It was Aodhán O’Donnell’s birthday on Tuesday.
20.
He would’ve turned just 20 years of age.
It’s such a short space of time to be given on this earth and yet here’s a young man who lived every minute of it and lit up everyone else’s lives along the way.
He was a fierce Gael. He hurled with Na Magha in Derry, the only club flying the flag for the ash in the city and he represented his county too.
He was a student of St. Columb’s College, following in the footsteps of so many greats and leading the way for others.
And he was a family man. You’d do well to find more genuine people than the O’Donnells. His father Gerry and his mum Moira are just salt of the earth, they’re kind people with big hearts and they’re loved in the wider Derry community as are all the O’Donnells.
It’s his dad who would’ve taken so many of the photos that you see of the athletic teenager. It’s his dad who captures so many of the great moments in Derry.
For a talent like Aodhán, there were so many of those moments to catch.
He was a friend too. A big friend. A loyal one. A friend to so many. There was a huge network of them it seemed, a group of them from around the town and into the county where they’d go out together, go to concerts, go abroad and run in the same GAA circles – as big a rivals as they were family.
And he always had a big smile on his face, one that will stand the test of time but one that will make it all the sorer to say goodbye to.
A man like O’Donnell doesn’t just leave though. He leaves behind a legacy. And his memory will live on.
