It is with great sadness today that we learned of the death of current club president Mickey Clarke, a name synonymous with the club since its foundation in 1965.

Mickey was 81 and died in Beaufort House Nursing Home, Navan where he has been resident for the last few years.

During his long years of association and service to Simonstown he filled many roles, from being instrumental at the foundation when he procured the first set of jerseys to chairmanship between 1973 and '75 and again between 1989 and '91 - as the club gained intermediate status with a 1990 junior final win over Cortown - before he assumed the honour of presidency in 2003.

In between, he was a regular player - featuring in a junior B final defeat to Navan O'Mahony's in 1970 - and was a selector when Simonstown won its first adult championship title at junior B level in 1987. He was also a pivotal figure in the development of the clubhouse in the 1980s and the successful running of the annual Simonstown 'sports day' that drew large crowds from the town and county due to the variety of events and competitions each summer.

But arguably his greatest legacy was his commitment to the establishment of the underage section of the club in the 1970s to cater for the growing numbers of young people in estates that were being developed on the north side of the town.

John Howard was principal when St Oliver's National School opened in Blackcastle in 1975 and recalls Mickey paying a visit in the very first week, enquiring as to whether the Simonstown club could do anything for the school.

St Oliver's had a small piece of land attached but John pointed out that they didn't have any goalposts.

"The next morning Mickey arrived with three others and they put up goalposts made from wood. It was certainly something I didn't forget," he recalled.

And he didn't because, for the next few years, the link between school and club cemented and John himself became more involved as Simonstown teams filled up with players from St Oliver's.

By the early 1980s underage football in Simonstown was thriving and such foresight was undoubtedly the springboard for progression from junior to intermediate and then senior, culminating in senior titles in 2016 and 2017.

It was fitting then that when the Simonstown senior squad were being presented with their first Keegan Cup medals after the 2016 win, there was unanimous approval that Mickey should be guest of honour and make the presentations at the function in the Newgrange Hotel that followed.

There could be no more apt tribute to him or his legacy in the club that the players should only think of Mickey first on such a historic night, recognising his place in their collective journey.

Mickey had been in Pairc Tailteann the previous October to witness Simonstown's win over Donaghmore-Ashbourne, a day he had lived in hope to see for so long.

He had been in hospital for three months prior to that but was discharged on the Friday before the final to ensure his attendance and despite being wheelchair-bound, he joined the players and other supporters on the field afterwards to celebrate, his broad smile as he posed for photographs with the cup one of the great images of the day.

In a subsequent interview with the Meath Chronicle's Jimmy Geoghegan, he conveyed his sense of satisfaction quite vividly as he reflected on the occasion.

"I felt that, God, if I could have got out of the chair, I could have flown," he declared. With those words, he perhaps reflected the sentiment of everyone.

Mickey was a wonderful ambassador for Simonstown, known the length and breadth of the county for his association with the club and desire to see it thrive.

He was a Meath minor selector in his time and was never slow to take some credit for the subsequent careers of Robbie O'Malley and Bernard Flynn who played under his watch in the early 1980s!

Mickey's family has been indelibly linked with Simonstown and it was the field adjacent to the Clarke home on Simonstown Lane that the idea of a club was first conceived as numbers gathered there for impromptu football games before progress dictated a move to where the pitches and clubhouse are sited now.

Even greater than the contribution across so many roles though was his infectious character. Despite the trouble he had with his hips in recent years, he wore it lightly and his positivity and good cheer never diminished. Up to recent years he was still a regular presence at bingo on Thursday nights and anchored himself in the same place in a corner of the bar where he was a focal point for conversation, a setting in which he loved to reminisce and wind up in equal measure!

He was the focus of a Simonstown 'This Is Your Life' in the late 1990s when he was presented with the medal he never got for St John's (Kilberry) minor championship win in the late 1950s that he was part of, something he had never let go of in the intervening years! A 70th birthday celebration in the clubhouse in 2009 was attended by many well-known Meath football figures, again a testament to his popularity.

His other great loves were cards and horseracing, especially national hunt, and with the proximity of his house to the six-furlong start, he had a strong affinity with Navan racecourse.

Predeceased by his parents Thomas and Julia, brothers Phil, Tommy and Joe, sister Kitty. he will be sadly missed by his brother Noel, sisters Maura (McDonnell) London, Eileen (Mahon) Trim, Margaret (Halton), Nottingham, Jean Farrell (Wexford), Pauline (O'Connor), brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and his many friends in Simonstown, Navan and beyond.

He has been loved and respected by all and the description 'Godfather of Simonstown' sits easily with him.