Making the most of the lovely weather earlier this week whilst also trying to satisfy myself that I am a great hands-on Dad, Patrick and I went down to the local GAA club for a kick around on the pitch.

He had a match last Saturday and felt he played well but missed a couple of points which encouraged him to want to sharpen up on his kicking. It was a good active hour well spent.

As I stood on the pitch, it struck me that I’m forty years a member of the club.

Talk about feeling ancient!

Back then this form of activity was commonplace. We were forever kicking football either on the pitch or on the street.

We would play soccer on the local green. During these school holidays we played our own leagues against other estates around Castleknock.

We lived in Hadleigh and we joined with the Pines and formed a “club” called Hadleigh Pines United. Daire O’Connor lived in the Pines and the two of us were the founders at aged 11 and 10 respectively. Daire was the player manager and I was the captain.

Irish dancers

Daire’s sisters were good Irish dancers. One went on to star in Riverdance. But he borrowed a sort of garter or headband she used for her dancing costume which I then utilised as the captain’s armband for our very first match. It was a black band and one of the players on the other team asked sarcastically if somebody was dead. They all fell about the place laughing and I was mortified.

Daire is now coaching schoolgirl’s soccer in San Francisco. And Hadleigh Pines United actually became a registered soccer club. I’m immortalised as one of the founders.

Every generation looks back at their childhood through rose-tinted glasses and then we roll our eyes to heaven when we look at the youth of today. Well, actually, I don’t.

Patrick is 13, a great age.

And all summer he and a group of his friends have been very active cycling, swimming and kicking a ball around the green. They are well-mannered and sporty boys. But sadly lads of their age get a hard time.

Every generation looks back at their childhood through rose-tinted glasses and then we roll our eyes to heaven when we look at the youth of today. Well, actually, I don’t

On at least two occasions this summer as they played football on the green in a housing estate where a couple of them live, they were angrily told to get off by local adults for no good reason.

Reflection of the times

It is a reflection of the times we live in that the sight of any group of teenagers is intimidating to some people as was obviously the case here.

The term “gangs of teenagers” has served to tarnish all young boys in particular with the same brush. And it is damaging.

Thankfully, it hasn’t put them off and they continue to mind their own business as they play with jumpers for goalposts the way it used to be.

Another problem with smartphones

There’s any amount of road rage compilations on YouTube and I have to admit they are addictive viewing.

You could easily waste 20 minutes of your life scrolling through them. It is amazing if not frightening how riled up we can become in our cars. But at times indeed it can be difficult to hold it together when faced with eejits behind the wheel.

While it is very infuriating to have somebody beep the millisecond lights go green, have you noticed how more and more people don’t move when the lights go green and need to be beeped?

The reason? Undoubtedly it’s due to our incurable addiction to our smart phones.

People with their heads stuck in the phone any second they can, walking down the street, waiting in the queue at the shops and yes sitting at traffic lights.