Last Saturday, our close-knit community in Qatar not only lost teammates, club members, and teachers, but two great friends, Eamonn Morgan and Charlotte Sant, who died tragically in a dune buggy crash.
As our club chairman Peter Crowe said this week, “For the Irish abroad, a GAA club can offer much more than the team - it offers a sense of community, a sense of family, a home away from home, and Qatar GAA is no different. It’s with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of two of our members, two of our friends, two of our family.”
Eamonn, who was from Newry, and Charlotte from Manchester, only arrived in Doha last September to work as PE teachers at the Compass International School in Doha. But they got so instantly involved in our community, and the Qatar GAA team, that it felt like they had been here forever. Outgoing, friendly, kind, and hilarious, it was hard not to be smiling in their company.
0 of 3
Charlotte and Eamonn loved to travel. I recall, in particular, the story Eamonn told in his typically humorous manner that they would never return to Mumbai in India, as he was too jealous of all the men wanting to be photographed with “my Char”. They were so in love with each other.
My first encounter with Eamonn was in Bahrain, at our first Gaelic football tournament of the year. Three of the four Qatar GAA teams were playing at the same time. Our Ladies B team was left without a manager and someone suggested Eamonn, a PE teacher, as a replacement.
It was early on in the year and people were still getting to know one another, and I wasn’t even sure who he was. But when I found him and asked, he didn’t hesitate to help. There are some things that you never forget about meeting someone for the first time, and with Eamonn it was his charismatic big smile, and his beard.
He had a positive attitude about everything. Nothing was a chore. That day he led our B Ladies to their first victory of the season, a classic Eamonn Morgan move, which created lasting smiles all round.
Charlotte’s distinctive northern English accent will never be forgotten on the pitch. She was always there, even through injury, supporting her teammates and her sidekick Eamonn.
As a team building experiment, each player on the ladies team was recently asked to write a positive comment about each other. Having looked through the comments about Charlotte in recent days, it has been heart warming to see such lovely words written about her before this terrible tragedy:
“Adapting very well for someone new to the game, apart from thinking there were offsides!”
“Really fast, always on the ball, and you’re a good laugh too.”
“Always gives 100 per cent at training, and looks for ways to improve all the time. Such an encouraging voice on the team.”
Charlotte was an animal lover and we all knew about “the boys” back home, her two Basset Hounds whom she adored.
Charlotte’s last text message to me was to say, “I’ll be back for pre-season next year!” It’s hard to think about how that first training session is going to feel without her by our sides. But I have no doubt that both of them will be looking down shouting words of encouragement from the heavens. Our happy memories of them will never been forgotten, and they will remain forever young, in love together, in all of our hearts.
This article was written by Angela Monaghan, with contributions from Ciara Lynch and Clodagh Brew.
