A busy schedule suits Paud O’Dwyer

O’Dwyer acknowledges that it was a brave decision by the club and that it took time and patience to implement it. “That is certainly true,” O’Dwyer replies.

“We had to get a lot of buy-in from the parents when we first discussed it. We explained the reasons and what we thought would be the good things and benefits of it. Obviously not everyone would have agreed with this, but it was voted on and proved successful. We have involved parents from U6, U8, U10 and U12, of course some want to continue with their children.

“We just think it’s better to listen to different coaches, we try to make sure that the same coaches are not with the same teams for more than two years, that they travel around. So everyone listens to different voices. It seems to benefit us.”

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As an inter-county hurling referee, Paud O’Dwyer became accustomed to officiating in high-profile matches. His refereeing saga began because he wanted to ensure Palatine retained the allocation of their All-Ireland final tickets. “Around ’06 the County Board put pressure on clubs and threatened to withdraw All-Ireland final tickets if the clubs didn’t provide a referee,” says O’Dwyer.

“Palatine had no referee at the time. A very good friend of mine, who was responsible for the All-Ireland final tickets within the club, Paul Treacy, who has refereed for me every year since, persuaded me to just go there, to watch a few games. play, that we would be great.

“So I went in, did the course and did a few competitions. I started to enjoy it. I then decided to stick with it. I played senior until ’08. I played junior for years after that.

“I tried to do a little bit of both at the same time. I just found that I really enjoyed it: the higher up the ladder you went, the more you enjoyed it. The bigger the game, the better it was.”

O’Dwyer quickly made an impression as a referee in both codes in Carlow. “I did youth games until I finished playing seniors,” O’Dwyer says.