Lockdown in March was tough for all 17-year olds, but few had as much responsibility as Eoin Connolly.
There was already a lot going on in the young man's life between the leaving cert, and not being able to see his girlfriend, as well as being called up to the Laois Minor Hurling panel. In early March, all of that was put to one side as Eoin suddenly became the primary care giver to his elderly grandfather.
With little time to react to the situation, Eoin took it in his stride. "The carers were uneasy about moving between homes because of Covid-19 so they stopped coming, so my brother and I took over the responsibilities," says Eoin. "We would go down each morning and get him up. It takes a good hour to get him up, dressed and into the chair. It just became our routine."
When the restrictions eased after nearly four months, Eoin went back to his job while also taking care of his grandfather.
"I would get up at 8am and get grandad up for 9am and I was in work for 9:30am. Then at lunch, I'd have an hour off and I would go back to grandad. We’d bring him to the toilet and get him some lunch and then I was back to work. After work, I’d be back with grandad about five o’clock. We’d bring him to the toilet and get his dinner ready. Then I’d go and do a bit of study and head back to grandads at 9pm to help him into bed. They were busy days, but I know he enjoyed having us there."
Remarkably, Eoin still found a bit of time each day to continue training as he pursued his dream of playing for Laois. "I was quite unfit and a bit overweight. I started running 10k every second day to cut my weight down. I then started running 5k's and trying to do them in less than 20 minutes. I ended up losing over a stone and tried putting it back on in muscle with weights."
Even when he was minding his grandfather, Eoin could find a few minutes to hone his skills. "There is a lot of land in front of grandads house, so I would pop out and practice my puck outs and work on target practice in his field. I really worked on my left side so if I need to change my stance on the line it wouldn't be a problem."
While it was a tough few months for Eoin, he can now reflect on his time with his grandfather. "It was tough not seeing friends or my girlfriend for a few months, but it was great knowing we were able to help grandad. We got a good bit of craic out of him when we were together. We’ll always remember that time together."
There’s nothing Minor about that.
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