Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
DONEGAL IN DISNEYLAND
30 years on since county stars built theme park on WAY TO SAM
DAY after day, the greeting stayed the same.
A nod to where they lived and worked, an acknowledgement that they were of a different breed. “Bonjour, ya hoor!”
Officially, they were in Paris, even though the City of Lights was 30 miles away.
Strangers in a strange place in a strange land. An Irish crew building an American dream factory in the French countryside.
It’s coming up on 30 years since the official opening of Eurodisney — and what many don’t realise is that it was largely constructed by Irish workers, and that many of those were well known GAA figures — particularly from Donegal.
Roots
Duffy and Carr, a construction company with Donegal roots in London, had been contracted to provide labour to Eurodisney and PJ McGinley, a senior manager from Glencolmcille who also took charge of the Tir Chonaill Gaels team in London, looked to plenty of his own.
One of those was John-Joe Doherty. He would win an All Star in 1993 but his 1992 season was an especialy strange one.
Doherty played one game for Donegal that year — their AllIreland final win over Dublin — after being parachuted into the team following an injury picked up by Martin Shovlin at training.
“I had struggled badly all through 1991 with a pelvic injury that was just getting worse and worse,” said Doherty.
“There would have been League games on before Christmas then and I must have stayed on because of them but I was well crocked by the end of that year.
“It was the first week in January ’92, that I went to Paris. The connection was through PJ. I used to run a pub that he owned in Carrick.
Quiet
“Things were very quiet and it was a wee trip that was offered very suddenly, and I looked forward to it.
“Unemployment was very bad in Ireland and in Donegal, especially. The word came back that the money was good in Paris. Accommodation and meals was looked after so it was a chance for people to put a few pound away.
“When friends and people you knew were over there, it was easy to make up your mind.”
Paddy Hegarty was a Naomh Columba clubmate of Doherty and had won an All-Ireland Under-21 title alongside him in 1987. He’d gone across a few months earlier, as had John Cunningham of Killybegs — captain of that ’87 team and a regular with the Donegal seniors.
The late Michael Oliver McIntyre, a former Donegal player who would later train the county, was another to move to Paris.
“The ’80s was a terrible time for emigration. I remember being in a pub in London and counting over 20 lads in it that
I’d played football with in Donegal.
All along the whole west of Ireland, the ’80s was cruel,” said Hegarty.
Boom
“The boom came in the ’90s but it wasn’t there in the early ’90s. You were still heading away then looking for work.
“The word went out that they needed three men
out in Paris, so they got me!
“It was fun. If I was given the chance to turn back the clock and live a day of my life again, I’d love to relive one of those days in Paris. The laughing that was done...
“We were young men. Most of us there were in our 20s. The French had good time for the Irish too. It was a great time. The James Joyce was our local in Paris.
“It’s funny what comes back to you when you start talking about it. There was a canteen there where you’d get your grub and the women working there were Irish too and mostly from Donegal.
“The signal would go out that it was time to eat and it was like a stampede of wildebeest on the Serengeti. There’d be clouds of smoke going up with the wild rush to get fed.”
The canteen had an Irish tricolour flying outside it and was nicknamed ‘Little Donegal’. It hummed with talk of nights out and, always, Gaelic football.
Eventually, three games were arranged — Donegal v Kerry, though the Kingdom took in a few interlopers to make up the numbers.
“The football games were enjoyable. Bingo Driscoll played for the Kerry fellas. He’d played for Kerry at home and won a Munster title. He headed off for work after that, ended up in New York,” said Hegarty.
“The games of Gaelic there... they were as good a game as you’d get. Rugby posts and no nets.
Stipid
“There was some kind of stupid wee trophy for the winners and we ended up winning. It was the ref who presented it, I think his name was Noel Kane.
“He made this speech and goes ‘Donegal could be All-Ireland champions this year’. We were all laughing at him.”
Hegarty would go on to light up the intercounty stage and was the main reason why Donegal knocked out the reigning AllIreland champions Down in the first round in 1995.
He was an All-Ireland U-21 winner in 1987 and, in ’92, was hitting his prime at 26 — but he missed out on Donegal’s glorious summer.
“After Paris, I went to London to work and when you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. By the time I came back, they were ready to rock.”
Two of those ready to rock were Cunningham and Doherty. There was to be a twist to the tale too. When Shovlin picked up a neck injury, many expected Cunningham, who had played up to a sending off in the Ulster final, to get the nod.
Instead, Brian McEniff turned to Doherty.
“It was a time before mobile phones so there wasn’t much contact with home. Did McEniff keep in touch? There may have been one call or he might have arranged for me to call him,”said Doherty.
“At the same time, knowing McEniff, he’d have known how we were getting on.
“My birthday was on March 19 and I remember my mother posted over 10 scratch cards as a present. I won fifty pound, I still remember that clearly.
“I came back shortly after
Easter. Donegal had lost to Dublin in the League quarter-finals and
I came back a few days after that game.
“I was still very concerned about the pelvis injury. Didn’t come back in great shape at all, didn’t think I’d be playing at all.”
Tiny Vaughan from Carrigart took photos of the Donegal crew and, sadly, quite a few have since passed on.
That time left its mark in all sorts of ways. There were even a few marriages out of it. And the nights out were memorable.
“We’d land into Paris, going through all those great and famous spots with lads who were in boiler suits a few hours later and were now dressed to the nines.
“It was the original Operation Transformation. We still relied on the Ford Transit to get us there and back, though.
“What I remember most about nights in Paris is a nightclub that we’d go to after the pubs closed.
Bunker
“It was formerly a bunker that was used during World War Two. You entered at street level and went down stairs, and kept going, the stairs seemed to go on forever.
“You were going way underground. It was very claustrophobic. Paddy Hegarty was the king over there. If you were hanging around Paddy, you were always going to end up in some funny spot. It was a great time.”
‘He said ‘Donegal could be All-Ireland champions this year’. We were all laughing at him...’