PART 2. From darkness into light: Allstar Ronan McNamee opens up on his battle with depression – CREDIT – Cahir O’Kane, The Irish News

“The club was blown up twice in the troubles, they went through a s***load of aches and pains to get out the right side of it. It’s good for a lot more people than me”

Ronan McNamee is one of the most interesting and colourful characters on the current playing circuit. In the second part of his interview with Cahair O’Kane, he talks about the rumours of poisoned water, rows with team-mates, not caring what Pat Spillane thinks and where his deep-rooted republican side comes from…

IT’S as if everything that Ronan McNamee is comes from the hills and fields and trees that surround him. The family farm is the definition of ‘out of the way’. On the fringe of Aghyaran, the house sits up a narrow country road that would hardly hold two bicycles never mind two cars. It’s postcard Ireland. Green on all four sides. Rural, and raw. He’s never tried to be anything other than what he is. The man that was four years ago, at the height of his depression, is still the same man as a month ago and the same man that walked into Costa in Strabane, stopping at the doors to chat to a well-wisher. His ruralness, his rawness, they’re among his best qualities. Those that are closest to him have a great word on him. Friends, team-mates, even those that only occasionally make his acquaintance, they speak so highly. Everyone else will him judge him on what they see on a football field. And that goes back to the raven in his tattoo, and how he transforms when he goes to war. Steered by the need to win – “the most driven man on the panel,” said one team-mate – he can be a different man on the pitch. Uncompromising, unforgiving, unflinching. And always prepared with fire to meet fire. 

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