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19th Jul 2016

Is this 14-year-old the most committed hurler in the UK?

Just another man with a dream of playing in Croke Park

Conan Doherty

Fearghal Mairn can’t get enough.

The 14-year-old is going through four-hour round-trips just to get to training in England.

GAA folk will do all sorts for their clubs, for their counties, and for the love of the game.

Some don’t have much choice. Take Donegal for example, try finding a handy away fixture there.

And it was Donegal where it all started for the young Kent resident too.

After a holiday in the north-west of Ireland, Fearghal Mairn was handed a hurl from his uncle (Damien Brady, a former hurler with Cavan) and he hasn’t put it down since.

So he travels 85 miles from Canterbury to Croydon every Thursday after school just to train with his nearest GAA club.

Journey

From door to door, Mairn’s journey is actually much longer than maps would lead you to believe. Two hours in the car.

“When they ask him at school what he wants to do with his life, he says he wants to hurl in Croke Park,” Fearghal’s mother Catherine takes turns with his father to drive him to training and she spoke with the Irish Post.

“It’s only a small window in a person’s life and if we can do anything to keep that passion going, we’ll do it. It’s just so important to him.

“The only training he’s ever missed is the two-week period for school exams. He hates missing it.”

https://twitter.com/IrishPostSport/status/755358786760704000

You can go anywhere in the world now and you’ll still see it, the Gaelic influence. You can go anywhere in the world and you’ll find a piece of home.

Sometimes, that comes in a four-hour car journey to training.

Sometimes it comes with a bunch of lads pucking around on a San Diego beach.

Listen to our new GAA podcast with Colm Parkinson. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

https://soundcloud.com/user-787320910/the-gaa-hour-with-colm-parkinson-tyrone-and-galway-are-back-but-these-dubs-are-not-going-away

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10

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