Pa O’Rourke on his love for the beautiful game
Mike Rice Pa O’Rourke’s passion for the beautiful game knows no bounds on or off the pitch
What age did you start playing with the club?
I started playing in 1983 when I was eight, I actually played as a goalkeeper for a couple of years until Georgie [O’Callaghan] realised I could score a few goals and moved me outfield
The club played at a lot of different pitches in the early years you must have a lot of memories from that era?
I do indeed, apparently the early years we played on a pitch out the Tralee Road, but I don’t remember that one. I remember playing in the canon’s field for many years across from the community centre and spend a lot of years lining the pitches as I went to secondary school across the road in the community college, which had just opened and ironically where we have our astro pitch now. I also played at pitches at the Riocht running track, a bit of land in the Tralee Road Industrial estate across from Browne’s minerals, a farmers field out the Limerick Road, a farmer’s field out the Scartaglin Road, which we called
Buckley Park, a field out the Brosna Road and eventually another field out the Limerick Road from the Kelliher family which we used for a good few years until recently. It’s a huge relief to secure our own pitch as some of those fields weren’t fit for playing soccer on.
Who else was playing at that time?
I starting playing with people like Edmond Hartnett, DJ Roche, Tommy Hickey, Tommy Connor, Tommy Horan and the likes and funnily enough some of the lads I played with had their kids playing with us after and the kids have now even retired before me.
What honours have you won over the years?
In Kerry I’ve won most of the honours including Premier A, Premier B, Division 1, Division 1B, Division 2A, Greyhound Bar cup twice, Castlebar Cup three times, Over 35 league.
Most of those have been in the latter years, but we have been unlucky loads of times before that including been runner-up in the
Munster Junior Cup finals, Premier A finals, Reserve Cups but we got our first win in a while in the 08/09 Castlebar Cup and we have gone on a winning streak since then between the A and B teams.
I also played in England for a few years while in college and won a few leagues and cup trophies as well as two All-Ireland runners-up medals for the Under 14 and Under 18
Did Georgie O’Callaghan have a big influence on you at underage level?
Absolutely, most of my younger memories were from playing soccer, we had great underage teams back then and competing in all competitions and I was also playing with the age group above me so I was playing every week. Georgie had unbelievable dedication to soccer and was constantly training us or doing jobs at the pitch. It didn’t end there though as Georgie used to call to everyone’s house for chats etc so was part of everyone’s family in the area. He would also do jobs like giving people drives or going to the bog to help families. I don’t think there was a family in the area that he wasn’t part of.
The best memories were of course the trips to Home Farm in Dublin and especially our annual trip to Manchester. Georgie started these trips with Fr Lupton in 1973 where they both would bring a team over for a week and play against local teams and spend the week sight-seeing. When we went over we would play seven games and travel to Blackpool Amusement Park, Old Trafford to watch games, etc.
It was unreal playing against other teams and having a big party after as they would put on food and drinks. We would stay with parents that Fr Lupton would have arranged as their kids would be involved with the team from Fr Lupton’s local parish. Considering the times and the troubles in the north it was a testament to the two men they were able to keep it going and many friendships and memories were made over the years. I went for five years in-a-row, but over the 40 years. I’m sure a best-seller could be written of all the great times that were had.
When did you play your senior game? first
I played my first senior game when I was 16 in 1991, I think it was in the Canons field and Phil Connell was manager
Playing with the Kerry Youths must have been a big honour for you and also with the Kerry Oscar Traynor Cup side?
Yes great memories especially with the Kerry youths, we made it all the way to the All-Ireland final under John Regan as manager.
We played the Dublin District Schoolboys League in the final which was played in Lucan and nobody gave us a chance. Myself and I think Mikey Wall scored the goals and we were leading 2-1 deep into injury-time.
The famous quote I remember from that was that the DDSL got a free kick in their own half and one of our players asked the ref what was left, his reply was it’s over you have won, the Dublin player was allowed to take one last free kick and he swung in a long free and one of their players caught it on the volley from the edge of the box and it flew into the goals. They finished up beating us in sudden death penalties. We were devastated.
Are there any other achievements that are happy with?
One of the highlights is obviously the Premier A and Greyhound double in 2013/2014 but the earlier memories seem to stick the most. The proudest was captaining the Kerry Kennedy Cup team in 1990 when we made it to the All-Ireland final and played the Dublin District Schoolboys League in the final at Lansdowne Road in front of a packed house as it was before the Bray Wanderers v St Francis FAI Cup Final. It was a different format back then than it is now as there was a group table followed by knock-out and played over the season. When we made it to the final we were on the front pages of the local papers and also made national papers as it was unheard of that time for a Kerry soccer team to do well.
We lost 2-1 to a goal with five minutes to go, but I remember going up the steps to receive my soccer pennant from Big Jack Charlton. I was first up the steps as captain of the losing team and was standing right beside him as he made a speech. I have a picture of that moment but can’t locate it. Hopefully it will show up again soon.
