Black Bush Golf Membership, Dunshaughlin. Based 1987
A sunny Saturday in late March and the scene at Black Bush Golf Club must be seen to be believed.
It’s like some extras from Mel Gibson’s Braveheart – filmed partially in Eire – have gone rogue and popped up all these years in a while the acres of parkland simply exterior Dunshaughlin.
This 12 months’s Captain’s Drive-In is a tribute to historic Eire and its mythic legend. Males’s captain Rory Glennon is styled as one other Rory – Rory O’Connor, the final Excessive King of Eire.
Women captain Claire Healy is dressed to characterize Queen Maeve, the Queen of Connacht in keeping with epic folklore.
Main a bunch that features the junior captains are two Irish Wolfhounds, two award winners in present who’ve been to Crufts and toured Europe in their very own proper.
Lining the strategy to the clubhouse are tons of of members who’ve turned out for the day to lend their help to the normal tee-off by the incoming captains.
This one takes place in full ceremonial gown, to a lot amusement and light-hearted slagging.
Simply so as to add an area contact, Glennon pulls off his garb to disclose a Meath jersey beneath, the Kepak legend a nod to a different proud sporting custom.
The Black Bush crest exhibiting the motto ‘Spóirt agus cairdeas’ (sport and friendship)
‘Spórt agus cairdeas’ is the logo on the Black Bush crest.
In so some ways, this golf membership lives as much as that motto of sport and friendship.
A brief chip from the primary tee is the professional store which has Shane O’Grady’s title above the door – mentor and coach to Leona Maguire for as long as she smashed golf’s glass ceiling for Irish ladies’s golf and continues to fly the flag.
Lauren Walsh and Max Kennedy are a part of a steady of different gamers on O’Grady’s books who proceed to push the envelope on the totally different excursions.
For O’Grady too, 2026 represented a milestone 12 months by way of his affiliation with the Bush.
And to assume that the purple corrugated roof that continues to be in place is a remnant of the previous cowshed the place the primary membership conferences befell.
And never that way back both.
The three units of 9 holes have matured into a tricky check of parkland golf nevertheless it’s lower than 40 years that this identical stretch was simply farmland.
It took the membership’s personal ‘Well-known 5’ to deliver the membership into being.
The Black Bush Golf Membership in 2005, again row, l to r; Pat Kenny (Bulmers), John O’Grady, Seamus Morrison, Tony Cotter, Daire Foran, Pat Connolly, Gerry Mangan, John Donnelly, Liam McKay, George Gear. Entrance row (l-r), Kieran Dunne, Pat Kelly, Christy Hynes, Myles O’Connor, Membership Captain, Barry McDonnell, Staff Supervisor, Terry Moore, Tony Finn, forward of the Bulmers Pierce Purcell Protect semi-final in Rosslare Golf Membership, Rosslare, Wexford
THE BEGINNING
In April 1987, this ‘Well-known 5’ of founder members put the primary wheels in movement. These 5 had been Seamus Ryan, Leonard Morgan, Hugh Doyle, Jim Marsden and Aiden Burns.
A public assembly befell at Dunshaughlin Group School with the view to organising a members golf membership within the space and a website was picked near an area landmark often called ‘The Black Bush’.
That space was behind the well-known institution, the County Membership.
Circumstances across the planning permission meant {that a} totally different, even higher website was in the end sourced, 186 acres of farmland on the outskirts of Dunshaughlin that was the previous property of the Craigie household.
A sum of £250,000 was wanted to amass the positioning and a brand new plan centered on creating three 9 holes, reasonably than the unique deliberate 18.
It was designed by the late Bobby Browne, the resident skilled at Laytown & Bettystown who served as secretary of the Irish PGA for a few years.
Having 27 holes put it within the uncommon, elite firm of the likes of Portmarnock GC.
However, as Vivian Marsden explains, it began from humble beginnings. Her husband Finbarr is a son of Jim, one of many founders, and so they all have been intently concerned from the very begin.
‘The Professional store then was a cow shed,’ she explains. ‘That was again in 87.
