first time in a game, as you do.
“I’ll always remember it; freezing cold, lashing rain and we were playing one of our rivals, Ashton, and I think I touched the ball once in 70 minutes but I never had a better feeling, just the rush of it. I’ll never forget it, that save and the feeling afterwards.”
From there, hockey became much more than an after school activity for Harte. His potential was nurtured in Bandon and the hand-eye co-ordination he had developed from hurling, badminton and tennis, as well as a natural athletic ability, meant he was a prodigious talent from early on.
By 18, Harte had made his senior international debut and as we reflect on his rise from Ballinspittle, via Bandon, to the being the world’s best, it’s fitting that we sit just a stone’s throw away from Pembroke Wanderers Hockey Club in Ballsbridge, where a young lad from Cork really came to prominence under the guidance of player-coach Craig Fulton, the current Ireland head coach.
“It was such a talented group and Craig really did revolutionise everything club teams in Ireland did,” Harte says, looking back on their 2009 success in the Euro Hockey Club Trophy.
Harte played an integral role in Pembroke’s victorious campaign that year and while he was well known domestically, his exploits had started to draw attention from further afield.
With a few of his team-mates moving abroad to further their hockey career and improve their chances of making a living from the sport, Harte was given his opportunity after a Dutch coach had identified him during a visit to Ireland.
This was the opening Harte had dreamed of, to go abroad and get paid to play hockey, even if it was a minimal sum. He would have been on the first plane over, but the timing wasn’t right and his father stepped in.
“I was in second year in college and unfortunately I wasn’t allowed [move] as my father put his foot down, it was the first and only time he has done that and to be fair I don’t begrudge him in any way.
“He just said look you need to get your qualification first and his exact words were ‘you can take that piece of paper anywhere in the world with you’ so I listened to him, held out and graduated.”
Harte bided his time and patiently waited for another door to open and it eventually did in 2010.
“I had just accepted a job offer to start as a full-time PE teacher in Sutton Park in Howth when I got a call from Stichtse Cricket and Hockey Club asking me over. I had to phone the vice principle and say you’re not going to believe this but…I can’t take that job.”
It was an opportunity too good to turn down, even if upping sticks and moving over to Utrecht meant a pay cut was inevitable — but hockey has never been about money for Harte because if he was in it for that, he’d have walked away long ago.
“I always wanted to go and challenge myself and be out of my comfort zone. It was a step into the unknown,” he continues.
“It can be pretty difficult to go abroad like that and say bye to family and friends and leave relationships. You can get lonely over there and even become borderline bored but I was lucky Conor was signed too and he was with me.
“There’s also the element of getting used to being a professional. I can remember standing on a pitch on a wet and windy evening and realising this is what I do for a living. Money has never crossed my mind, I was, and still am, in love with what I’m doing.”
What does motivate Harte, however, is the pursuit of success. He’s driven to be a better version of himself every day and an unflinching appetite for self-improvement means his desire to improve is still as great as ever.
For example, on the afternoon we meet, Harte had rented a car in Cork and driven up to Dublin for a session with two of the younger goalkeepers in the squad.
With little or no budget available to Hockey Ireland, he was staying in the national goalkeeping coach’s house that night before going up north to meet the rest of the squad for a training weekend in Belfast.
It would have been easy for a two-time Goalkeeper of the Year to turn around and say he was taking the day off — but it’s about so much more than his own game and career.
Harte is a trailblazer and a pioneer but he’s also an advocate of Irish hockey, promoting, endorsing and supporting the sport on this island and spreading word of Ireland’s hockey credentials through his performances on the world stage.
“I can’t relate to any other country but I’m not sure any other set of players have to go through we go through,” he adds. “But that spurs us on. If there’s anything I can do to promote Irish hockey then I’ll do it.
“I love what I do and yes that can be challenged, particularly when the Irish team and set up isn’t professional but it is how it is. We get on with it and don’t moan.”
And as the leader, Harte feels a responsibility to set an example and help guide the younger players in every way he can as they look to follow the same path into professional hockey.
Moving over to Holland was a risk in the first place, but it was a calculated one founded on years of hard work and a self-belief that he was ready and good enough to compete on that exalted level on a weekly basis.
No Irish player had ever done it before but why couldn’t it be done?
“I just said to myself why not, what’s the worst they can say? A two letter word: no. And I’ve always thought that way, if that’s the worst that can happen you’d be foolish not to go for it.
“I was determined to play and train with the best players in the world. It might have been a leap of faith but sometimes you just have to do it. After playing for a few years in Holland I saw Kampong as the club I wanted to play for. They were doing things right and had some of the best players in the world.
