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Ugandan support on “dream” day for Mulkerrins

In West Nile, Uganda, close to the border with the Congo and war-torn southern Sudan, there will be some novice handballers rooting for Martin Mulkerrins in tomorrow's O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Singles final.

The Galway man, an agricultural advisor based out of Athenry with Teagasc, spent 10 weeks there before Christmas working with the Franciscan Brothers in the area.

Standing on the sixth floor of Croke Park in a gleaming corporate box, the rain teeming down, well, the contrast with Uganda – the heat, the dust, the poverty - couldn't be any starker.

The link was formed in the 1990s when the Brothers, who run an Agricultural College in Mountbellew, decided to establish another in one of the poorer regions of Uganda, close to the border with the Congo and war-torn southern Sudan.

Those fleeing from the civil war are put up in enormous, sprawling refugee camps there; on one occasion, Mulkerrins was in a camp which housed a greater population than that of Galway.

“They are given 30 metres by 30 metres, they are expected to put their house on that and grow vegetables. They are given 12 kilos of food a month per person, usually maize and cassava and they have to ration that out over the month. That's 300g per day, it's not a whole lot in those conditions...” Mulkerrins told GAAHandball.ie.

“Think about it, 30 by 30 metres of rough ground. It's nothing - and your home is on it. What we would complain about... They are trying to do their best with so little and yet they still smile and greet you.”

Mulkerrins was there to educate the locals on “vegetable production, pig production, poultry, bee-keeping, things like that, all very basic”.

“Everything is done by hand. In the college, 30pc are from the local area and 70pc are from the camps. Conditions were a real eye-opener - mud huts, thatched roof, pit toilets, no running water or electricity. The average age is 15, life expectancy somewhere in the 50s.

“And everything is done by hand. It's very, very basic but the one thing I would say, you wouldn't believe for the little they have and they horrific things they have seen, the positivity from them. It's inspiring.”

Before he flew out, Mulkerrins had spoken to Brother Tony Dolan, originally from Leitrim, Minister General for Franciscan Brothers. Handball was mentioned and Brother Dolan secured some financial assistance from a contact in the States to construct “two state of the art handball alleys”.

Mulkerrins fundraised, speaking at Mass in his local church at Moycullen, whipping up support. He headed to Africa, then, laden down with handballs, plans, aid, keen to do whatever he could to help.

In the end, they built three handball courts, two of them exact replicas of the ones on Inis Mor, a little reminder of home, maybe, for the Connemara man.

“There are three courts there now within five kilometres. Some of the staff have smartphones and every now and then I get a video from them of some of the lads playing. They have kept going with it, it's a pity we didn't have a bit longer with them to teach them the fundamentals. But they're sticking with it, there's so little to do there and they have so little...”

Back in the handball court, a fuse had been lit. After losing in the third game in the last two semi-finals, he was desperate to go one better. When he did, against Brendan Fleming, the over-riding emotion was relief.

“To play in the men’s senior final is every young handballer’s dream I’d say, it definitely was mine. The semi-final performance was good enough on the day to get to the final but when you get there you obviously want to finish the job. I’ll prepare as best I can this week and I’m just hoping to perform at the weekend and see where that takes me.”

Mulkerrins's love of the game deserted him for a while. He had played a lot of doubles as a kid, winning his first singles All-Ireland at the age of 16 and after a meteoric rise took him to a US Nationals final and saw him toppled Robbie McCarthy in the Irish Nationals, his graph levelled out.

He needed to re-adjust. After graduating from UCD, he entered the workforce and moved back home. Soon enough, he rediscovered that spark.

“I won the minor and intermediate All-Irelands by the time I was 20 and then I think the curve might have stalled, maybe I wasn’t enjoying handball as much.

“I think last year and the year before I was enjoying it again and finding it easier to train. I think I improved both those years even though I lost two semi-finals. Last year was a big disappointment, I had a great chance, I know Charly made a super comeback but let's call a spade a spade, I made a few errors and could have finished off the game.

“He came back and he won and we know what happened after that, Charly won his first final. I suppose it was just about learning from it after that, make sure this year wasn’t the same. I remembered that feeling and I didn’t want it again.”

And, no matter where he goes, he carries the lessons of West Nile with him.

“I think it's probably helped me a bit this year in my handball – it's obviously more than a game to me this weekend, it means a lot to me," he says.

“But it puts things in perspective to see people living like that.”

Only a game and more than a game. Everything and nothing at all. The stage is set. Play ball.