Austin Stacks celebrate 100 years in style
THE good and the great of Austin Stacks GAA, Kerry GAA, Cork and Dublin GAA - and all points in between - gathered in the Ballygarry House Hotel last Friday to mark the occasion of the Tralee club’s centenary for what a wonderful celebration of all things black and amber. Almost 500 guests, paying €100 a seat, gathered for champagne, fine food, and the best of stories, craic and music as the famed Tralee GAA Club relived 100 years and ensured the Rock Street legends will live long into the future.
Club chairman Liam Lynch welcomed guests to what was a second gala banquet for the club in two years and the unanimous consensus was that last Friday’s gathering out-did a similar fund-raising event at the same venue two years ago.
With RTE sports broadcaster Darragh Maloney moving proceedings along with his effortless professionalism, a highlight of the event was the on-stage panel discussion between Rock Street and Kerry GAA legends Mikey Sheehy and Ger Power and Dublin interlopers and surprise guests Paddy Cullen and Robbie Kelliher. The four men reminisced about their famed battled as Kerry and Dublin players and there was even a Croke Park re-enactment of Sheehy’s famous chipped goal over Cullen in the 1978 All-Ireland SFC Final.
Almost 40 years on from what Maloney described as a “never before seen and never to be repeated” goal the four men togged off in Croke Park a couple of weeks ago and tried to replicate the goal that drew Con Houlihan’s famous description of the goal: “And while all this was going on, Mikey Sheehy was running up to take the kick and suddenly Paddy [Cullen] dashed back towards his goal like a woman who smells a cake burning. The ball won the race and it curled inside the near post as Paddy crashed into the outside of the net and lay against it like a fireman who had returned to find his station ablaze.”
After dinner another panel discussion took place, this time Connolly Park hero Kieran Donaghy swapping stories with Darragh Ó Sé, Ogie Moran and Cork’s Dinny Allen.
There were also contributions from Sean Walsh from Kerins O’Rahillys, Dr Con Murphy, an old Kerry friend from Cork, and Rock Street legend Ger O’Keeffe.
After the fun and the formalities came the frolics and Rockies and guests whiled away the evening and night swapping war stories from the football fields and catching up with old friends made in Connolly Park and beyond.
One of the most successful football clubs, not just in Kerry but in the country, Austin Stacks proved they can throw a party with the best of them. One hundred years is a long time to be in existence but the Rockies showed on Friday that they are still very much top of their game.