The GAA Social meets All-Ireland winner Danny Quinn

On this week’s GAA Social podcast, Thomas and Oisin catch up with Danny Quinn, an All-Ireland winner with Derry in 1993, whose life was turned upside down in May 2011 when his wife Catherine passed away at the age of 42.

Danny married Catherine in between the Oak Leafers’ Ulster final victory over Donegal and All-Ireland semi-final win over Dublin and they went on to have three children: Amy, Conor and Dara.

However, just weeks after Dara’s birth, Catherine became unwell with Quinn accepting “life went down a different path” as it was discovered she had pulmonary hypertension – a terminal lung disorder only treatable by transplant.

Despite a donor being found, a double transplant at Royal Papworth Hospital in England was unsuccessful, leaving the husband and wife to return home on the eve of Christmas to break the news to their children.

“That was some kick in the teeth,” Quinn, Principal of Anahorish Primary School, told the podcast.

Following his wife’s passing, the Bellaghy native found comfort through his work, friends, family, GAA club and community.

There were challenges along the way as Quinn’s life, once dominated by Gaelic football, was now centred around raising his children and mastering the domestic tasks at home, but the can-do attitude Catherine lived by is carried on by Quinn, who says he was “very lucky to meet Catherine and I’m a better person to have met her”.

“This has not been easy. A mother going home to tell three children she is going to die is not easy. Sitting down to explain it hasn’t gone well is the worst experience of your life, but we came out the other side of it.

“It’s not a great experience and not one I want anyone to have to deal with, but it forms your character and makes you who you are. Life is to be enjoyed, so get out there and get on with it – that was Catherine’s attitude to it.

“Catherine never felt sorry for herself, just said it was one of the challenges you get and that’s how she was throughout the illness.

“What I’ve learned from this is the importance of life.”