THE Meehan Family recently celebrated a very significant milestone in sporting circles when Ciaran was elected chairman of Castleview football club.

Ciaran now follows in the footsteps of his grandfather Declan, and his father Martin (Nipper) in being the third generation of their family to be chairman of the famous Northside club.

Grandfather Declan joined Castleview in 1959 from Red City to play with their minor team. He then moved to England for a few years.

On his return, he signed to play again with the club and went on to have a very successful time for the club.

He retired playing in 1973 and then went on to manage the Minor team. He was elected chairman in 1977 where he spent three years at the helm.

A very proud Declan is now 81-years-old and regularly visits O’Sullivan Park to see his grandchildren Ciaran, Darragh, Reece and Jayden, and great-grandchild Jay play for the club.

“I joined the Castleview when I was 18-year-old to play for their Minor team just before I moved to England for a few years,” Declan said. “When I returned I was approached by the late Nedzer Doherty who was on the management team of the Junior team at the time.

“He spent the night by my side, and wouldn’t leave me out of his sight until I signed, and I eventually signed in the toilet of the Top Of The Hill as Nedzer wouldn’t leave me out until I signed the form,” Declan said with a smile.

“I played with one of the best teams that came out of Cork in my opinion.

“We had wonderful players with the like of Christy Lynch, Davey Morris (RIP), Seanie Leary, Eddie King (RIP), Maurice Caulfield and many more.

“We won so many trophies every year in a 15-year period. I retired in 1973 and helped out managing the Minor Team for a couple of years.

”I was then asked to put my name forward to be chairman of the club in 1976.

“I was successful and spent three years in that position. We would hold our meetings in Nedzer’s barbershop on Blarney Street every Monday, so as you could imagine there was very little hair cut on Mondays.

”After my stint as chairman I became the first solo manager of the junior team for a year, as it was always one of the executive committees that managed the team.

”I still go watch as many games as I can with some of my former teammates, and enjoy watching my grandchildren and great-grandchild play for the club that means everything to me,” Declan said.

“Martin started playing for the View as a six-year-old, playing in the street leagues in the Chapel Field behind the Ascension Church organized by Timmy and the late John Flynn.

“He played every grade with the club, and was the winning captain on the 1999 City Challenge and St Michael’s cup teams.”

Martin, even small in size like his father, played in the forward line and was a prolific scorer over his playing career. He joined the committee in 1996 and became chairman in 2007 spending seven years in the position.

“I began playing with the View from a very young age, as it seemed the natural thing to do,” Martin said. "I played right up the ranks for the club and was always proud to wear the famous jersey.

“I spent seven years as chairman, whereas a committee saw the floodlights and the Astro training pitch come on stream in 2012.

“We had a great day of the opening of both ventures with Cork City veterans played our own veterans team.

“One person who put in trojan work on both these successful ventures was Roddy Power. I now help out coaching our U12 team, however, I managed a lot of teams in the club over the years,” Martin added.

Ciaran was elected chairman recently and now becomes the third generation of his family at the helm at the View.

Even though Ciaran is at a young age 28 he still plays for the club with the Senior and Junior teams, however, he is a very driven young man with some excellent ideas for the club.

“I’m playing for the club now for the last 18 years, and I’m very humbled to serve as chairman of this fantastic club,” said Ciaran.

“I’m coming into the position at a difficult time, as everything is at a standstill with Covid 19, so our main stream of income to the club our weekly lotto has taken a massive hit which is very challenging.

“However, we have a very hard working committee who are working hard behind the scenes, and I’m very confident that everything will be in place when the players get back playing football again.

“We have plans to make major upgrades to our facilities at O’Sullivan Park, adding four more dressing rooms (two ladies), a meeting room, and a gym, however, those plans are on hold at the moment.

“One big thing for me is try to connect some of our old players and members back with the club, so we can try to move the club to the next level on and off the pitch,” Ciaran added.

You can safely say that Castleview is in safe hands with Ciaran as chairman and if he ever needs advice he won’t have to go far for it.