Dan Quirke was speaking as the jerseys for the foundation in his son’s name went on sale this morning at their base on Liberty Square in Thurles.
Dillon passed away from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome last August while playing hurling at Semple Stadium.
Since then his family have set up this foundation to ensure all GAA players from 12 upwards get screened – an endeavour he says has brought them great solace.
Speaking to Tipp Today Dan said he hopes the screenings will start in September and reflected on their loss almost a year on.
“It’s very difficult because we as a family find it hard to believe that Dillon is passed, we still believe he is with us and he is still with us in some form or other but it has been very difficult because he was such a young vibrant young kid, he had a great future, everyone seemed to love Dillon that is not just in our own club, all over the county he was a popular young fella. It is very difficult, I would think of Dillon a dozen to 15 times a day and they are all good thoughts, but it is sad and it is very difficult but we are doing our best with the foundation to take it a step further a hopefully help other parents.”
The GAA’s decision to stop teams wearing the Dillon Quirke Foundation’s jersey was hugely disappointing for Dan.
He commented on the decision to stop Tipperary and Limerick players wear the jersey during a recent game.
For whatever reason the GAA did decide they wouldn’t allow any form of advertising, if you would call this advertising because it was for a foundation that was all to do with GAA. We found it very difficult to understand why they came up with this decision but hierarchy in the GAA is it not easy and we know that but look thankfully it has helped us in some ways because the outcry after that was tremendous. We did get a little bit of support within the GAA on the day of the match because they did wear bibs and stuff but that was disappointing it really was disappointing.”
