AARON DEVLIN was afforded a little over 23 years on this earth, but he lived each and every day of them the way we all should.
The Ballinderry man was a precociously talented footballer. The wider world never really got to see that. His time in the red-and-white of Derry - despite handing him minor, U21 and senior football - was so heart-breakingly brief.
Barring an All-Ireland club title and an Ulster U21, he won everything he could have won with his club. Derry championships at U12, U14, U16, minor, U21 and senior level (the latter, three in-a-row) are all on his roll of honour, which is topped by Ulster club titles at minor and senior level. He won D’Alton and Corn na nÓg titles with St Mary’s, Magherafelt, and so very nearly guided them to a MacRory title in 2011.
But his medal collection, as handsome as it was, tells so little of the natural talent he had. He could play anywhere. At U16, he gave the world an early glimpse of his genius. Down in Lissan, a championship semi-final in its last throes and Magherafelt leading by three, having at one stage been eight points up. Aaron Devlin picked the ball up right out on the wing. He took off. He ran. Some 20 yards from goal, he dipped a stunning shot into the top corner.
Ballinderry won, and went on to claim the title. It was the mark not only of his ability, but his leadership. As he went on up through the years, he went up through the gears too. He was not only excelling on club teams, but he was leading a gutsy group at St Mary’s, Magherafelt as well.
The culmination of their efforts was the campaign of 2010-11. He shone so brightly in their MacRory play-off game against Maghera, their quarter-final against a strong Omagh CBS and their ultimately gut-wrenching semi-final defeat by eventual Hogan Cup winners St Colman’s, Newry.
In the few months before his death last July, the Convent reached a Rannafast Cup final. Aaron, a straight-A student not long qualified as a physio and in the midst of a Masters, offered to lend a hand to his old MacRory boss John McElholm.
“He would have been going through Magherafelt and he’d just have popped in. You’d have been teaching a class and in would have walked Dook [his nickname], the big smiley head, looking to see the craic,” said McElholm last year.
In playing terms, most of his football was played in the half-forward line, but he’d laugh that “the running out there is pure ket”. He could be lethal inside. He also ran the show from centre-back when Ballinderry came within an hour of an Ulster U21 club title.
At 18-years-of-age, still a minor, he forced his way into Ballinderry’s all-conquering championship team. With his close friend Tony Martin, they took hold of the two wing-half forward slots for the 2010 campaign. That was an incredibly rare achievement. It had been 15 years since the last crop to do that, with Enda Muldoon, Gerard Cassidy and Adrian McGuckin jnr all playing on the 1995 team.
As a 19-year-old, he was a starter for Derry U21s. In 2011, he almost took Crossmaglen on his own in an Ulster club semi-final. British army battalions failed over decades in attempting what this precocious 19-year-old almost managed in an hour in bringing Cross to their knees.
In the end, playing much of the game with 14 men caught up on Ballinderry as Crossmaglen fended off a brilliant rally. There were so many notable performances on the field in a life cut tragically short. But it was off the field that he left his mark on so many.
Beneath golden skies last Friday, his family and clubmates gathered to launch the Ulster Club Open. A golf tournament to be held on Friday, July 8, they are confident the world of sport - not just the GAA - will come together to battle it out over 18 holes at Killymoon Golf Club.
Former county team-mate Mark Lynch recalled last Friday getting skinned by the young Devlin in a McKenna Cup game at Celtic Park when he was just a cub. Mattie Donnelly would have spent a fair degree of time in his company as well, with Aaron having been particularly friendly with Mattie’s younger sibling Richie. His tales were of the social scene in Belfast.
Two sides of the same coin: “Brilliant footballer, better fella,” as one described him.
The proceeds from the Ulster Club Open will go towards a lasting and fitting tribute. The Aaron Devlin Pitch will be an 80x40m 4G training pitch, complete with a skills wall, the idea for which was put forward by Aaron’s eldest sibling Ronan, who is a GAA coach with the Tyrone county board. It will bear two iconic images of Aaron and his playing roll of honour. It’s fitting that his impact will be felt by future generations who wear the white-and-blue of Ballinderry.
His family have done sterling work over the past 12 months in raising money for Meningitis Now. A jersey was specially commissioned bearing ‘Dook 23’ on the back and his other nickname ‘Azza’ on the chest. They hoped to sell 100 when one of Aaron’s friends, Matthew Nelson, suggested the idea.
Those jerseys have travelled the world and such was their popularity that a second order was handed out last week, bringing the total number bought to over 1,300, with all the profits going to Meningitis Now.
Now, the Devlin family are able to fulfil their wish of giving something back to the community that treated them so well in that most difficult of times. Eugene Devlin, the head of the clan and an ex-Tyrone and Moortown player, came up with the idea for the golf day.
The club - and by that, you mean Ballinderry’s citizens, Aaron’s friends, neighbours, team-mates, all of them feeling the loss themselves - stood up to be counted in an unforgettable way last July.
Killymoon was the obvious venue for this venture. All the family enjoy a round there still.
For a while, Aaron Devlin worked there behind the bar. He loved it. It was the perfect foot-up for someone of his endlessly jovial nature. Nothing was ever taken too seriously. That included football. Brilliant, naturally gifted and hard-working when it came the time, he was equally able to park it and give it its due prominence in life.
Life. Something Aaron Devlin was so full of. Ballinderry will never forget him in any case, but the permanent memorial they now work towards is truly fitting and deserves to be supported.
