Keith and Damien O’Connell are walking the Rocky Road to Dublin this week in honour of their friend David Conroy, who tragically passed away last year.
The brothers are undertaking the long walk from Tuam to Ayrfield United in Coolock to keep alive the tireless work David did for football in Ayrfield and his adopted home in Laytown.
David, who is mourned by his wife Jackie and five young children, Lee, Cheryl, Alex, Dayne and Heidi, sadly passed away on his way to work on August 19, 2021.
He was co-founder and director of football at Laytown United, working six nights a week coaching kids at the Meath club after relocating from the Foxhill estate in Ayrfield.
David was a devoted family man and a lynchpin of the young community in Laytown and his death, at the age of 41, shocked and saddened both communities.
He was a lover of traditional ballads, and the Dubliners in particular, and his lifelong friends Keith and Damien are walking the famous Rocky Road in his honour.
Keith, who is chairman of Ayrfield, and brother Damien, under-14s coach at Laytown, have set up a GoFundMe in aid of both clubs to keep David’s legacy going.
They’ve already well surpassed the halfway mark of their 7,000-euro goal, which will be split evenly between Ayrfield and Laytown as they look to help the next generation develop.
“Our friend David Conroy was killed in a car crash last August, on the 19th of August,” Keith O’Connell tells Dublin Live on the latest pitstop on the route.
“He was involved in Ayrfield for years. He grew up right around the corner, and he played and managed right up from schoolboy to senior level.
“A lot of people from our area moved up to Laytown because of house prices and he, basically, moved up there and founded a new club Laytown United. “
“He was a pillar of the community up there in Laytown. He had 350 kids up there playing football and it's all because of him. He was literally the guy who done everything.
“A couple of weeks before he passed away, he took a week off work to plan a summer camp for the kids, re-sodding the goal lines. He repainted the dressing rooms literally a week before he passed away.
“David lived next door to us growing up in Foxhill in Ayrfield. He loved his ballads and he loved the Dubliners, so we thought it would be a tribute to him to do the Rocky Road. Damien was saying to me, 'he'd f***ing love this.' You know that kind of way?”
Keith and Damien walked 45km from Tuam to Ballyforan on Monday before travelling 26km to Athlone on Tuesday. They plan to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.
All the money raised will go towards David’s twin passions - Ayrfield United and Laytown United - to help them introduce proper facilities for players.
Ayrfield currently rely on local GAA club O’Tooles to provide dressing rooms for referees and away teams as the home side operate out of Portakabins with no toilet facilities.
Layfield have launched their own fundraising initiative, with Ray Houghton among the Liverpool Legends set to play a game at Head in the Game Park in Drogheda.
Half the money will go towards getting Ayrfield’s plans to access water facilities over the line, while the other half will go to continue David’s work at Laytown.
As Keith explains, it’s all about keeping David’s memory alive in their own hearts and carrying on the immense work he did in local sports.
He says: “We're just looking to keep his memory alive and continue his work on. He put so much work in.
“Every single player who's played at Laytown, he coached, through the academies. A couple have gone on to Drogheda United, a couple have gone on to England.
“We want to continue his work on. My brother Damien and David got on with a heap of work - it was them two that were running things up there and the driving force.
“One of Dave's teams that he was coaching have since folded, and I know that's killing me brother. We're trying to keep the good work he done going.
“He was working with kids six nights a week and then matches at the weekend. It was a huge amount of work that he put in.
“When he was killed he was on his way to work, which he used to start early. He was the foreman with his job [as a steel worker].
“He used to start early crazy early just to get home, have a bit of family time and the evenings were spent up at Seafield [Laytown's grounds] coaching kids.
“That's how his life was every week. Even the night before, he trained Laytown's under-14s and my brother's son, Alex, who's only 13, plays in that team.
“That was the last session he done. Literally right up until nine o'clock the night before. And that was the night of his 15th anniversary, so you can imagine how well that went down with his partner. Just to give you a picture of the kind of work he was putting in.”
Donations to the Rocky Road to Dublin, in tribute to David Conroy, can be made here.
