Unforgettable trip
Memories of football in New York
TWENTY years ago, this year, a band of unlikely footballing brothers set off from west Wicklow to do battle in the famous Gaelic Grounds in New York.
It was an adventure that is fondly remembered on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean with sublime football and serious celebrating being enjoyed over the course of the unforgettable trip that saw footballers from Donard-The Glen, Lacken and Stratford-Grangecon unite to face a Donegal selection and a New York selection.
Lacken’s Gerry O’Neill was one of the main organisers of the trip in 2000 and he recalls making approaches to Donard’s Paddy Toomey in an effort to get the project off the ground.
‘We asked the lads if they’d be interested in going to New York to play football and we drew up a list and we started collecting money from lads early in the year so it meant that their hotel and flights were paid for in advance,’ explained Gerry.
‘We went in September and the lads had all their stuff paid. Toomey collected the money in Donard and Padraig Fennessy and myself did it here (Lacken). We set a date and off we went. We got their and stayed in Yonkers.
‘We played one match (against a Donegal selection) in Van Cortlandt Park in New York and then we played a New York selection in Gaelic Park,’ said Gerry.
The Lacken stalwart revealed that the adventure was very nearly not becoming the success it was as no games had been officially organised when they arrived in the Big Apple.
‘My first two days in New York were spent on the phone. I didn’t get out because we didn’t have any matches organised at all despite every effort I made before we went over. I sweated it out for two days, ringing around. I was actually working with the incoming President of the GAA Larry
McCarthy. He was very good to us, very helpful and we finally got the two matches organised,’ he said. ‘It was some craic. I remember talking to Jack Boothman and he had been over there a month later and one of the lads from New York had told him that there had been a team over from Wicklow the previous month. Jack asked who and your man said a little club by the name of Lacken.
‘Jack said, ‘are you sure?’ and your man said, ‘I am sure’. Jack couldn’t believe that Lacken were after organising this trip to New York.
Donard legend Paddy Toomey said that there was great football and significant drinking enjoyed during the voyage.
‘We got an invitation. I think Gerry O’Neill organised it,’ began Paddy. ‘He’d have more contacts than the rest of us. There was 25 or 26 on it. There were about six from Donard, one from Stratford and the rest were from Lacken. Lacken were strong back then. We went up Senior after winning the Intermediate and I think they were Junior A at the time.
‘We played two games. We played a Donegal selection and then we played a New York selection and it wasn’t too far away from the New York team that played in the Connacht Championship that year. We went down to a pub afterwards and they were all there. The photograph we have was taken in front of the dugout. It was a rough looking spot in those days. The best part of it was the bar. I think they had the longest bar in New York in it.
‘Quite a crowd turned up. ‘I was manager. I didn’t play. I was getting on at the time. I would have been 54 at the time. One of my sons was playing, ‘Shorty’ (Colm) was playing.
‘We won both games. We had Nick O’Neill at midfield, and he was at the height of his powers at that time,’ said Paddy.
When asked if he had any yarns to tell about the eight-day trip he replied: ‘Nearly too many (yarns). We were well behaved.
‘We were there for over a week. It was a week’s drinking as well as the football. We set up in Yonkers, that was our base. There’s a pub there called Rory Doran’s. You can’t drink in America until you’re 21. We were staying in this hotel anyway and we went down one night, and I said, ‘two pints there, please, and there’ll be four or five more pints here in a few minutes. ‘That’s alright,’ says your man. Then the lads came down anyhow - ‘Oh jaysus, them lads won’t be served in America,’ they said.
‘What? We came over here to drink,’ said one lad.
Them lads would have been well able to drink at that stage. They were served in Rory Doran’s. Yonkers was an Irish town in the middle of New York. The pubs were Irish, everything was Irish.
‘Nobody misbehaved. We all got home. Actually, the bus went on fire on the way out; up the dual carriageway, going up to Dublin Airport. We were sitting there, and someone shouted, ‘Eh, the bus is on fire’. So, we had to jump out and get the gear out. The driver had some way of putting the fire out, so we got it out and went on,’ said Paddy. ‘It wasn’t a very modern bus, it was a bit rough,’ he added.
‘And then when we were leaving (New York), one of the lads, Mick Daly, decided to go to the toilet and the next thing the bus arrived and we got on and counted heads, I think there were 31 or 32. ‘Jaysus, only 31 here.’ ‘Where’s Mickey Daly?’ ‘Mickey was still in the jacks, so we had to go back and pick him up. He was nearly been left behind,’ said Paddy.
‘Nick O’Neill was the star man. And we had two big Flynn chaps playing, both 6ft 2 or 6ft 3. Lacken had quite a few good players, they were in their prime at the time.
‘They were tight matches, the one against New York was very tight,’ said Paddy.
Gerry O’Neill has his own fond memories of the bus going on fire on the way to the airport. He recalls sitting at the front of the bus and looking back to see the rest of the group sitting in the clouds of smoke coming from the fire beneath the bus.
Gerry says that Sean Deegan was a mechanic and that he got under the bus and sorted out the issue and on they went.
He also recalled how Lacken footballer Timmy Broe was stopped by US Customs at Dublin Airport but that he was allowed through when O’Neill vouched for him.
Gerry also recalls with some poignancy the late Mick Balfe from Lacken (who had a fondness for calling Gerry Mr Chairman) wandering down the plane as it cruised over Nova Scotia at 39,000ft and holding his arms aloft and saying, ‘Mr Chairman, Mr Chairman, great occasion, I’ll never be as close to heaven’.