The Black Bush Golf Membership, Meath, staff Vivian Marsden, captain, proper, with Noeleen Kelly, left, and Adrienne Bowen on the 2011 Solheim Cup Membership Problem Leinster Last in Dun Laoghaire.
‘It was initially meant to be up behind the County Membership, as a result of that’s the place the title got here from, however the transfer labored so effectively.’
And the membership was forward of its time too in providing full membership rights to ladies from the beginning, in contrast to some others. A clubhouse was rapidly constructed and a full roster of members signed up.
It’s grown from these easy beginnings to the place ‘our membership is capped at 1000 members – 900 full members and 100 five-day,’ explains Marsden.
‘Plus, we’d have charged a membership payment again within the noughties. That was through the Celtic Tiger days.’
‘Numbers dwindled a bit then. I used to be Woman Captain in 2014. We had been struggling then to maintain numbers. Needed to ring folks to stick with us.’
Now?
There’s a ready checklist for junior members who already quantity 180.
‘We might soak up 300 if we had the capability,’ provides Marsden.
‘I used to show in Dunshaughlin Group School and Dunshaughlin is getting larger and greater. Then there’s “the Rory impact… the Lowry impact”.
The membership runs a Winter League, ranging from November which consists of two 12-hole competitions which run concurrently throughout the three nines.
There’s a snooker league that additionally runs, amongst a myriad of different committees and social outings, the Friday Evening nine-hold social being only one.
And talking of aggressive golf, 2026 proved to be a milestone 12 months for the boys’s part. Right here’s how.
WHAT A LEINSTER PENNANT MEANS
Liam McKay is an authentic member. A real blue Dub with three castles tattooed on one calf. A grizzled veteran of inter-club competitors, who’s incoming vice-captain.
Again in 2005, he performed on the primary – and solely – Black Bush staff to deliver dwelling a pennant for the boys’s part when the Pierce Purcell staff gained North Leinster.
This 12 months, he managed the Bush staff that lastly bridged the hole and reached the All-Eire stage, with Derek Keogh aiding.
And the prep for that began final winter with squad get-togethers, follow classes and focused classes from membership professional Shane O’Grady.
Occasion time for the successful Pierce Purcell squad and Black Bush government committee members
‘After we acquired on that run within the Pierce Purcell, the help that I acquired was unbelievable,’ says McKay.
‘Now a few occasions at staff conferences I used the help from the membership – it wasn’t simply concerning the panel of gamers that I had in entrance of me.
‘One evening I mentioned, “Look fellas, we’re a bunch and we now have been a bunch since final November however I mentioned I’ll inform you two tales now the place this complete panel reaches out additional than simply us 14 folks right here sitting in a room.”
‘And I informed a narrative about Mick Kane. So Mick Kane, God love him, handed a few weeks in the past. He’d been in a nursing dwelling for a 12 months and a half. I do know him donkey’s years.
‘The primary time I met him he had three golf golf equipment in his bag, he had a pair of crocodile pores and skin golf sneakers, he had Pringle trousers, a Lyle & Scott prime – now he could not hit a ball out of his method.
‘And I used to joke with Mick, “You seem like Christy O’Connor and also you play like Christy Brown!” – we’d at all times have some slagging.
‘Now he by no means performed in Corballis or Skerries; he performed in Valderrama, Sawgrass, Adare Manor – he’s that is the kind of character.
‘However he acquired sick and anyway, to make a protracted story quick, I began visiting him within the nursing dwelling for a 12 months and a half.
‘On the entire run by Leinster I used to be going into Mick. Now this fella used to sing for Eire, drink for Eire, discuss for Eire, inform jokes for Eire – he was simply he was an excellent character within the Black Bush.
Pierce Purcell supervisor Liam McKay being offered with the Leinster pennant
‘And he ended up in a nursing dwelling, paralyzed down one facet and could not discuss.
‘So I used to enter him each week and it broke my coronary heart leaving the place as a result of it was simply unhappy. However I used to fill him in on how every thing was going, spherical by spherical.
‘That weekend of the Leinster ultimate, I went into Mick and informed him we had been enjoying Castleknock within the ultimate – the ultimate was in Ashbourne.
