PULLING THE HARPS STRINGS
Filling several roles, Patsy McGowan has dedicated a lifetime to his beloved club
PATSY McGOWAN is almost 83 and gives Finn Park a miss these days. He knows if he goes to a game someone will probably pass a remark and he’ll react, because the fire inside still glows. McGowan doesn’t do mellow. When his beloved Finn Harps were concerned, he never turned the other cheek, and at times, it landed him in trouble.
But he always acted in what he believed was the right interest of the club he loves.
‘The Strings of My Harps’, the name of his 1998 book, was aptly named because the tug of the club, and that of football, has never left him. It can’t.
How deep? He recalled this week a story of his Confirmation day in Killygordon after which he dashed across to Finn Park to watch a game, ‘dressed to kill’.
‘There was a big drain along the side of the pitch, full of muck and oil. Every time a ball went into it, we all dived in after it. That day, with my new suit, I dived into the drain and pulled the ball out.
‘I was a mess and got the s**t kicked out of me when I went home. It didn’t matter. I fell in love with football the day I was born.’
And Harps became the companion McGowan has never deserted.
He managed the club in the League of Ireland for three separate spells, from 1969 to ’77, ’81 to ’82 and ’92 to ’95. Under McGowan, Harps won the FAI Cup in 1974, and were runners-up three times in the League in the ’70s.
With the team riding high again in the Premier Division, McGowan watches on approvingly.
‘I’m delighted for the players, and for Ollie (Harkin) and Paul (Hegarty). Those two boys have worked so hard.’
McGowan’s longevity is remarkable. He was there as a teenager in 1954 when Ballybofey Wanderers changed their name to Finn Harps; he ran the Summer Cup in the ’60s to bring in a few bob, and was player-manager when the club won the FAI Junior Cup in ’68. An injury in the quarter-final forced McGowan to hang up his gloves, but he was more than a decent goalkeeper. He was good enough to be wanted by Everton in 1960 but felt it was a step too high.
Tranmere Rovers was the alternative but he changed his mind when Peter Farrell was sacked as manager and later played under Frank O’Farrell at Weymouth in the Southern League, where he advised the latter to manage, not play and manage.
‘Frank was a very religious man, he wouldn’t curse and players were afraid of him,’ he recalled.
While McGowan has his faith, he was never afraid of using industrial language, nor did he back off from a challenge. As a manager, it was his way, or the highway.
‘I suppose I took control and it never left me. It went from there. All the time I was there, and all the things we did, I never asked anyone
for permission. I just went and done it. It wasn’t big-headed, but I believed in what I was doing and the way to do it. No one ever won an argument with me.’
It’s 52 years since Harps were admitted to the League of Ireland, along with Athlone Town, after much canvassing by McGowan and Fran Fields.
‘Fran, God rest him, was terrible with names and called everyone Willie,’ he remembered.
The vote was tight and the outcome wasn’t greeted with acclaim.
The late Bill Kelly of The Sunday Press was appalled. ‘My God, they have elected a team with a set of goalposts and two junior players,’ he said.
When Harps were skittled 10-2 at home by Shamrock Rovers in their first senior game, the critics took fire but McGowan promised European football for Donegal within four years. It came in 1973 and was compensation for one of his ‘biggest disappointments’ in football.
‘We were in second position in the league and were playing Limerick away from home on the last day. The leaders, Waterford, were also playing away, against Cork Hibs. I felt we could catch them.
‘When I read in the Sunday papers that five Hibs players were missing, I knew we were goners.’
After the season ended, Harps embarked on an eight-game tour of the United States.
‘I will never forget walking into the Mayor’s parlour in Philadelphia and I saw the bulge in his coat. When we were leaving, I said to the usher,
“Is that a gun in his pocket?” And he said, “You’re right there buddy; you just met the biggest bad guy in Philadelphia”.
After spending much of the trip sobering up players and chasing female visitors out of hotels, McGowan recalled the final sting of a memorable midsummer tale.
‘We were about half an hour out of New York on the way home when the pilot comes on and says we have
to make an emergency landing. About 20 minutes later, he says ‘We’ll be landing in Gander, Newfoundland. I have to tell you there’s a bomb on board.”
‘You should have seen the fellahs s ****** g themselves,’ chuckled McGowan almost 50 years on. After surviving the hoax, McGowan took flight a year later when he led Harps to FAI Cup glory, with a managerial masterstroke which saw Tony O’Doherty, a sweeper, step into midfield for the injured Terry Harkin, a striker.
‘At half-time against Pat’s, I said to the boys. “We’re going to take over this match. Tony, I want you to push into midfield and all of us to push 20 yards further up the pitch. We’re going to go for them.” ‘That’s the switch we made. Brendan Bradley scored twice, and we won the match.’
That Cup win, with McGowan pulling the strings, remains the sweetest music of all.