We got a standing ovation from the crowd as we made our way around the pitch after the game heading over to our seats. The manager that time was John Bubbles Hegarty with Mike Hawley and Georgie O’Callaghan as selectors
When did become an official of the club?
I became secretary when I came back from college in England in 2000 and Chairman since 2013
What were the big changes you have seen over the years?
The biggest changes I’ve seen over the years are the playing facilities. I remember the pitches other clubs played on before they were upgraded and they were similar to our home grass pitch but they have upgraded most of their pitches and had left us behind until recently. Some of the pitches you had to climb ditches to get in
and most were uneven and none had dressing rooms, but now the standard of pitches at a lot of the clubs are a credit to them. Even the facilities at Mounthawk Park are up there with the best in the country. I’m only envious they weren’t around 20 years ago as you can see the standard of football has improved for the teams that have the facilities.
What was the highlight of your playing career?
That’s a hard one as there has been many highlights, spending a bit of time playing with a few professional English clubs on trial before I went to college in England or trials with the Irish International team underage were up there but some of the ones that really stick out would be captaining the Kerry Kennedy Cup team and finishing top scorer the year we made the final and hearing my name called out of the speaker at Lansdowne Road before the final when they were previewing danger men for both sides, scoring in the final of the Kerry youths final, but also scoring 55 goals in the 2004/05 season was some achievement as well as scoring in the Greyhound Bar Cup final when we won the double in 2013/2014, I’m sure I’m forgetting some obvious ones, but they spring to mind at the moment
Highlights at club level?
The highlight at club level was definitely the opening of the fullsize artificial turf playing pitch in April 2019. To have people like Ronnie Whelan, Ray Houghton and Mark Kinsella etc at it was surreal. Thankfully I managed to score the first official goal on the pitch also!
Seriously after many years of playing on bad pitches which was no good for developing your game and after years of getting stick over our pitches is was an honour to open the pitch and have something to show after the years of hard work and fundraising we put in to it.
The numbers of kids playing soccer underage has gone a way up and my own kids are also playing and I am managing and to see the pleasure on the kids faces enjoying themselves playing on the pitch makes it all worthwhile.
How did the club negotiate the deal to get the pitch?
We had been looking for some land for a few years to develop a pitch and the Community College had land at the back of their school they didn’t really use due to drainage problems so we negotiated a deal with them to develop an artificial turf playing pitch on it. The agreement took about eighteen months to agree as the Kerry ETB and the Department of Education were also involved.
It was a win win for both sides as the school gets a top class playing facility on their door step that they can use and we get place to call home. There were a few tricky issues to be resolved, but when all parties can see the benefit of it then it’s a matter of making it happen.
We spent about another 2/3 years fundraising for it and we got unbelievable support from the local community along with grants and loans. The good will in the community had a lot to do with repaying Georgie’s good will for many years and even though its unfortunate he didn’t get to see it he was heavily involved in the fundraising right up to the end and he knew we were about to start construction before he sadly passed away. The pitch is now named Georgie O’Callaghan Park in his honour
What are your aspirations for the club going into the future?
The club has come a long way over the last number of years, but to stand still now is to go backwards. As I mentioned our juvenile numbers have grown hugely at underage and I would like to get more past and current players involved in coaching to give something back. We need to get the underage teams back to the top table and challenging for honours where we should be and were for many years previously. I would also like to
develop our underage girls teams as we started last season with one team and now we have three teams, but I would like to develop it more. I would also like to set up a football for all section of the club for people with disabilities, we have already begun discussions on this and I’m hopeful it will happen in the near future. I would like to get the over 35 team back playing again to give older adults an opportunity to participate in sport. We also have plans to build a dressing room at the new pitch, we currently have converted containers which is doing the job great but it would be nice to finish off the state of the art facility with proper dressing rooms.
Have you any notion of hanging up your boots?
Ha! The body is starting to ache now and takes longer to recover and the thought has crossed my mind but I enjoy playing and scoring goals (although a lot fewer these days), I’ll probably train away with the lads and once my position on the team is taken by up-and-coming talent I’ll be happy to step aside for them. I’ll still play away but not competitively then or maybe play in the Over 35 competition.
Who would you regard as the unsung heroes of the club over the past four decades?
That’s very hard as there is so many in every club, The managers obviously as they can’t miss a training session whereas players can and they are also there before and after the players, but also secretaries, treasurers and committee members behind the scenes helping to run the club that nobody hears about. They are very important or there wouldn’t be a club as well as lads who cut the grass, line the pitches or in our case now opening and closing the facility for playing teams. Also sponsors are unsung heroes as it’s very hard to raise money and sponsors are been asked for money even more so now so we are very grateful to them. Our own senior sponsor Tom McCarthy bar has been our sponsor for over 20 years which is unbelievable and Georgie would also have had very loyal sponsors down through the years and they are still
supporting us.