A Ballyboden and GAA giant left us today. It is with great sadness that we learned that club President and Trustee, John O’Neill, has gone to his eternal reward. John was a Corkman, a GAA man and a Ballyboden man to his marrow, and his legacy will be felt for generations in Rathfarnham, Knocklyon, Firhouse and Ballyboden. He filled many roles in running teams and running Ballyboden St. Enda’s through the last forty plus years, and everything he did was approached with a principled stance, with passion and with a little bit of divilment. John truly loved Ballyboden St. Endas; he enjoyed the company of fellow members,enjoyed a pint in the bar, loved GAA and especially football, and he made it his life’s work to ensure that the club’s ethos, culture and assets were fiercely protected and defended. He was a man of hugely high standards and morals and insisted that Ballyboden St. Endas would adopt and maintain similarly high standards in all aspects of club activity. John visited the club in the last weeks of his life, and it was a relief to the Executive to hear from his daughter Sheena that the President approved of the improvement works undertaken during lockdown! John suffered ill health in the last number of months, but such was his courage, faith and backbone that he was ready to leave this world to rejoin his beloved wife Maureen. I am absolutely certain that Chief O’Neill will be looking down on us from above and holding us to account for the principled stewardship of the club which he paid such a huge part in building. It is often said, but in this case it is undeniably true – Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.
Everybody in the club extends our sincere sympathy to all of the O’Neill family on the loss of their dad and grandad and our President.
Ciaran Maguire Chairman