GERARD Hughes had no intention of coming home - not yet, anyway.
He and girlfriend Aisling headed Down Under just over a year ago, spending three months exploring New Zealand before hopping across to Sydney.
The couple soon found work, Hughes was hurling with Central Coast, and original plans to return to Ireland in January were moved to May.
They were finding their feet rightly.
“I was always a bit of a home bird, but then me and my mummy and daddy went out to visit my sister in New Zealand in 2019, just before Covid happened, and I always thought it would be good to go back out again at some stage…”
Unfortunately, however, life was turned upside down when word came through that his father, Paddy, was unwell. After a short illness, he passed away on November 21 – an unfathomable loss to the Hughes family, and the tight-knit hurling community on the Ards peninsula.
Because Paddy Hughes was at the heart of it all, representing Down from 1971 until 1986, winning Ulster intermediate medals in ‘71 and ‘72, and part of the team narrowly defeated by Galway in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final at Croke Park.
His status as one of the top defenders in Ulster at the time was cemented by his selection for Railway Cup sides between 1974 and 1983.
But it was black and amber that flowed through Paddy Hughes’s veins, as he helped his beloved Ballycran to a first Ulster senior club crown in ‘74, before repeating the feat two years later – then captaining the Crans to the Down title in 1984.
Even after the hurl had been hung up, Paddy remained a familiar figure at McKenna Park; a trustee of Ballycran, his contribution to club and county through the years immeasurable.
Before Down’s first outing of the year in early January, the number two jersey remained on it’s peg as a mark of respect to one of the county’s most solid servants.
“It’s bittersweet,” says the 27-year-old civil engineer - the youngest of seven siblings - when asked about his return to the Down fold.
“When we got the word to come home at the end of October, we just packed up everything – left the job, left the apartment… we just sort of knew that was the end of it.
“Daddy was a big influence on all of us, obviously. We all played hurley, my sisters played camogie, and he enjoyed coming to watch us. When you were growing up you always heard how good he was, how good a defender he was.
“He was full-back but, since he died, all these reports are coming out that he wasn’t afraid to venture up the field and get a score – I don’t know, I’d take that with a pinch of salt!
“He was a defender, first and foremost, and he always would have said to us to make sure to win your own battle…”
That message is engrained in the Hughes clan.
And Paddy would have been proud when, with Down’s Division Two campaign getting under way against promotion rivals Kildare in Ballycran a fortnight ago, a late rampaging run from Gerard set up the score that nudged their noses ahead.
Having been away from the county scene since 2022, it was a big decision to come back into the fold – but Hughes’s return has only been of benefit to Ronan Sheehan’s panel, as they bid to make it three from three against Donegal on Sunday.
“I left the set-up originally because I was working down in Meath, and it wasn’t working out for me, then the next year we went travelling. But it’s good to be back - there’s a lot of the same old faces, a few new boys too.
“It’s only when you see them you realise you’re not as young as you think you are.”
At the end of his last stint, the Ardsmen reached the Division 2A final having finished top of the pile. Their dreams were dashed with defeat to Westmeath in Thurles but, with two counties going straight up since the League reshuffle, Down are well placed for another promotion push.
“It feels as though we’re on that track again this year – that first match against Kildare was always going to sort of dictate what way your season’s going to go. Lose and you’re on the back foot straight away, win and it opens up… getting that win definitely set us up well.
“It has gone well so far but we’re taking nothing for granted against Donegal. If you’re in Division Two, you deserve to be there; they had a good win against Tyrone last week, they pushed Meath the first week, so they’ll not be coming down here for a day out.”
