The amber and black of St Mark’s ran in Ross’s blood

A STALWART who was a standard setter of St Mark’s GAA club over the last 45-years, Ross Jameson, has died aged 80.

After a short battle with illness, Ross died on December 30.

Survived by his wife Carmel, children John, Paul and Louise, Ross was laid to rest in Saggart Cemetery after funeral mass in St Mary’s Priory on Thursday, January 5.

Ross reared his own family in a house that his father John ‘Jack’ Jameson built in Kiltalown Lane.

The amber and black of St Mark’s ran in Ross’s blood. Along with Carmel, who played camogie in the club, it became part of their make-up as a family to travel out to games on a weekend.

Ross was a key figure in the finance committee which initiated the £100 ticket raffle and ‘buy a brick’ scheme which built the St Mark’s GAA Clubhouse in 1989 and the extension in 1991.

“Ross was the main man looking after the financing and coordinated the running of our club development,” Tony Keegan, founder member, tells The Echo.

“He was such a brilliant organiser, he was absolutely unbeatable in that everything he did, every single detail, was perfect. No corners were ever skipped.”

Former chairperson in the club, Anne O’Reilly, also remembered how particular he was with even the smallest of details.

“Ross could account to every last penny,” Anne said.

“The amount and the accuracy of the information that he had was fantastic.”

Ross’s attention to detail is legendary in the club, and it pushed him into multiple different roles.

As a board delegate, he would meet with Tony, Patsy McCann, and a few others in the Jobstown Inn – before the clubhouse was built – to relay all of the information on from county board meetings.

He ran the first club shop out of the back of his Ford station wagon and grew to be one of the best Public Relations Officers to have served in St Mark’s over the decades.

Serving as treasurer of the first juvenile section from 1978, the father of three was also managing one of the first boys’ teams in the club.

“I remember one day I went out to the Phoenix Park with him to help set up the pitch,” Tony recalls.

“Ross was doing the team sheets and I stuck out the flags.

“After putting them all out, I went back over to Ross and I was pulled up because they weren’t colour coordinated.

“He then proceeded to pull every single flag out and put them out the way he wanted them – that was Ross,” he chuckles.

Even in his coaching, Ross wanted the game played a very particular way, and hated “agriculture football” because the “ball could travel faster than the man”.

The gravity of his role working with children growing up in the club was something Ross took very seriously.

He wanted to instil a high level of discipline in how his players prepared for games, and ensured they were all togged out with the correct gear and worked to the team’s schedule.

Even if they were not following the schedule, Ross was the man knocking on doors to get lads out of bed on a Saturday or Sunday morning to play a match.

Paul O’Reilly was a player on the team that Ross first coached, taking them from Under 8s up to Under 21s.

“Ross was the father figure of the club. At the time, the 1980s, there was a lot of things that could have swayed people away from playing for Ross, it was a difficult time for the area.

“But he put great effort into keeping people on the straight and narrow.

“It’s a testament to Ross that players he coached 30-years-ago, that he wouldn’t have spoken to since then, were at his funeral.

“He was a leader of men, helped the young generations so much, a true standard setter and a stickler for detail. He was meticulous in his approach to the smallest of details.

“Ross was the most loyal man ever.”

As far as loyalty goes, Ross was unwavering in his support of Dublin.

A true blue alongside his great friend Séamus O Beoláin, the pair travelled the length and breadth of the country in support of the Dubs.

And if there was a player from St Mark’s playing in Croke Park, you better believe that Ross was at their door that morning to get in their ear and wish them good luck.

One of the players he coached from a young age, Declan Bolger, went on to become the club’s first Dublin player while his own son’s John and Paul also donned the coveted blue jersey at junior level.

A great gardener, Ross would drop 12 yellow roses into Anne, Rita Murphy, and Eileen Grimes every Christmas Eve without fail and made a bit of a song and dance about it.

McGee Park also became his second garden, with Ross going to great extents to keep the pitches in peak condition.

“He was a great friend,” says Rita.

“Ross really minded me, he’d always call me Murph. Never Rita, or Murphy. Just Murph.

“When I took over as treasurer, he guided me and helped me hugely.”

The impact that Ross leaves behind on the people that he came across, and the club in which he poured his life into, is one of great brevity and it is still being felt today.