PAT GILROY’S INVOLVEMENT with Dublin this season remains in doubt with boss Dessie Farrell confirming the St Vincent’s guru is unlikely to be back until the Championship, if at all.
Gilroy, who guided Dublin to their breakthrough All-Ireland win in 2011, returned to the backroom last year and was described by Farrell as a useful ‘sounding board’ during their successful 2023 season. Gilroy wore a Maor Uisce bib on All-Ireland final day against Kerry.
Freshly retired Dean Rock spoke during the week about no-nonsense Gilroy bringing a vital focus to the camp by ‘speaking really honestly’. Rock said that on a number of occasions, Gilroy ‘gave it to us between the eyes’ and would leave a ‘massive void to fill’ if not available again.
Asked after Dublin’s round three National League win over Roscommon about Gilroy’s situation, Farrell said they have been in contact but that the situation remains unclear.
“I had a chat with Pat earlier on and Pat, you know what Pat’s like yourselves: I’d be hoping that Pat would be back with us at some point in time,” said Farrell. “He has huge work commitments and a lot going on family wise and that type of thing. He said talk to him after the league and we’ll have a look at it then.”
Farrell became emotional during the post match press conference when discussing the passing of Dublin selector and long-time logistics man Shane O’Hanlon. He passed away suddenly while in Spain last weekend.
Dublin’s strong performance against Roscommon and seven-point win, their first victory of the campaign so far, amounted to a fitting tribute to the St Vincent’s man.
“We can’t believe he is not with us today,” said Farrell. “A special man. It was very surreal. There was the natural disruption because he was so involved in everything, trying to figure out…like, I don’t know how many times I have said it to him in the last few years, ‘Shane, we better document the stuff you do because if you are hit by a bus or decide to f*** off on us, we will be left clueless’.
“He would say, ‘I will get around to that’ but of course the inevitable happened. Life’s journey is that you lose people along the way. It has never happened to this group before. There are certain individuals who have lost close family members but by and large most of them have been protected by that. They are of an age that that hasn’t been a significant part of their lives yet. That was the first real sort of body blow that a lot of lads would have experienced.”