‘I informed him the staff, I informed him I used to be very assured about going out after all of the preparation with Shane and the clinics and the follow.
‘And we gained the Leinster ultimate on a Financial institution Vacation Monday. I left my automobile within the membership that evening due to the celebrations and my missus introduced me down on the Tuesday morning to gather my automobile and the very first thing I did was I drove from Black Bush to the nursing dwelling in Dunshaughlin village to inform Mick how we acquired on.
‘I stroll into the room. His younger fella is sitting in an armchair – now his younger fella should be 40 – and Mick’s mendacity again simply staring up into the ceiling, form of non-responsive.
‘And he sees me and he leans up out of the mattress and he tries to say, “Nicely?”
‘And I simply fist-pumped the air. And also you wish to see the smile that got here on his face. One among his arms labored – he began banging the facet of the mattress.
‘And I mentioned to the lads, “Fellas, the smile on his face – cash could not purchase it.”
‘Like he is mendacity within the mattress, he cannot get out of it – and he was gone a few weeks later. However that minute or two minutes of happiness for him…
‘I mentioned that is what this staff is bringing to the desk.
Pierce Purcell gamers Dylan Wray and Daniel O’Meara are united in celebration
‘After which I informed a narrative about Claire Healy. She texted me after the Leinster ultimate with congratulations, saying “Nicely carried out, nice win, first time in 21 years.”
‘I texted her again and I mentioned, “Claire, delighted, thanks very a lot however look if anyone wanted a shot within the arm wasn’t it you that wanted a shot within the arm as a result of she was getting in to have chemo therapy.’
‘And I mentioned to the lads, “Look fellas, let’s maintain this going so long as we are able to as a result of it isn’t nearly us, it reaches out.”
As a dyed-in-the-wool Dublin GAA supporter, he took up a problem to sing ‘Lovely Meath’ if the Black Bush gained. That evening, he was nearly as good as his phrase.
For the primary time in 21 years, a males’s pennant may very well be added to the pennants gained by the ladies’s part.
THE KOBE EFFECT
A Mayo good friend informed him of how teenager sensation Kobe McDonald wore an armband with ‘One Probability’ emblazoned on it. So he took inspiration from that and reworked it for the staff.
‘I believed that is an excellent thought, however I would by no means put “One Probability” as a result of clearly I would like the lads to assume they’ll have a great deal of probabilities.’
‘Imagine’ was the inscription on the wristbands handed out to every of the gamers for the Leinster ultimate.
The membership gained their All-Eire quarter-final in Ennis too earlier than dropping out to Portumna within the semi-final.
McKay once more factors to the teaching help.
‘We performed Sutton within the Leinster semi-final. Paul [Behan, club pro with Shane] came visiting to Sutton on the follow match. He performed 9 holes with the lads.
He gave us all diagrams – be quick right here, be lengthy right here, be there. Went by every thing. You recognize, they only, couldn’t do extra.
‘We acquired the inexperienced sped up, simply in case the greens had been a lot faster than ours, in order that we weren’t caught on the hop.
‘Shane got here to conferences that I used to be at, and he stood in and mentioned a couple of phrases on the psychological facet of issues.
‘And I at all times wished the captain and the vice-captain at our conferences, as a result of I simply wished the gamers to see that it meant a lot to the membership. So clearly it feeds again to them.
‘Shane was down in Ennis with us and all. Like, I could not not say sufficient good issues about Shane and the help we acquired.’
A MODEST INVESTMENT
The sense of craic and camaraderie inside the membership is such that this summer season, a call was taken to purchase a ‘membership guitar’.
‘After we win we are inclined to go a bit of bit psychological,’ laughs Rory Glennon. ‘Find yourself celebrating and singing songs – and that’s after a first-round victory.
‘So we determined to take a position.’
This 12 months’s Captain’s Drive-In is a tribute to historic Eire and its mythic legend
The membership’s unofficial photographer Kevin O’Brien, a former winner on the annual Fr Ted competition that runs on the Aran Islands, is simply one of many common troubadours, together with the captain.
Spórt agus cairdeas.
