Cuala’s Damien ‘Dayo’ Byrne is busy gathering and distributing donated bikes. With the help of Cuala’s Men’s Shed and the Bike hub in Dun Laoghaire some old bikes have been spruced up and are now being used by young Ukrainians who are living locally. Dayo explained that the guys who have recently turned 18 years of age have been rehoused locally and are living in locations in the borough which make it awkward to get to college and out and about generally. The Cuala Gym is one of their new ‘go to’ places. And last Friday afternoon a bunch of the guys were working out in the Cuala gym and one of them got to cycle home on his new mode of transport.

This is all part of Dayo’s work with the Sport and Social Integration Project (SSIP) that Dayo founded in Cuala almost 25 years ago. The initial focus of the project was to get local children involved in sport because there were so few children playing in Cuala. “One of the approaches we took back then was children first and sport second and due to a host of people who bought into this philosophy the club began to grow. Parents liked what they saw and they still do” according to Dayo who recalled his own journey in Cuala and the GAA family. “It started for me with getting a hurley for 2 Shillings when I was about 8 years of age. I went around Sallynoggin with my trusty rifle shooting everything than moved for weeks, before one of my big brother told me I could also use it to hit a ball as well”.

“I was very lucky to be taken under the wing of Kevin Kirwan at that age as I was a friend of his son Mick. Myself and Mick are still great friends and I have very fond memories of Cuala people like Kevin Kirwan who were so good to me as a young lad. Cuala nurtured me. I remember being told, ‘we should always be invited back’, whenever we visited a club”. Dayo recalls that having finished up playing minor for Cuala he came home to his mother’s house one day to be told Jimmy Doyle was looking for him. Dayo ran down the road to the phone box and rang Jimmy who invited him to play for the senior hurling team. Dayo didn’t even know Cuala had an adult hurling team at time. “If you show me you can hurl, I will keep you” said Jimmy and the cheeky reply from Dayo was “Well Jimmy if you show me you can manage, I will keep you”. Dayo went on to play for Cuala with Jimmy Doyle as his manager and mentor and with the Dublin hurling team as the number one goal keeper for many years.

But back to the bikes and Dayo. As a local post man back in the day he got to finish up work early in the day so Cuala asked Dayo if he would coach in the local schools. And Dayo began cycling between schools after a day’s cycling around delivering the post. This was the start of a legacy of Cuala coaching in local schools that is the source of what we know as Cuala today.

The SSIP has focused on many different cohorts especially the vulnerable over the years and now the need locally is the integration and support of people who are seeking shelter in our community. “Who knows who will be the next focus of the project, maybe it will be young people suffering the social impact of social media” says Dayo. Looking back on a very successful career as a player and as a coach in a club that grew from ‘stoney Gaelic Games soil’ to All Ireland successes and the magnificent growth of women’s sport, Dayo’s laments “It was the friendships that I enjoyed most, and it still is”. And finally, when asked what has Cuala really got to do with supporting refugees Dayo replied, “well sure if you are not taking care of the most vulnerable, you may throw your hat at it.” If anyone has a good bike lying in a shed that needs some peddling please contact Dayo at cualassip@gmail.com