Groundswell grows to name Terryland after Chick

Date Published: 22-Feb-2012

A brother of Eamon ‘Chick’ Deacy said his family would be “hugely honoured” if Terryland Park was renamed in memory of the former soccer star, who died suddenly last week and whose funeral last Thursday and Friday was the biggest in the city in modern times.

Don Deacy said the growing groundswell of support to have the city ground renamed as Eamon Deacy Park would “mortify” his late brother, but would also be a fitting tribute.

“That would be a lovely, lovely gesture. The land where the pitch is originally belonged to our family – our grandfather, Martin J Morris, sold the land in the 1940s to the Galway FA – so there is a family link there. It is not for us to decide on that, but if they decided to do something like that, it would be marvellous,” he said.

The decision to rename the ground – or, at the very least, the new stand – would be a matter for the twelve-member committee of the Galway FA.

Meanwhile the FAI have invited the extended Deacy family, as well as members of West United, as its guests at the international friendly against the Czech Republic in Lansdowne Road next Wednesday.

Don Deacy said that the CEO of the FAI, John Delaney – who attended last Friday’s funeral – offered 60 tickets to him for the family to attend the game.

“They’ll have a piece in the programme, and a photo of Eamon will be shown on the big screen in the ground before the game, and he invited the family up for the tribute.

“I rang him a few days later and said the family wanted to buy another 40 tickets for West United, and could he ensure they would be beside the allocation he had given us. He said straight away he wouldn’t take money off us, and offered 100 complimentary tickets for the game, and Willie Grant in West United is now organising two 56-seater buses to travel up for the game,” Don said.

See full coverage of Eamon Deacy’s funeral in this week’s Connacht Tribune.