ON Monday, Willie Mhici Gallagher made his final journey passing the Gaoth Dobhair GAA pitch one last time.

Willie won five senior championship medals with Gaoth Dobhair and also won championships in London and San Francisco. He also represented Donegal with pride.

Fast-forward to today and I personally have a lot to thank Willie for as I am now married to his daughter Sarah, but he also gave me way more than that.

Growing up, my house was more of a soccer house. With my own father being on Liverpool’s books as a young fella and with us also being from Glasgow, naturally soccer was the game that we followed. When we moved to Gaoth Dobhair obviously the GAA was a big deal but as my father only played soccer and didn’t play GAA, all I saw growing up was soccer.

My older brother Stephen played GAA but for me it was never a passion or an interest at that age.

When I first met Sarah and got to know Willie, it was then that I started to hear all the stories about the great players that lined out for Gaoth Dobhair. The Jackie Coyles, the Hughie Tims, The Hudie Beags, the Neilly Gallaghers – all of those great players who help create a legacy and helped turn our club into the biggest and most successful in Donegal.

Every night I visited the house, Willie would share stories about old games and rivalries and I soaked it all up like a sponge. At that time our club had gone 41 years without winning a county title and we spoke about how much things had changed from Willie’s time when they dominated the club scene here in Donegal.

These stories started to stick with me and I left my soccer days behind and the GAA started to become a real passion for me. I became obsessed with Gaoth Dobhair and since then my whole life has been dedicated to trying to get our club back to those days.

Every Christmas after dinner when we would be sharing a few beers with his sons and nephews, he would jokingly ask me ‘how many championships do you have now?’

When we won Ulster last year the party was back in Teach Mhicí, Willie’s pub that Sarah and I now run, and Willie joined the celebrations.

Neil McGee and myself were sat in the corner with Willie having a beer and talking about what it meant to win the Ulster title. Willie went on to say that never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that one day his club would get to the top in Ulster. Then in the next breath he went on to tell us that we still never caught up with his medal haul. I think it’s time to accept that he has beaten us on that one as his five trumps our three at this stage.

Looking back now I am delighted that he saw those great days last year and I know he was extremely proud that his beloved club has returned to the top of the pile here in Donegal.

Had I not met Sarah and, in turn, hadn’t spent so much time in Willie’s company, I doubt very much if I would have become so passionate about Gaoth Dobhair GAA and indeed the GAA in general so I have a lot to thank him for.

The power of speech and story is so powerful and now with all that’s happening in the world at the moment we all have more time on our hands so I encourage people to sit down and share stories. You just don’t know who you will inspire to do what.

Talk to your older relatives or next-door neighbours and find out about life when they were young. Those amazing stories would have been lost except people like Willie took time to share them with us. Now that this crazy world has made us all take a step back from our hectic lives, we should use that time wisely and try and find out more about the people around us. I guarantee you that you will learn way more than you ever will from those stories that you ever would scrolling through your phone or a computer screen.

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