Trip down memory lane and Fenlon’s 30-year quest to be happy
THIRTY years ago this month, a 19-year-old Pat Fenlon provided a slight insight into the man who would become one of the League of Ireland’s most decorated figures as both a player and manager.
His favourite TV show was Saint and Greavsie, UB40 were his band of choice and Kenny Dalglish was the player he most admired. ‘To be happy,’ was his wish for the future.
Just a small snapshot in time discovered within a treasure trove of match programmes unearthed during a day spent clearing out a boxroom. Taken from their plastic container and strewn across the floor, you were quickly transported to a different era, but one which was easy to relate to.
‘Today is the day we can finally close the cover on the darkest chapter in our club’s history,’ Ciaran Byrne, chairman of the Shamrock Rovers Supporters’ Club, wrote ahead of the Hoops’ opening game of the 1990/91 season at their new home at the RDS following the sale of Milltown by previous owners the Kilcoyne family.
‘We will never forget or allow the perpetrators of the crimes against our club forget what they did!’ he added pointedly.
They still haven’t, a degree of anguish remains, but in September 1990 there was another target for their scorn and one article, headlined ‘Italy Remembered… LOI Forgotten’, is a reminder that some viewed Italia 90 fever as an affliction.
‘I remember those balmy June days when the whole island went World Cup ga-ga and otherwise sane and sober minded people went about the streets as if the nation’s pubs had been giving out free samples,’ wrote Liam Christie, contributor to the Rovers programme.
‘The children and the adults and their array of colour have gone. ‘The “soccer” fan has gone into hiding. Hibernating until the lure of another Mickey Mouse friendly awakens his sharply honed interest.’
A point which will resonate today in a week when the FAI triumphantly announced Liverpool’s return to Lansdowne Road to face Napoli this summer. Those ‘glamour’ fixtures have been a staple of the Irish calendar for as long as most can remember and as the pious words prove, they have always had their detractors.
During the 1988/89 season, St Patrick’s Athletic boss Brian Kerr noted that October how an exciting trend had emerged with clubs blooding young players and sticking by them irrespective of results.
‘I think this is tremendous, it lets the supporters see new faces rather than the same merry-go-round of players, encourages the schoolboy and youth clubs in their efforts to develop more skilful and committed players and it also shakes up the seasoned part-time professionals if they know there are others to take their places,’ he offered.
The same goes for today — the average age in the Premier Division is 24.4, the ninth-lowest in Europe — but there is certainly a more concerted effort now to ensure that talent pool doesn’t dry up with the introduction of National Leagues at Under-19, 17, 15 and 13 age groups (the latter begins next year).
They are exciting developments and hopefully in 30 years this optimism will stand the test of time. For Fenlon, he confirmed to the LOI Weekly podcast yesterday that he doesn’t miss management and has no desire to return.
He’s happy.