Galway man completes Triple Crown in Four Nations Tennis Championship
While most of us were relaxing and sunning ourselves last weekend in a rare outbreak
of summer an event as infrequent as the proverbial dodo bird took place in Wrexham.
Donal McGoldrick raised at 13 presentation Rd Galway but now based in Albany,
New York, won all 3 of his matches for Ireland playing No.1 singles as the team
finished a close second to England at The Four Nations Tennis Championship in
Wales. As organisers looked for records of such feats Gerry Clarke; one of the doyens
of Tennis(not just Irish Tennis), a player who won the UK 0-80’s singles himself;
maintains that it was the first time that this was ever achieved by an Irish man
(however the ladies have done it previously). Shortly after Donal’s historic third
victory Neagle Cathcart followed suit in the men’s 0-55 as did Nora Glynn in the
Ladies’ 0-60’s. What a time for Irish tennis! Two players Conor Niland and Louk
Sorensen climbing the world rankings steadily into the top 300, a Davis Cup victory
over Morocco, promising juniors competing worldwide and now we are extremely
competitive at veteran’s level! Could tennis, a recognised ‘sport for life’ be ready for
a major breakthrough in this country? Why not, what with the sun‘s arrival, summer
growth, Parks Tennis and Wimbledon on the horizon….anything is possible!
Donal McGoldrick was always sports mad. “He was always chasing a ball,” claims
brother Brian (a victorious Connacht Veteran Interpro player) but possibly best
summed up by wife Vicky: “Donal is a jock, he just has to play sport!” He first
excelled at Gaelic football at ‘The Jes’ captaining Scoil Iognaid to the Galway
Schools u-12 title, inevitably ‘The Old Mon’ were defeated along the way. “I
remember the elation and embarrassment when I was presented with my medal, not
realising straight away that only the captain was awarded one as times were hard.”
Shortly after, Donal left Galway for boarding school. He was obviously developing
his eye hand co-ordination for tennis while aiming at electricity pylons and after one
such incident it was decided a change of environment might direct him on the straight
and narrow. On requesting an input into his future incarceration he asked his mother if
Castleknock was a possibility as he read that they had a great rugby team. “I
overheard her conversation with the head of Castleknock and she lectured him on
only taking well connected Dublin boys at his school. You should give some boys
from the country an opportunity for a change,” the outspoken and feisty lady told him.
He did and Donal developed into a first-rate hooker winning junior and senior cups as
well as representative honours.
Donal’s first experience of tennis was at the Galway Boat Club. “I thought tennis was
a girl’s game but became interested after one particular young lady caught my eye. I
took to the game and used to cycle out to Galway Lawn Tennis Club, after been given
a lesson from another young lady Maeve Lydon, I decided that if I worked harder I
could become a better player.” He did and won the Connacht Junior Open u-14
singles title. The young Galway man reached the u-18 semi-final of The Irish Open at
Fitzwilliam and was ranked high enough to take part in a 6 man play-off for Junior
Wimbledon in 1960. Coaching guru and former Junior Wimbledon Champion John
Horne gave him some advice: “Do you want to win lots of matches or do you want to
have fun playing tennis? Because if you want to win more matches you are going to
have to change your style and stop going for the lines so much!” “I thought about it
and decided I wanted to have fun.” For a fun player he did quite well, winning the
Boys u-18 Singles Title at the South of Ireland, Munster and Connacht in 1959-60. He
also won the Leinster Cup from 1957-59 and was a finalist in 1960! Donal played
tennis and rugby at U.C.G. There were high hopes for him as a future Irish hooker
when he took a career shattering tackle to his left knee resulting in ‘the unhappy
triad.’ “This is where you damage the miniscule, the anterior cruciate and the lateral
collateral ligament. I was out of sport for a whole year.” Unsurprisingly he returned to
play tennis in 1962 and topped a trial to become No.1 on the Connacht Senior Team
for the Interprovincial Championships. In 1964 he went back to rugby helping UCG
to a senior championship but felt that he had lost his great ability to ‘spin and twist
away from tackles.’ “I was taking tackles front on now and boy did that hurt
afterwards!”
Whilst studying Medicine at UCG Donal went to America for experience as an intern
in Ohio. “They told me the easiest and quickest way to get a visa was to fill out an
emigration form. Can you imagine my surprise when I got notification that I was to be
drafted for Vietnam as a medic?” Fortunately Donal was due to return for two years
further study to Galway and he sent a nice letter of thanks to the ‘draft committee’
before returning to Ireland. However fate dictated that the young Irishman would
return to America as he met future wife Vicky and after getting engaged under the
‘archway in Trinity College’ in 1968 they were married the following year. They
lived in Canada from 1970-78 where Donal worked at McGill University; one of the
top 5 medical schools in the world. The Galwegian became assistant chief of medicine
at 32 years of age. In 1978 Donal and Vicky moved to Albany, New York where he
became Chief of Nephrology at Albany Medical Centre. This is the main Trauma
Centre for upstate New York. According to Vicky “Donal worked flat out at Medicine
and we raised 4 children with virtually no tennis from 1969 to 1989.” With plenty of
encouragement from his wife the busy doc returned to the courts firstly just playing
doubles. “I won my first tournament and playing with a heavy old knee brace kept it
up. I went to “Body Benders” and they helped develop the muscles to stabilise my
knee and take the place of the ligaments. Eventually I threw away the brace. After a
while I returned to singles play in 1992. In consecutive years I reached the quarterfinal, semi-final, final and then won the club championship at the fourth attempt!”
Over the years Donal has won 20 Open Club Championships: 4 singles, 9 men’s
doubles and 7 mixed doubles titles at the Schuyler meadows Club in Albany, New
York. Donal travels the country playing tournaments and in 2006 was runner-up in
men’s 0-35 doubles at the Florida Championships. In 2007 he was a doubles finalist
in The Capital District N.Y.S.Over 18 Team (yes 0-18, it is a sport for life!) and also a
finalist on The Capital District N.Y.S. Over 50 team! In the U.S 60’s Singles Donal
was ranked No.9 in the East coast in 2007. In Ireland Donal who returns twice a year
to contest the Veteran Nationals has 24 Irish Veteran Caps. He won the Irish Close
Men’s 60 Singles and Doubles titles in 2006 at Lansdowne, and the Irish Open
Veterans Men’s 65 singles title in 2007 at Elm Park. In 2002 he won the 0-60’s
singles in Galway, 0-55’s titles at Kilkenny in 2006-07, South of Ireland in 2004-07
and represented Ireland in the World Championships in London 2004,
Antalya(Turkey) 2005 -06 and Christchurch (New Zealand) 2007, wining matches
against Wales 2004, Norway 2005, Belarus 2006 and Russia 2007.
Donal who became Professor of Medicine and Head of Division of Nephrology at
Albany Medical Centre and College is now semi-retired after 30 years in New York.
He still teaches part-time in Albany as well as lecturing in the autumn to NUIG final
year students. He will always be a ‘Jock’ and continues to inspire all of those who
compete with and against him. As I leave Donal and Vicky’s house in Knocknacarra I
look forward to pitting my wits against one of Galway’s greatest sportsmen on a
tennis court real soon!
Mike Geraghty (mgwords.com)
Picture on top is of Donal and Vicky McGoldrick watching Tennis! Naturally!!!