Football

Cahair O'Kane: Trip to London is vital for spreading the word on Gaelic games

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair is a sports reporter and columnist with the Irish News specialising in Gaelic Games.

St Kiernan's were well short of Slaughtneil's level last Sunday, but the All-Ireland quarter-final remains an invaluable source of promotion for Gaelic games in London
St Kiernan's were well short of Slaughtneil's level last Sunday, but the All-Ireland quarter-final remains an invaluable source of promotion for Gaelic games in London St Kiernan's were well short of Slaughtneil's level last Sunday, but the All-Ireland quarter-final remains an invaluable source of promotion for Gaelic games in London

THE blazing sun fell upon a still reddened sky, touching down at the top of the grassy slope that leads out of the Tír Chonaill Gaels clubhouse and up to their playing base in Greenford.

Housed at a dead-end in Berkeley Avenue, just a couple of miles from Wembley Stadium, the public park sprawls far and wide. Dotted around are various sets of makeshift goalposts, a collection of shapes and sizes.

The pitch itself looks pristine as you go for an early morning walk between the hastily-erected barriers that had blown down overnight and all had to be reset that morning.

Slaughtneil had arrived in London late last Saturday evening, parking up in their hotel and lying low before the strange, out-of-country experience of an All-Ireland quarter-final.

The shutters are still down on the windows of the clubhouse, which has a red-and-white Tír Chonaill Gaels sign attached. The small car park houses the entrance to North Greenford United as well, their pitch sheltered away behind the bushes.

There was nothing to shelter players, nor crowd, nor anyone else that travelled to the English capital last Sunday. Thank God for the sun’s appearance. Anything else would have put a completely different complexion on a uniquely green corner of north London.

The first few steps up the bank are like walking on brown ice. The mud would have you on your face without a second thought. It did eventually get me, which endlessly amused James McGrath, father of Slaughtneil forward Meehaul.

Clambering over those same dodgy barriers, their unsteadiness only became apparent when I was up. And when I was up, I had to come down. Thankfully, most of Slaughtneil was still milling around the clubhouse, soaking in the atmosphere that began to build.

James McGrath was one of a few hundred from the small south Derry village to travel across. There were various estimates, ranging from 200 to 400.

For some, it was an expense they could have done without in the mouth of Christmas. The average return flight cost around £150. Most came over for at least one night, and some viewed it as a great weekend away and went Friday to Monday.

But the value of the game came not from seeing how the Slaughtneil people came and enjoyed it. It wasn’t even so much from the very small band of St Kiernan’s supporters, who had a crowd equivalent to a junior club at home out to see them.

Turning around in the clubhouse an hour before throw-in, there was Kieran McKeever standing. Himself and Noel McFeely, a staunch Foreglen man, started to recall their days managing the Thomas McCurtain’s club in London.

They won a Mullarkey Cup in 2012 and were left in awe as to the commitment of players based across the water. Some, he recalled, travelled for maybe an hour each way, hopping between trains and buses, to make training two or three times a week.

The commitment levels were obvious the moment you set foot into the car park. With the rest of London starting to rise at half-nine on a Sunday morning, the London county team were just making their way out of the changing rooms to train.

So muggings goes up to watch for a bit. It seems good craic. It’s also blatantly obvious why they’re in Division Four, and they will remain there; they spent 90 minutes on the field, turning the air grey with their heavy December breath, and for almost all of that time they just played a game.

It looked fierce enjoyable. Just as in the first few steps up the hill in the mud, you regret not bringing the boots. How much fun it seemed. A quick warm-up, a couple of basic drills and then bang, straight into a game.

To watch football go back in time, go to London. St Kiernan’s style was in the same mould. Had this been the 1980s, they would have caused problems. They had a few big units and a few boys that could play. Like most in London, they weren’t afraid to mix it.

I bumped into another Dungiven man, former defender Rian Kealey, at the doors of the clubhouse before the game and from personal experience, he thought St Kiernan’s had a chance.

But Slaughtneil are a team playing 2016 football, if not from a time beyond. Padraig Cassidy running about the place like a Jack Russell on heat had the crowd feeling as bamboozled as they were mesmerised.

Despite a couple of late hits in the second half, the game wasn’t in the realms of 1980s physicality. The comfort of Slaughtneil’s win had viewers questioning the validity of St Kiernan’s presence in an All-Ireland quarter-final.

They wouldn’t have got beyond a first round provincial tie had they been put in at that stage. Indeed, they’d have done well to progress too far in an intermediate competition.

That misses the point completely. In summer, on that same surface that Slaughtneil dandered around for an hour, there were over 2,000 children playing Gaelic games.

Tír Chonaill Gaels invited them to come from all over England and Scotland, and the appetite was clear to see. An old-ish man from the Mayo-Roscommon border was stewarding the car park, donning a high-vis bib and talking of how he’d left for work in 1965 and been in London ever since; his eyes lit up at the prospect of seeing Ulster’s finest club side in the flesh.

It’s an expensive trip for the visiting team and their supporters, and that’s something that perhaps the GAA could look at alleviating with more than the current €10,000 grant.

To keep the games alive, to keep the 2,000 children coming down every summer, to keep the London scene thriving, the GAA has to stick with these All-Ireland quarter-finals irrespective of whether the game is truly competitive or not.