Breheny’s Bronx tale may signal beginning of the end for Sligo’s evergreen hero
IF TODAY marks the beginning of the end for Mark Breheny, he would not want it to be in any other place.
For the fourth time, he makes the 10,000 kilometre round trip to Gaelic Park; it serving as a homecoming of sorts each time.
There will always be a part of this area in the Bronx that will be forever home.
His four brothers and two sisters were born – and, to various degrees, raised – in a corner of the Bronx not too far from Gaelic Park, before the family returned home in the late ’70s, where Mark, the youngest, was born.
The irony, at a time when the ‘undocumented’ has become the burning political issue on the Irish-American political scene is that the man who leads out Sligo today is the one papered-up with an American passport.
It is hardly though as widely stamped as his inter-county one. When Monaghan’s Dick Clerkin announced his retirement last autumn, it left Breheny as the longest serving player in the game, having made his debut back in 2000 in an Allianz League game against Meath.
If that went unnoticed – Sligo footballers for obvious reasons rarely get to scratch the national consciousness – he has left an indelible mark among his own.
Not least in this fixture. Sligo was the first county to visit Gaelic Park in 2002 when the Connacht Council bowed to the pragmatism of affording the exiles home advantage on a permanent basis.
If that represented a first step into the unknown, it was also one that jarred right at the start.
‘They got a goal right from the throw-in,’ recalls Breheny, with impressive clarity.
‘Their midfielder caught the ball straight from the throw-in and he let the ball in and their full forward was a fellow called Michael Hoey from Monaghan; he caught it at the edge of the square, turned and scored a great goal.
‘I can tell you that put the nerves into us right at the beginning of the match but we gathered ourselves eventually.’
That ‘gathering’ was in part facilitated by Breheny’s goal and Sligo have not really looked back since.
This fixture has been good to them, not just because they have won their three games there by an aggregate of 50 points.
In 2007 when his brother Tommy, who played underage football in the Bronx prior to the family returning home, was managing the county, it would serve as a launchpad for Sligo’s second provincial title.
Looking back, Breheny felt something stirring on that trip.
‘I did feel something good was about to happen. I felt it particularly after the game as one of the things about going to New York is that it allows you to really bond as a group.’
In some ways, today carries a faint echo of 2007. Back then, Sligo travelled on high alert after the exiles had put the frighteners on Roscommon the previous year.
Although, that hardly came close to the one-point squeeze the exiles put on Roscommon last term, while this Sligo team is not of the 2007 summer vintage.
The visitors’ sense of vulnerability is heightened by the absence of key players, Niall Murphy, Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch and Kevin McDonald.
And then there is the trauma that came with their last overseas Championship trip, when they were beaten by London in 2013. Reasons then to be fearful? ‘We were very flat and we got caught out,’ he says. ‘But we are not going into this game with the fear factor thinking “oh my God what happens if we lose to these fellas”.
‘I think it comes down to a simple thing, no matter what team you are playing if you don’t play to your full potential, you take your eye off the ball or you start thinking that you are better than whoever you are playing then you are going to be in trouble that day.
‘That is why our preparation is very much focused on treating this game as if it was a Connacht final.’
For Breheny, this is likely to be the end of a well-travelled road.
‘I will give you a scoop, I won’t be going back to New York in five years’ time,’ chortles the 35-yearold.
In truth, he is in bonus territory. Three years ago, there was an even stronger family presence than usual at the fourth round qualifier game with Cork at O’Connor Park, Tullamore.
He had his mind, more or less, made up at the time that would be the end, but then Niall Carew came careering through the door and lit a fire in him. In truth, it was easily kindled. ‘It reenergised me, I was captain for two great years and they were two extra years that I thought that I would not have. I am still enjoying it and I am delighted that I made that decision not to give up,’ he says.
This, though, might just be the perfect way to sign off. He was there at the start of Sligo’s New York adventure, and having him still there will ease their anxiety today.
Not just for his experience, but for his quality. Too far off Broadway to ever get the All-Star recognition which might have come his way had he possessed a different address, but as a finisher and playmaker his value is recognised by his own.
Bringing it all back home today will have added poignancy; his mother, who was born a gentle punt pass away from Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, passed away a few years ago.
It is a good place as any to start out on one last lap.
‘I do feel that I am probably coming close to the end now. I have loved every minute of this year so far and I hope I have some very good days coming in the weeks and months ahead.’
If that transpires, it will not be begrudged.