As O’Donovan Rossa Magherafelt travel to Salthill this weekend for Féile Peil na nÓg, we recall the journey of St Patrick’s Loup and Ronan Rocks to the same venue 25 years ago this weekend.
They won Derry senior titles and they won Ulster senior titles. But they didn’t win Féile.
When Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiach opened the current pitch at St Patick’s GAA, Loup, in 1981, it took the club only eight years to introduce a band of brothers who would form the basis for a provincial senior winning side of 2003.
Regime is an interesting word but it’s how Ronan Rocks chooses to describe the efforts of his Uncle Colm in forming the basis for a decade of success.
“It was uncle Colm [Rocks] who would have started the regime around the Loup. There were other men too but if you ask anyone Colm would have been the main man at the time – in charge of the 12s, 14s and 16s.” he says resolutely.
“Eamon, his brother, god rest him, would have been his sidekick. He was Thomas’ father who also played, and Nathan’s grandfather – Nathan who played for Derry minors and U21s and plays for Newbridge.”
Winners of the Derry u14 league, championship and Féile competitions in 1989, it was the latter which sparks a series of memories with Rocks. And they are happy ones filled with the wonder and times of youth.
“The weekend itself was a real scorcher”, recalls Rocks. “Like Portugal or somewhere. And was all new to us of course. I mean, five or six hours on a bus to Salthill was unheard of. At the time, it was like going to America for us as young lads.
June 1989. When the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and Jim Gallagher’s red Hiace van hit Salthill.
“There couldn’t have been anyone left in the Loup at that time. Jim Gallagher, I will never forget. He was a plumber by trade and played a bit in the 80’s for the club. Jim lived out of the red Hiace van which he parked up outside a swimming pool for the entire weekend. In the morning, he’d go for a dip and a quick wash and then onto the games. Unreal when you think back but great memories,” laughs Rocks.
With 32 visiting teams and 32 host clubs, the Féile parade is something which lives long in the memory of Ronan Rocks. So too his host family:
“Our first game was against Salthill who were also our hosts. We split up, the same as they do now-a-days with different players going with different families. I stayed with the family of Conor Killeen who I think went on to become a successful soccer player with Galway United. Anyway, we won that first game handy enough.”
There has been a concerted effort over the past few years to return what many see as the true spirit of Féile. It has gone too serious.
No such problems in ’89.
As you listen to Rocks talk about that weekend, football is actually seldom mentioned. It’s a sideshow to the main event – the lads, the craic, the time spent together.
And near escapes.
“Salthill was a typical seaside town with amusements and that kind of thing. Myself and Brian Love, who was full forward on the team, decided to hire one of those 4-wheel trikes I think they are called. We belted down the road in this thing anyway and straight into the side of a car leaving a huge dent. We did what any decent people would have done – we ran!”
For all their rascality and waywardness, this was a serious bunch of footballers typified, at the time, by their midfield sensation, who Rocks admires greatly.
“Kevin Ryan was the big player for us. The rest of us were decent but Kevin was exceptional and being touted as the next Dermot McNicholl at that time. I remember the Derry final which we won against Ballinderry 3-8 to 0-6. It was level after the first five minutes before Kevin caught a ball in midfield, ran half the length of the pitch and stuck it in the top corner. We never looked back after that.”
Indeed they did not. A host of underage titles gave way to minor success and eventually to their first John McLaughlin Cup for nearly 70 years in 2003. Ulster fell too.
“Johnny McBride was full back [of the Féile team] with his brother Alex in goals. I think Johnny was twelve at the time. Marty Bradley was centre-half and one of our main players. Marty developed Arthritis during his second year at senior level so didn’t make it through the same as many of the others. You had Ryan Dougan and Ciaran Hegarty and then Kevin of course in midfield.”
The half forward line will have a familiar look to any students of Derry senior club football. Rocks was flanked either side by Enda McQuillan and Fintan Martin, with a youthful Paul McFlynn ‘floating around the subs somewhere’. Only really the full forward line failed to reach the shore.
“The three Brian’s, O’Kane, Love and Coyle were the full forward line and curiously the only line which never really played senior football,” says Rocks before continuing with the juxtaposition of ’89 and the ultimate glory of 2003 and the Clones final against St Galls.
“Ciarán Maynes was corner back at Féile and was still there in 2003. In fact, I remember our Ulster final team talk in the old, cold changing rooms at Clones. We were getting pumped up as you can imagine with Malachy [O’Rourke] calling the shots.
“Anyhow, we kept getting interrupted by an official looking us out onto the field. After a few interruptions, Malachy insisted the next time the man come looking that we just explain ‘we’d be out shortly’. I’m not sure how those words translated in Maynes’ head, but the next time the fella came calling, Ciaran sent him forcefully, shall we say, back up the corridor. And the poor man only trying to do his job!” exclaims Rocks.
For all his strength and mental toughness – a man who has played big games for Derry and Loup, faced down cancer, organised fund raising events bringing in tens of thousands of pounds each year for charity; a father of three boys (Callum 7, Cadhan 4 and Charlie 3) and a three month old daughter, Marcie – Ronan Rocks couldn’t defeat the hairy man child of Simonstown Gaels.
Just as will happen this weekend, in 1989 there was a skills competition.
“But it wasn’t as you have now with cones and hoops and that kind of thing. It was penalties, free kicks and long kicks. As our free taker, I was entered in the competition and it was run off the same as the matches,” explains Rocks.
After travelling to Mervue, not far from Salthill, and beating the local team the young Loup lads faced Simonstown in the quarter finals. They were ‘a huge side’ according to Rocks and formidable not just in the Féile game.
“Like the team I had gotten through the first few rounds of the skills competition. When we got to the Simonstown game we weren’t sure where the skills event actually was. Anyway, myself and Uncle Colm approached what we thought was one of the organisers. A big lad in a tracksuit with a half-shade of a beard. We asked where the competition was…”
'A big lad in a tracksuit with a half-shade of a beard'
“You can see where this is going”, he laughs.
“And why ‘me standing there with my spindly legs’ didn’t beat this man child of a boy at free taking!”
It was a memory Rocks also recalled around this time last year when watching the huge Claregalway team play his now-native Bellaghy in the Féile final at Celtic Park.
Winning this weekend should be secondary to any of the teams taking part. They need only look to Derry’s loughshore area and the generation of Loup men who grew up as one for an indication of what can be achieved. And like Rocks’ own experience, sometimes against all odds.
“The Féile was great and looking back, it’s the funny things which stand out. The humour is what remains with you.”
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