Michael Duffy: going with his gut feeling

The short period between the All-Ireland semi-finals and the All-Ireland final of 1967 was a significant time in the life of Michael Duffy.On radio, he listened to Meath v Mayo semi-final - and by the time the All Ireland, featuring Meath and Cork, was to take place, the Duffy family had just taken possession of their first television set - black and white, of course - meaning he could now put faces to the names of the heroes of the time, but especially, Meath's "Red" Pat Collier, who had really captured his imagination.Those games are among Michael's earliest sporting memories, and they mark a significant point in his life: the birth of his life-long love of sport - a love that in fact led to him coming up with the idea, in 2001, to set up the still-running Westmeath Football Supporters' Club.This year is to represent another significant point in Michael's life. For years, as a pensions advisor with local firm AON Toal, he's been helping other people prepare for their retirement: now, having just turned fifty this week, he's about to retire himself."I'm one of these people who go by their gut feeling. I always had it in my mind that I'd be able to retire at fifty if I wanted to, and the last year and a half I've found it very frustrating, like I suppose in any business now you have red tape and bureaucracy and all that sort of crap - I'm from the old school and I find it very hard to handle that," says Michael."So I'm getting out before the stress levels get too much for me," he continued.He began his career in financial services 31 years ago, starting off initially as a temporary clerical officer with Westmeath County Council before moving to Dublin to take up a permanent job with the PMPA. In 1982, he left PMPA to work with AON Toal, and in March, he is retiring."I've seen a huge change in the last number of years: the fun and sport is gone out of our game, everyone is running at a hundred miles an hour, nobody takes the time to talk to you."I'm going to take a break for a few months but I won't go back into financial services. I'd probably like something in the outdoor life: I love gardening and I grow all my own vegetables, so whether I go with that sort of thing I don't know."GAA involvementMichael has always proven his love for the GAA in a very tangible fashion. Incidentally, Michael enjoys soccer as well, and has amassed close to 20,000 programmes from both disciplines over the years. From a young age, his father used to bring him every Sunday in Cusack Park to watch the club matches and Michael went on to play football for Westmeath Under 14s as a goalkeeper, but played most of his junior football with Multyfarnham until he retired at 26.That commitment led on to his idea in 2001 of setting up the Supporters' Assocation. Michael had always been very involved with fundraising, primarily with the GAA, but also for Lourdes, where he goes as a helper every year, and also for the likes of Crumlin Hospital, Special Olympics and the Wheelchair Association."I do a lot of fundraising and I get a kick out of it. I mostly organise table quizzes and I love what's involved - I like begging!"Supporters Group"Westmeath had won the minor All-Ireland in '95, an Under 21 All-Ireland in '99, and they had won another minor Leinster in 2000, so the material was there, but nobody seemed to be saying they'd put a bit of effort into these boys and see if they could win something."I just felt it a pity to let all that talent go by without giving them a hand. It was going to need money to get success," explains Michael."So we set up the Supporters Group and we approached business people who would have a bit of power and would be able to raise a bit of money."We had our fundraising ideas and it was going to be big money we were aiming for - the day of the £5 or £10 draw was gone - and it went like a dream."Everybody was a little bit apprehensive at first because we were selling £100 tickets and you were going out looking for match sponsorship from commercial clients and stuff like that, but it's amazing how it took off from there," he says.Michael was secretary of the Supporters' Club for three years, and the Club raised roughly €100,000 a year to keep the team going. Luke Dempsey came and went however and time was running out for Westmeath to win anything at senior level. Meath kept beating them in the first round of the Leinster every year. That was until Paídí Ó Sé came along.The Ó Sé years"Paídí coming in was a big turning point," says Michael. "I didn't know him from Adam and he appointed me co-ordinator of the County team," he continues."I have to say he was professional."His strong points were that he could pick out people who could get the job done, so he had a great backroom team behind him, and they were always loyal to him, as he was to them."His other strong point was motivation of the team and discipline. I never saw discipline in Westmeath until Paídí came along and by Jesus he had everybody hopping. There was no messing, there were no excuses, if you couldn't train it was 'stay at home'."And as everyone knows the rest is history: Westmeath won the Leinster. But Michael feels it will be a long time again before this county sees another day like that."The biggest regret was not getting to an All-Ireland final that year because we were good enough to win it, but we let ourselves down against Derry."I had an awful feeling for a full two weeks before that match that we weren't going to beat them, and we should've because Derry were useless, but our lads had gotten it into their heads that they had won the Leinster and they got complacent," he says.So what do Westmeath need to get back up there?"The underage is completely neglected. In 2000 we were mad underdogs but we beat Dublin by three or four points and won a minor Leinster final. There's nine championship years gone by since that and we've won three minor championship games - Kilkenny, Wexford and Carlow. Does that not tell you something?"To me the fault lies with the people who appoint the management teams. Until Westmeath get that right they are going nowhere."Michael stayed on as co-ordinator for the two years Paídí was there, and another year with Tomás Ó Flatharta before stepping down. Again the gut feeling was there.Now Chairman of the Crookedwood Camogie Group - just to keep his hand in, Michael said he wouldn't rule out another career stint with the GAA."I'll never say I'd never get involved again. If the right opportunity or job came up, I might involved in the GAA again."So with Michael's extensive financial background, how soon does he see Ireland recovering from the economic downturn?"I think we are in for a rough, rough ride. Things are being buttered up to make it feel that things are right but they're not, they're far from being right," says Michael."We're our own worst enemy, we squandered the bags of money that we made, we have no proper facilities in place for recovery - even in sports, we have no proper soccer stadium, after all the World Cups we were at and all the World Championships, we wasted it all."In fairness to the GAA, people may hate them, they may not like them but, they'd show you how to do things right.As regards the country, the building industry here is finished, I'd be very worried about jobs. I've two daughters myself in third level and when they come out I don't know what's going to be there for them."The positive side to that is, Europe and the rest of the world are coming out of recession. Even looking at my own pension funds, my own pension funds this time last year were down 40% on the previous year, now it's only down about maybe seven or eight percent," he says. "Ireland's in bad shape and we would be coming out of the recession like everybody else only there was too much skullduggery going on."I was through recessions before when I was younger. I didn't really know what they were but at the time I knew we had enough to get by and you were happy with that. And that's where the problem is - younger people have never seen it, they had way too much and until they stop and say we have to knuckle down, that's only when the change will come. But recession is no harm, if we learn from it, then it will be no harm."