Think of Galway football and the names of some of the most illustrious players to grace the field since the dawn of the GAA immediately spring to mind.
Three generations of Donnellans, Sean Purcell, Enda Colleran, Mattie McDonagh and more recently the likes of Ja Fallon, Kevin Walsh, Padraig Joyce and Michael Meehan are all instantly recognisable to even the most fair-weather supporter.
The Tribesmen have traditionally been associated with playing a particularly attractive brand of football, an approach that has brought nine All-Ireland titles and a loyal band of supporters, some of whom will travel the length and breadth of the country, or indeed the Atlantic Ocean, to see the boys in maroon strut their stuff.
We went by train at the time; I think it was one pound and five shillings return and don’t ask me where we got it. I went up with my sister’s husband, who has since passed away God rest him, but I was so young, you could say I was held by the hand of Croke Park
Peter Gill from Barna, a picturesque village only ten minutes from Galway city, didn’t make the trip to the Big Apple last weekend, but missing a Galway game is a rare experience for a man who has been following the fortunes of the county’s footballers for over 50 years. In any case, Gill was in Gaelic Park the last time Galway faced the exiles in 2005.
“It was one hectic time,†he says of the trip. “We stayed in the New Yorker hotel and we went to Ground Zero, to Madison Square garden which was only across the road and to the Empire State building as well. We stayed three days in New York and the other two and a half in Boston. We had a bus tour from New York to Boston and there were sing songs along the way and everything, it was great.”
Early Days
Gill dates his fascination with Galway football back to 1956, when the Tribesmen defeated Cork 2-13 to 3-7 in Croke Park, his first experience of an All-Ireland final.
“We went by train at the time; I think it was one pound and five shillings return and don’t ask me where we got it. I went up with my sister’s husband, who has since passed away God rest him, but I was so young, you could say I was held by the hand of Croke Park.â€
It wasn’t as easy to follow then as it is now, because in those days Ballinasloe was in New York and Croke Park was in Australia, if you know what I mean
“Sean Purcell and Frank Stockwell were part of that team and they were a massive influence on me. They were the talk of the country at the time, the terrible twins they were called and after the 1956 final I would have had huge interest. It wasn’t as easy to follow then as it is now, because in those days Ballinasloe was in New York and Croke Park was in Australia, if you know what I mean.”
Since then, Gill has been hooked and has been there for all the memorable days the county have enjoyed, from the three in a row in the 60’s right up until the achievements of the Galway teams of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, but he doesn’t hesitate when choosing his favourite memory of all his years as a Galway supporter.
“My best memory is the All-Ireland win in 1998. After 32 years without an All-Ireland, it was brilliant. I was in Croke Park with the wife and I nearly cried above in it.”
The Auld enemy
That All-Ireland title and a subsequent one in 2001 were of course delivered by a Mayo man, current Mayo manager and Fine Gael TD, John O’Mahony and Gill admits that the games with Galway’s arch rivals immediately to their north are the clashes he relishes the most.
“I would always look to the Mayo game every year; there’s been great rivalry over the years and some great games. I’ll always remember the great Willie Casey, who played left full back for Mayo in the 50’s, he was kind of finishing his career in ’57 and ’58 when I saw him in Tuam.
“Last year’s Connacht final in Pearse Stadium was a great game. I wouldn’t expect an All-Ireland from either Mayo or Galway this year, but I think that they’ll get to the quarter or the semi-finals, whether it’s through the front door or the back door.”
For the last 20 years or so, Gill has taken to travelling with a loyal group of supporters, who are ferried throughout the country in Martin Lally’s bus. They would rarely miss a game and have taken to the habit of making a weekend out of the fixtures that require a long trek through the country. It was Cork this year, but they’ve also stayed in Kerry, Tyrone and Derry in the past few years. Some of the faces have changed in that time, but there’s been some, like Gill, that have been there since the beginning.
“I used to travel a lot with the Curran family, Tom, Pat and Padraig Curran. You’d have three or four of us going to matches together year in year out. Every year, we’d meet at the start of the league and one of the lads would always say, ‘another campaign’. It’s nearly the same gang that’s going all the time, we’re all getting on now but we’re still soldiering onâ€.
Under the Bridge
Considering that when Gill used first set out for matches in Dublin, it took five and a half hours to get there, he has built up a fair few yarns to tell the grandchildren of his GAA trips over the years, with one particular tale of a trip to Mayo a few years back sticking out.
“I could sit down and tell stories for years about the trips we made. We often left people after us; plans were mislaid, people getting lost going for a drink and things like that.
“We were coming home from Castlebar on Lally’s bus about four years ago and we came to a bridge, I forget where it was now, but we weren’t sure if the bus would go under it. Martin Lally directed the driver to keep dead straight in the middle of the road and go under it but of course, the bus got caught.
“There was about eight cars stuck behind us. All the people in the cars behind us were told to get out and to go on to the bus and when they did, they brought down the suspension on the bus and would you believe, the bus made it under the bridge in the end.”
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