MEMORIES OF EPIC CLASHES AND PRESS BOX DASHES WILL LIVE FOREVER

BACK in 2004, with the Celtic Tiger economy booming, the demand for engineers in Ireland far outstripped supply.

- Pat NOLAN

Despite the fact that there were any amount of opportunities for gainful employment as I emerged from DCU with an engineering degree, journalism had already taken hold of me and I immediately enrolled for an MA in DIT Aungier St, from where I graduated 20 years ago next month.

Bits of freelancing and a short stint in Setanta Sports followed, before I landed the Gaelic Games Correspondent position with the Mirror in January 2007.

I had turned my hand to various sports as I made my way, but covering Gaelic games on a full-time basis was always what I was striving towards and securing such a role seemed the dream job.

And, for a long number of years, it was. Many players that I grew up idolising were still active. Indeed, there were even some All-Ireland medalists from my native Offaly on the go.

Writing about and speaking with them was extremely rewarding. Going to games every weekend never seemed like a chore.

But, over time, it evolved into something different, and less enjoyable. There are myriad reasons for this, but a prominent one is lack of access.

My first piece involved simply lifting the phone and calling Dublin wing-back Paul Casey. He was happy to chat away, but the idea of cold-calling a Dublin footballer now would be laughable.

County setups were pulling back in any event 20-odd years ago, but there's no doubt that it was accelerated significantly by Jim Gavin's Dublin regime.