In 1984 , the year of the Los Angles Olympics was a significant year for the Mervue G.A.A club. A great bunch of lads managed by Galway & Mervue Star Brian O’Donnell and assisting him was Johnny McCormack and Con O'Donovan reached the All-Ireland semi-final stage of the Gormanstown College Football All-Ireland series. The tournament was based on 9-a-side back then the team trained at 7:30am to 8:30am . Afterwards the team would gather round and watch the Olympics . The weather conditions back then at that time was ideal for football. According to Enda Mulrooney "We had beautiful summers and it was a joy to play football to say the least. At this time we had 3 players in with the Galway panel and among them were Neil Naughton, Albert Hardiman and Eric Elwood. I recall us playing Barna in the Galway feile ‘A’ final at St. Mary’s College Galway . We won the game comfortably and would go onto play Castlebar Mitchell’s in the Connacht final".
In addition, "The game was played in McHale Park and it was one hell of a game. Again we emerged winners of this contest. But it was closer affair in comparison to the county final. Unfortunately, our journey would come to an end at the semi-final stage against current Dublin manager Jim Gavin club Round Tower. That year is a memory that will live on with me for the rest of my days. It was a joy to play football with these lads and the guidance from the coaches was exceptional to say the least".
In this video you can you can see Con O'Donovan and the Mervue GAA team representing Galway & Connacht and wearing the Connacht colours at the half-time parade. Furthermore the team manager Brian O'Donnell was playing for Galway that day and we will tell that story again, a man who contributed so much on and off the field. Finally an interesting factor to note was that Mervue are beside Laune Rangers of Kerry in the parade and in 2016 Laune Rangers hosted St. James' in the National Féile.
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