Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
DONEGAL MET KERRY IN PARIS
MANY of those in Paris played football at club or county level so they were keen to stay in reasonable shape over the winter.
An Astroturf pitch was booked for Thursday soccer games and they were refereed by a former Manchester United striker, Scott McGarvey.
John Duffy from Ballyshannon would go on to be recognised as one of the best forwards in Ulster during the 1990s.
But soccer was a passion too and he remembers McGarvey well.
“He was friendly with Eddie McGinty and Tiny Vaughan. I think Tiny was a bouncer at a bar in Paris and that’s how he met him,’’ said Duffy.
“Scott, from what I recall, had signed with a French club and he was glad to meet up with lads who spoke English.’’
McGarvey later worked as a football agent and was caught up in the sting that led to Sam Allardyce losing his job as England manager.
Duffy, like so many others, has fond memories of his time in Paris.
“There could easily have been up to 100 people from Donegal over there on that job,’’ he said. “I think I played in all three of the football games, definitely played in a couple of them.
“We came up against Kerry boys and I think the games were on a rugby pitch. It was in the middle of a park. It was wide open, I remember that.
“John Cunningham and John-Joe Doherty were over and they went back and ended up playing for Donegal that year.
“There were a lot of well known club players from Donegal there as well. I think Lar Molloy, who played for Carlow, was there too. There were a lot of footballers on the job.
“We used to play cards during the week. A gang would go up to a local restaurant — Squeaky Joe’s — and get steak and chips, a couple of beers and back to bed. You lived for the weekend.
“I think we used to get fifty pound spending money as a sub out of our wages. Food and board was looked after and the rest was put in our bank accounts.
Brilliant
“If you ran short, you could ask for a bit more. It was brilliant because you saved quite a bit of money. Brilliant times.’’
Duffy, like Hegarty, had the talent to make the 1992 squad, but just missed out.
“I had always planned to go back to London. There was work there and I was going to play football with Tir Chonaill Gaels again,’’ he said.
“Then, a few months after winning the AllIreland, Donegal played Dublin in a challenge match in Ruislip.
“I played for Donegal, played well and moved to Dublin a while after that, joining up with the Civil Service club. Seamus Bonner, God rest him, was involved with Service and he was also a Donegal selector and he got on to McEniff to bring me into the panel. So I started in the League in 1993.’’