The Long Game

ejiggers, it’s hard to keep up with the Hattons and their record-breaking achievements and big shiny awards.

It doesn’t help, of course, that there’s about 4,327 of the feckers around here.

Give or take.

Then again, that most of them are here because of brothers Danny and Jimmy Hatton means all that over-achieving makes quite a lot of sense.

We spoke with the 86-year-old Jimmy last June, reminiscing about his time as one of the GAA’s most respected – and feared – referees of the 1960s and ’70s. And the man has eight All Ireland medals to prove it.

And then there’s his kid brother, 84-year-old Danny, who has just been recognised by Wicklow GAA with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication, inspiration and perspiration to sport over the past – wait for it – 7 decades.

Or 68 years, if you’re still using the old money.

Having first started kicking around a football at the age of 12 for Greystones CBS, Danny would go on to play for three clubs through his teenage years, lining out for Newtown as a juvenile and winning – alongside Jimmy – a Senior county title with his native Kilcoole when he was just 17.

In the blink of an eye – and having settled down with the apple of his eye, Marie, in Killincarrig – Danny was soon coaching not his only children but hundreds of others at Greystones’ Éire Óg club, where he would go on to become President before handing in his boots and his badge at the tender age of 80.

“This award came as a real surpise,” says Danny when we swung by his doorstep this afternoon. “Being involved with Éire Óg and the other clubs throughout all these years, it was just part of my everyday life. I loved it, and never thought twice about doing what I could to help young players get on that pitch and maybe even win a game…

“Not that winning is what it’s all about, of course, but, it is one of the best feelings in the world.”

And holding the framed Garden County Awards 2020 line-up this afternoon – with his own inclusion down on the bottom left – seems to give Danny a pretty good feeling too.

“I’m truly honoured to get this,” smiles Danny. “And I can’t wait until Marie and I are able to go out and celebrate it.

“Fingers crossed, it won’t be long now. So, watch out…”