St Brigid’s Shane Curran always up for a tough challenge

The GAA has launched the 2013/2014 AIB club championship under the tag line “the toughest competition of them all”, and Shane Curran knows exactly why. It’s not just that his club, St Brigid’s, are looking to become the first Roscommon side to defend their All-Ireland football title, having become the first Roscommon club to win it, earlier this year.

Even before opening the defence on their Connacht title, on Sunday week, Curran will spend four days in Iraq, in a high-risk security area, in Basra. If it sounds risky that’s because it is, yet Curran, typically, makes light of it all.

“A lot of the oil companies are situated there, like BP, and we deal with a few of those. This is an environmental marine company, that brings us in, to do perimeter security. It’s just four days, in and out, and hopefully we won’t get shot at.

“It’s my first time in Iraq, but we’re just back from Somalia, on a mission with the UN, to help bring some sort of control there. It’s very difficult over there. We were out there providing security for vehicles, and two weeks later there was an attack on a UN security compound, where we were.”

The St Brigid’s goalkeeper is part of the company GSF International Group.

“We started out as a flood-related company but developed our system around international military organisations, called ‘Vehicle Border In Devices’. It’s protection against explosive devices and that sort of stuff in conflict zones.”

Assuming he does come home safely, Curran will be between the posts on Sunday week as St Brigid’s face Sligo champions Tourlestrane.

He was recently incorrectly linked with the Laois football manager post but he does someday hope to go into management, but only in Roscommon.

“I’m very interested in, management and football in particular is something I think I’ll dedicate my life to after I retire and after business. Hopefully we can bring an All-Ireland to Roscommon, that’s another lifetime ambition.

“But we’re out Sunday week, against Tourlestrane. That will present its own challenge. We are at home, but it’s at home in Hyde Park not in Kiltoom. . . We’ve retained our county title now, and I think we’re one of the first Connacht teams to retain our county title after winning an All-Ireland. So that it itself is an achievement.”