Galway loses sporting icon

Date Published: {J}

Keith Kelly

PEOPLE say you should never meet your heroes, as you’ll invariably be disappointed. That is not always the case.

Eamon ‘Chick’ Deacy, who died on Monday morning from a suspected heart attack, was a hard tackling man from back the West, the finest footballer this city and county has ever produced. He was my hero, and a hero to countless other people.

Chick was very much a hero to his family. The youngest of 10 children born to Christine and Miko Deacy of High Street in Galway City, where Deacy’s Fish Shop stands today. The family soon moved to St John’s Terrace, off Henry Street.

It was Miko who was unintentionally responsible for the nickname ‘Chick’, as his brother Don recalled this week.

“There was 10 of us in the family – Michael, George, Mary, Neil, Ernie, Tommy, Dixie (RIP), myself, Dessie (RIP) and Eamon. We hadn’t a lot of money, so it was Eamon who was brought everywhere by Dad, and we were fine with that, that was just the way it was.

“He’d sleep in the bed with Mam and Dad when he was a baby and Mam would be terrified that Eamon would be crushed – he was such a slight, skinny little thing, and my father was a big man. Dad used to call Eamon his ‘little chicken’, he’d go looking for him as ask ‘did ye see chicken?’, and we took up on that, shortened it to ‘Chick’, and the name stuck,” Don said.

There are both tears and laughter as Don recalls some anecdotes involving Chick, such as the time he told his younger brother to buy a Lotto ticket as the jackpot was around €8 million.

“He said to me ‘what would I want with €8m’, and I said ‘you could always give it to me’ and he had a good laugh at that.

“We played together for West United, and I remember after one game as we were going to the pub, he gave me a tenner and warned me not to go buying drinks for the pub, but to use it for myself. Then when we went in, he bought a round for everyone – that was the kind of person he was, he was always giving,” he said.

Some of Don’s best memories revolve around the West United side that won the Connacht Senior Cup in 1975, which featured three of the Deacy brothers – Des, Don and Chick.

“Des was outside right, I was right full, and Eamon was right half. We were playing a game in Castlebar, and this fella Chick was marking was crucifying him, he was giving him an awful time. Myself and Des said to him ‘leave him to us, we’ll sort him out’ but Chick said no, he’d look after himself.

“A couple of minutes later he floored yer man with a tackle, and he had to be stretchered off, but typical of Eamon, as we were celebrating on the bus on the way home, all that was worrying him was if yer man was okay – that was Eamon, whatever happened on the pitch, stayed on the pitch,” Don says.

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He was a hero to the people of the West, and to West United, the club with which he started, and ended, his career. Club chairman Patsy O’Connor recalled this week how Chick captained the side that won the first-ever U-11 trophy in Galway, and even then, those back the West knew they were watching a special player.

“He stood out, even at that early stage. That team had some great players, but Chick was that extra bit special. When he returned to the club in 1992, he really inspired the young lads in the area, he really lifted the club, and there was a great buzz around the West

“He was a great role model for young people, he used to train every day, and he set a great example,” O’Connor said.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.