Patrick Reynolds speaks about setting up a football team for Irish men in London.
North London has always had a strong Irish connection, particularly in Camden and Islington, and there has been a GAA presence here over many years. After Holloway Gaels Men’s GFC ceased to exist some years ago, there was a large football-shaped void left amongst the Irish community in this part of London.
A group of former Gaels players, who had only played football at underage level, got together under the direction of Luke Callinan, a London-born Irishman with strong Clare roots, and began to have a weekly ‘kick-about’ in Finsbury Park. Over some months, the club gradually began to take shape, with the addition of Islington-based Armagh man, Conor McGinn, and experienced GAA administrator and Paddy Corbett from Mayo, to the steering group. All the time the core group of players – whose ambition and determination drove the project – diligently trained every week in Finsbury Park, North London in anticipation of being part of something new and special, and that finally came to fruition when Éire Óg CLG registered with the London GAA County Board in February 2011. We will be forever grateful to the London Irish Centre in Camden for their support.
I moved over to London in 2005, I was one of the first of my friends to emigrate. I was working for an IT company in Dublin, but I couldn’t see my future with that company. I wanted a challenge and to experience a new city, so when I was offered a job with a Life Sciences recruitment firm that was owned by two Irish people. I jumped at the chance and haven’t looked back since.
I had been in London for a couple of years before I found my way into the Irish community in London, a few lads I knew from Eire Og asked me to join their team. It is very hard to meet people in London unless you have something organised, so playing football regularly was a great way to socialise and make new friends.
By the end of my first season with Eire Og I was immersed in the club and took up the positions of Secretary and Selector. It is great that we have founding members of the club still involved, these include Paul Mulholland a native of Swinford and James Kilroy from Charlestown.
The first two seasons where a steep learning curve for the team. We didn’t win a single game in our first two season and some of the defeats we suffered where more of a cricket score than a football match.
We soon had about 30 registered players after word spread that we were the most central club in London, it became a good way to recruit new players. Whilst we trained at the side of a road in Finsbury Park on a hot summers evening we would often get people asking what is that game you are playing. We would provide an overview of the game and background to the club and ask them if they want to have a game. I remember the day when we were training and a man approached with a Mayo accent said he had heard about the club and that he would like his son to get involved who knew a lot about the game but had never played. I remember this day well…. Naill Murray a London born Irishman was our first non-home grown player. It was his father Harry who hails from Belmullet that took Niall along that day, Niall is now a regular 1st team member and has since gone on to play for the London Junior team. Harry is a great supporter of the club and helps out when and where he can.
We had a core group of players and due to recession at home there was an influx of people arriving in London. We got our website off the ground (eireoglondon.org) and we are using Facebook and Twitter too, which has helped to spread the word about the club and attract new members but also help them settle into London life.
While the majority of our players are from Ireland, we aren’t exclusive. We now have a few members from the UK, Luxembourg, Portugal and Australia.
We are not the only football club in close proximity to Finsbury Park. Holloway Gaels ladies football club also trained in Finsbury. There has always been a close link between the two clubs. There was one clear issue with Finsbury Park…. The old pitch in Finsbury Park was deemed unsafe due a water well under the surface. A meeting took place between Ciara Holland a member of Holloway Gaels and a local school teacher, Sean Burke the Chairman of Finsbury Park rugby club and me with one aim and that was to find a pitch for our clubs. We met with Haringey Council and put a proposal forward to add two pitches to Downhills Park which at the time was not been used for sport. Haringey Council agreed and we installed our goals in July 2014.
Since then we have gone on to renovate the changing facilities in the park with the help of contractors who are members of the three club. Downhills Park is fast becoming a new Parish.
On Saturday 27th June we will be holding our official opening day to celebrate not just the pitch but the overall achievement of the growth of the club. With the ladies GFC and Rugby club on board we are looking forward to building up relationships with the local community and progressing the clubs into the next stage of integrating underage members.