By John McIlwaine
Con Magees Glenravel received a double blow on Wednesday with the death of two prominent club members Francis O’Loan and Kevin Carey. Francis passed away early on Wednesday morning, some four weeks after suffering a stroke, while Kevin lost his battle with cancer a few hours later. Both men were members of the Con Magees team who won the Antrim Division 1 League back in 1957, Francis one of four O’Loan brothers on the team with Anthony, Dominic and Colm in that breakthrough season.
However Kevin Carey’s lifetime in the club would not be defined by his playing career, but by his administrative work and his years of dedicated service to his beloved Con Magees. He must have set some sort of record when he took over as club secretary at just sixteen years of age, a position he held for more than thirty years before moving on to various committee roles including Chairman and President, a position he held right up until his death. During his lifetime of service he was relentless in his efforts to improve the club both on and off the field. Whenever funds had to be raised Kevin was at the heart of it all, be it raffles, carnivals, the marquee dances in the sixties, or the weekly lotto, he was clocking up endless miles selling tickets. He was a central figure in the club for more than sixty years and he has left a large void which will be very hard to fill.
Francis O’Loan’s playing career was ended prematurely when he broke his leg in one of the games near the end of the 1957 League campaign. When he qualified as a teacher he took up a post at St John’s Primary School in Carnlough and went to live in the village. By a strange twist of fate the Parish Priest in Carnlough was Fr Toal, the man who had started the Con Magees club in Glenravel half a century earlier. Fr Toal asked Francis if he would help start a club in Carnlough and along with like-minded men in the parish they got it up and running, though sadly it is now defunct. In later years Francis came back to teach in St Mary’s PS in Cargan where he passed on his love knowledge of the GAA to the pupils there.
On Saturday the parish of Glenravel and the Con Magees club will lay them both to rest, Francis after Requiem mass at 10am and Kevin three hours later at 1pm in Mary Queen of Peace. The two men who wore the green and white in that league winning run more than sixty years ago will be bid a fond farewell.
