Fans queue in midday sun to meet Westmeath heroes
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Westmeath supporters enjoyed a wonderful day at TEG Cusack Park, meeting the new Leinster SFC champions.Image 2 of 17
Ronan Wallace, Westmeath captain, leads out the new Leinster Champions with the Delaney Cup to kick start a special event at TEG Cusack Park on Sunday. INSET RIGHT: Linda, John, Dylan and Ethan Fitzpatrick with the Delaney Cup.Image 3 of 17
The scene at TEG Cusack Park on Sunday. Photos: J McCauley.Image 4 of 17
Karen Gaffney and Sandra Walsh at the Westmeath senior footballers’ open training session in TEG Cusack Park on Sunday.Image 5 of 17
Westmeath fans greet the newly crowned Leinster SFC champions.Image 6 of 17
Harry Flynn, Tom Colleary, Niall Headuan and Dervla Heduan, with Westmeath's Brían Cooney, who joined elite group of Lake County goal scorers against Dublin in senior football, and of course, in Leinster SFC finals.Image 7 of 17
Oisín Conway with Ray Connellan.Image 8 of 17
Mark McHugh addresses the supporters in TEG Cusack Park.Image 9 of 17
Aaron Dolan of St Paul’s Clonmellon with manager Mark McHugh.Image 10 of 17
Kevin O’Sullivan with Julie Bagnall, Chloe Bagnall, Ciara, Fionn O’Neill and Killian O’Neill from RochfortbridgeImage 11 of 17
Shane Ormsby with Noah and Emer Martin from Tubberclair.Image 12 of 17
Sophie Fox, Ethan Brennan and Charlie Fox with Dillon Matthews.Image 13 of 17
Jack Duncan with Damien and Dermot Spollen from Killucan.Image 14 of 17
Jack Duncan with Padraic, Mary, Katie and Molly Slevin from Streamstown.Image 15 of 17
Leon McCarthy Gahan and Joshua Kelly.Image 16 of 17
Ronan Wallace ‘under top security’ from Brendan Hogg and Gerry Farrelly, two well-known TEG Cusack Park stewards.Image 17 of 17
Linda, John, Dylan and Ethan Fitzpatrick with the Delaney Cup.He may just have returned to the Westmeath panel a couple of weeks ago, but John Heslin remains a firm favourite with fans if the line of people queuing to meet him in TEG Cusack Park on Sunday morning was anything to go by.
Close to a thousand young (and not so young) Westmeath Gaels attended the new Leinster champions’ open training session to meet their heroes and get all manner of merchandise signed.
While all of Mark McHugh’s squad were busy signing autographs and getting their pictures taken with fans, the lines for the bainisteoir, captain fantastic Ronan Wallace and Westmeath GAA’s prodigal son Heslin were undoubtedly the longest.
In fact, when Cusack Park’s buzzer went after an hour and a half of meeting and greeting, there were still hundreds of people waiting for photos with the three most popular men in Westmeath this summer.
The victory over Dublin to secure Westmeath’s second Leinster title has really captured the public imagination. And it was not hard to see just what it meant to the fans to get to chance to interact with the men who have brought so much joy and pride to the Lake County in recent weeks.
Likewise, the players and management team seemed genuinely moved by the large crowd that turned out and the response from the public in the week since Wallace became only the second Westmeath man in history to lift the Delaney Cup, following in the footsteps of Garrycastle's David O'Shaughnessy in 2004.
Speaking at the start of the event, McHugh thanked the Westmeath fans for their support for the team in Croke Park and during this most memorable of championship runs.
While it means a lot to the players and him, the Donegal man said that it is vital that the fans continue to stick with the team after their championship odyssey comes to an end.
With at least two games left to go in this season’s All-Ireland series starting with Cavan in Mullingar this Saturday evening (5pm), no one in Cusack Park was thinking too far ahead.