St.Davog’s Primary School Belleek marking the retirement of school’s GAA coaches Fabian Burns and Aodghan Murphy
TWO sport coaches who have been coaching GAA in schools throughout the county for almost 20 years have finally hung up their boots.
Fabian Burns from Enniskillen and Aodghan Murphy from Kinawley would be familiar faces on the playground of many schools, having worked in primary and secondary schools for the past two decades. Fabian and Aodghan have taught young people the basic skills of football and hurling with an emphasis on having fun.
Fabian Burns who was also heavily involved in Enniskillen Gaels is now enjoying retirement, and having time to relax.
“I had been doing this for almost 20 years. There comes a time when you have to say enough is enough. We went into every school in the county and it was a hectic day from start to finish as we worked from nine to three taking each class for 45 minutes at a time.
“We were essentially teachers at the end of the day and we had great craic with all of the students. We tried to deliver school to club links too, so that our work could be carried on,” said Fabian.
Aodghan Murphy has been working in schools for almost 15 years, and has fond memories of his time as a coach. Since his retirement, he has taken up farming full time.
“I have loads of good memories. It was a very rewarding job to work with the children and staff, and I will miss working with them. I have seen so many children grow up, and go on and play for the county, and complete wonderful achievements. It is a great feeling when these young people come up and talk to you about the memories they have from when we coached them in school – it shows we were doing something right.”
St Davog’s Primary School, Belleek said a special thanks to the two coaches and presented them with a gift to mark their time visiting the school.
“The pupils and staff of St Davog’s Primary school Belleek recently acknowledged the retirement of School’s Football and hurling coaches Fabian Burns and Aodghan Murphy. Fabian and Aodghan are popular and well-known faces around the schools of Fermanagh for almost two decades and their coaching prowess and kindness to the children will be sadly missed.”
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