Cathal BarryCathal Barry talks family, faith and football with former Dublin GAA star Ger Brennan
Ger Brennan doesn’t come across quite so formidable over a coffee. In fact, the former Dublin football star is as friendly off the pitch as he is fearsome on it.
This reporter caught up with the two time All-Ireland senior medallist shortly after he announced his decision to retire from inter-county football in October.
Such a decision for most talented sportsmen would mean heartache. But for the level-headed Brennan, who was really just in his footballing prime, it brought peace of mind.
“Since I have left I have felt great. When you make a decision sometimes you take control back and you get a bit of focus on your life. So from that point of view I’ve definitely made the right decision,” he told The Irish Catholic.
“I felt like I had fulfilled what I had always wanted to and the desire and the hunger to want more wasn’t where it needed to be to succeed at inter-county level,” he said.
The St Vincent’s defender had been injury riddled for some time but wanted to “finish on a high and finish playing on the pitch”.
“I tried my very best to get back,” he said, before ultimately coming to the decision to hang up his boots with the Dubs.
One would imagine it was difficult to watch from the side-lines as his former teammates hoisted the Sam Maguire yet again this year, but for Brennan “it was an affirmation” that he had made the right decision.
“When they lifted the cup there was a part of me that wished I was there but a part of me was very content that I had made the right choice. There is no disharmony in my decision in reality,” he said.
Club
Dublin’s loss is St Vincent’s gain, however, with Ger having recently returned to training with the Marino-based club.
He had missed the “feeling of belonging” that comes with playing as part of a team. “It’s great to have that sense of comradery again,” he said.
While GAA is high on his agenda, there’s much more to Ger Brennan than just football.
Having grown up in a “very supportive” family of nine children just off Dorset Street near Dublin’s city centre, Brennan attended the nearby Jesuit-run Belvedere College where he completed his Leaving Certificate and won a place on the school’s senior rugby team.
At the time, Ger’s local church was St Francis Xavier’s, popularly known as Gardiner Street Church on Upper Gardiner Street, near Mountjoy Square.
He was a member of the church’s well-known Gospel Choir and was taught music by Br Tom Phelan SJ.
Unsure after departing Belvedere as to what he wanted to study at third level, Ger’s interest in theology was peaked after a conversation with two fellow volunteers during a trip to Columbia who had been studying as lay students at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
The conversation brought about “a moment of clarity” for Brennan who went on to complete a Degree in Theology and Irish at the Kildare based Pontifical College.
Ger then went on to teach in his alma mater, Belvedere, for a year before returning to Maynooth to undertake a Masters in Pastoral Theology in an effort to put his “faith into practice”.
As part of the two-year-long MA programme, he completed a six-month pastoral placement in Ballymun, working and supporting priests in their daily duties and responsibilities.
“It was about continually growing and developing as a person and learning about your faith through your experiences but also through the classroom,” he said.
By the time Brennan took up a role in youth ministry for the Eucharistic Congress which was held in Dublin in 2012, he was now becoming established within the Dublin senior team.
Given that much of the pastoral work he was involved in required evening and weekend work which very often clashed with his training, Ger decided to backtrack into teaching again.
Trusteeship
He took up a position in St Kevin’s College, an all boy’s secondary school under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust based in Finglas.
At St Kevin’s, Ger primarily worked with children from broken homes and with their own various challenges and struggles.
“It gave me a great sense of gratitude for my own parents and my own family structure. It was a real privilege,” he said.
Ger taught Irish, religion and took some chaplaincy hours which he was well prepared for after completing three months clinical pastoral education at Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
Working with sick patients was a “real eye opener” for Ger and gave him “a sense of perspective and gratitude” for his own life.
“When I went into St Kevin’s I felt very well prepared in terms of what I was facing,” he said.
The next chapter in Ger’s career began last month when he took up the position of GAA Development Executive at University College Dublin (UCD) after the post was left vacant by the sudden death of former Dublin selector Dave Billings.
“The big emphasis in the job is student welfare and the pastoral needs of students,” he said, noting that roughly 900 of the 25,000 student population at UCD are members of GAA clubs.
“I have been entrusted now with their care and development and to hopefully form these young men and women into happier, more well-rounded individuals and when they leave UCD they will hopefully feel that their life has been enriched,” he said.
The role has other practicalities too of course, but the priority for Ger is to “empower and influence other people to reach their full potential”. “That what floats my boat,” he said.
Faith
Turning once again to his faith, for Ger, it is “a personal relationship” with God who is “expressed in the life of Jesus Christ and those who follow him”.
“That faith is enriched through an awareness of the Spirit in yourself and in other people. I believe strongly in that. It makes sense to me,” he said.
While Ger believes “strongly in the existence of something greater in the world”, he is also acutely aware of “the opposite, and that desire and pull to not follow your heart”.
Ger describes himself as a Catholic, however, doesn’t think “a person’s moral uprightness should be determined by their frequency at Mass”.
“It should be determined by how they treat other people, themselves and the world around them. That’s the yard stick by which I measure myself,” he said.
Ger admits he goes through “phases” of attending Mass every day for weeks and then wouldn’t go for an extended period of time.
Despite sometimes lengthy sojourns, however, Ger “always feels called back” to Mass.
Ger was a prominent voice on the ‘no’ side during the recent referendum on same-sex marriage and admits he “obviously still stands by” his decision.
At the beginning, he was “all for equality” as he puts it before he “began to read more and educate” himself about “what exactly the referendum was about”.
“To me there was more going on than just equality for gay couples. I felt the Government were emotionally hijacking people.
“I felt the Government were very clever in their wording and that got to me a bit because I felt there were a lot of questions that weren’t being answered,” he said.
Likening the wording of the so-called Marriage Equality Referendum to that of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, Ger said he felt the referendum was a “no brainer” to many people.
“Of course people are for the protection of life when phrased like that but there’s always something underneath,” he noted.
Ger was also highly critical of the ‘yes’ campaign during the marriage referendum for their treatment of people who were voting ‘no’ or those who hadn’t made their minds up.
“I felt there was an unfair treatment of people who were voting ‘no’ and those who weren’t sure whether they should vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by the ‘yes’ campaign.
“There was a total inequality in terms of how they were treated. The ‘yes’ campaign were all for equality provided people felt the same way as them,” he said.
“To me I don’t feel the ‘no’ campaign went about their business in the same way. I felt in anything I did publically or privately I always listened to people’s views and while I wouldn’t always agree with them I listened and gave my views in a respective manner.
“I think the vast majority involved in the yes campaign didn’t do that,” he said.
Wedding
On a lighter note, this Christmas will be a special one for Ger, his last at home with his parents, given his plans to wed his fiancée, Aisling, next December.
“I absolutely love Christmas, it’s a great period. It’s a time to reflect on your faith and being grateful for that gift of faith and being extra kind and generous to other people,” he said.
As for the future, Ger is looking forward to some long awaited structure.
“There has been so much change in my life of the last few months in terms of football, my career and the engagement. I feel a bit dragged in every direction.”
He’s also excited at the prospect of developing his own faith and prayer life further.
“I’m looking forward to centring myself again over the next couple of months and getting back into a routine of prayer and church. I’m looking forward to improving my commitment to my faith,” he said.
“If I was as disciplined in my prayer as I was in my training I could be the Pope!”
Now wouldn’t that be something?