“They were losing their goalkeeper so there was an opening there for me and I went for it.”
Four years later and Harte’s incredible list of achievements and scarcely-believable medal haul was completed in February when he helped Kampong to the Dutch title for the first time in 32 years.
Harte made big saves throughout the playoff finals against Rotterdam and indeed he and his team-mates will forever be immortalised in the history books of a hockey-mad country.
And when he’s not playing in Holland, Harte spends two months of the year in India where he has lined out for Dabang Mumbai for the last four seasons.
Bought for $11,000 as a foreign player in 2013, he was forced to bide his time in the franchise league but eventually displaced the Indian number one goalkeeper to become first choice.
In the second season, he was retained by Mumbai in the auction for $51,000 and for the last two years has been snapped up for a fee of $65,000, making him the most expensive goalkeeper in the competition.
“I never thought I’d be able to make any sort of living from hockey,” he admits. “When I started off it just wasn’t possible but now I’m a full-time professional playing in Holland and India.
“I remember I watched the first year of the competition when I was in Holland and thought it was brilliant and it was something I wanted to be part of. The best players in the world playing against each other over six weeks.
“I decided to put myself forward and again it comes down to that thing about what’s the worst thing that can happen to you?
“I remember I was at a teaching course in Amsterdam at the time and someone messaged me to say I was bought for the lowest fee but I didn’t care. That didn’t bother me one bit, I was going to be involved and that’s all that mattered.
“I didn’t have an agent or manager doing it for me, unprofessionally as you like, I was a young fella from Cork on a laptop communicating with India to be bought for $11,000 and now $65,000.
“I still get people asking me do I make money or saying you can’t get rich by playing hockey but what’s rich? How many people can say they’ve experienced things like I’ve got to do. It’s not always about the monetary value. I am playing the game I love for a living.”
And at every juncture, Harte breaks new ground.
Yet as he continues to make waves internationally, back home there’s little more than a passing acknowledgement, if even that, of his momentous achievements and status as one of the best players in a sport watched by billions of people worldwide.
“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating as the top quality athletes in this country, getting recognised is something they’ve earned through years of hard work and achievement.
“For me I’m not necessarily looking for any gratitude or coverage as if I was playing hockey to just gain from it in that regard I wouldn’t get far and would be dead and buried long ago. It’s not what I’m here for.
“It’s a known fact that it’s a minority sport and you can’t force someone to come and watch or write about hockey, we just need to go out and perform and the two you’d expect would go hand-in-hand. Success breeds more interest and followers.
“I know where I stand as a player and where the Irish team stand. Having Irish hockey up in instills a confidence in me and the other players, we don’t need articles and fans asking for selfies for that.”
“We have battered through other people’s perceptions of what we were able to achieve and we have set ourselves new goals starting with the World Cup qualifying tournament this month. We have made history already but this team wants to create more history.”
Harte is one of a handful of full-time professionals within the Irish set-up, but on the back of the a bronze medal at the 2015 European Championships, last summer’s Olympics and a move to ninth in the world rankings, more and more young Irish players are plying their trade abroad.
The Irish sporting public may largely be oblivious to it, but this golden generation, with Harte at the forefront, are bringing the national team to previously unimaginable levels.
Over the next couple of weeks, they’ll look to make more history by qualifying for a first World Cup since 1990 and certainly there is a realistic chance of achieving that goal at the qualifying tournament in South Africa.
Fulton’s side have won 11 of their last 12 matches, losing just once in 2017, and preparations for the tournament culminated with a 4-2 victory over the Olympic bronze medalists Germany last week.
“I almost get uneasy if we don’t have something to strive for,” Harte says. “If I retired today I would feel there is unfinished business there as I want to represent Ireland in a World Cup.
“The day I don’t want to get out of bed to make that journey back home from Amsterdam or up from Cork I’ll know it’s time to hang up the pads but I’m still driven and determined to achieve success with Ireland.
“If I’m being honest I am looking at stuff off the pitch for after hockey because you can’t play forever but all my focus is on qualifying for the World Cup now and then Tokyo. As long as a) I continue to enjoy hockey b) continue to be good enough and c) my body is still able to, I will report for duty and give everything for the cause.
“Right now, my career isn’t 100% completed and if I was to finish now I would, as crazy as it seems to say, be disappointed.
“I want to look back in 20 years time with my own children and appreciate the achievements more if it means others have been able to follow that same path and live the same dream.
“People say I’m the trailblazer and the pioneer but I’m only that if some of the younger players and next generation can do the same and hopefully achieve more than me.
“I may have been the first but I want to make sure I’m not the last Irish hockey player to play in India or win the Dutch title or captain our country at the Olympics.”
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