Little insights tell what lies in the heart of a club. Two years ago, when Donal Keegan broke his ankle, he still insisted on attending every subsequent training session, albeit on crutches, just to be part of it all. Team spirit!
That same year, when Na Fianna lost the county final, after which they hired a helicopter so that Jason Sherlock could fly to Donegal to play in a soccer match, the club had a hooley and inducted the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, into their midst by making the local lad made good an honorary life member. Club spirit!
Those were the sort of things that occurred out in Glasnevin when the they weren't winning championships. Now that Na Fianna can't stop winning titles - Dublin and Leinster have been annexed, with just the big one, the All-Ireland, to go - there is no obvious sign of them neglecting their roots. A few days before their Leinster Final win over Sarsfields, John Caffrey - a selector - underwent surgery in hospital. He was on the sideline in Navan for the win. Squad commitment!
The image that Na Fianna have always nurtured is that of a friendly club. It's one reason why Mick Galvin made the decision to transfer to them when his old club St Oliver Plunkett's were relegated from senior football. For a footballer entering the twilight of his career, the prospect of starting anew with somebody else wasn't exactly an appealing one: but Na Fianna were the only club with sufficient appeal to make the move a seamless one. They made him captain, too, an indication of the club's willingness to adopt so-called "outsiders" into their happy family.
Kieran McGeeney and Des Mackin were imported from Armagh; but, again, the transition was seamless. Na Fianna has always been known as a welcoming port of call for countrymen moving to the capital. And, yet, the vast majority of the squad that has enabled Na Fianna to reach such dizzy heights have been homegrown talent, players nurtured from an excellent juvenile coaching programme that uses the resources of local schools - St Vincent's CBS, Scoil Caitriona, North Dublin National School Project, St Patrick's, Drumcondra, Scoil Mobhi and Holy Faith, Glasnevin - to build for the present and the future.
Such ambition lies behind Na Fianna's foundation in the early 1950s. Splits and schisms have been fundamental to Irish sporting and political life, and the birth of Na Fianna was the result of one of them. About 220 players, mainly younger ones, left CJ Kickhams to form their own club.
"Probably the main reason for the split all those years ago was that a very strong under-age setup had been established in the Kickhams club, but the younger members were prevented in having any real say in the club," recalled Jimmy Gray, one of Na Fianna's founding members, who is now one of the most respected figures in the GAA.
The decision to buy the land on Mobhi Road - where they have an impressive clubhouse and playing pitches - was taken in the late 1950s when the Board of Works put it up for tender. Home Farm, who were playing matches there at the time, also bid for it. However, it was Na Fianna who secured the land for the princely sum of £670. "It was money we didn't have," acknowledged Gray, "but we borrowed, ran carnivals, draws and any other fundraising activity we could think of in an effort to raise the money."
And, from that base, Na Fianna have grown into what they are today: Dublin champions, Leinster champions, and one step away from being All-Ireland champions.
If Na Fianna do manage to scale the heights, then one honorary member - who'll be in Washington for the St Patrick's Day festivities in the United States - will want to know sooner rather than later. It could even make Ahern's day.
