New dawn for United but ex-fans must return

Date Published: {J}

I lost count in the past few weeks of the number of people who came up to me and asked “are they mad?” and “what’s the point?” in relation to the group of devoted Galway United souls who have banded together to take over the day-to-day running of the club.

Every season seems to be a battle against relegation, the faces on the pitch differ from year to year and as the club’s debt has grown, attendance figures have dropped. What’s the point indeed.

The pattern to a Sunday when I was a youngster was always the same. Breakfast would be a couple of slices of Nana Kelly’s homemade brown bread, which had been collected from her the day before from the house overlooking the Prom in Salthill.

The ‘Sunday best’ had been laid out the night before, straight after the weekly bath, and the ‘good’ shoes were checked for scuffs and polished to mirror-quality. We all piled into the beige Ford Escort and headed off from Newcastle for 11am Mass in St Patrick’s Church on Forster Street in the city centre, after which we made the short trip to Hidden Valley in Woodquay to Pa and Nana Parslow’s house.

The first stop was the sink for a glass of water – we were told you had to drink water to wash down Holy Communion before you could have anything else – and a slice of Pa’s porter cake was snaffled before I’d searched out Uncle Dave, who was just nine years my senior, for a game of Subbuteo.

I think I used to get on his nerves to be honest, especially when a clumsily-placed knee would end the playing career of one of his players, but differences were put to side every second Sunday as four of us – my grandfather, father, Uncle Dave and myself – would head up the Dyke Road to watch the likes of ‘Chick’, ‘Ginger’, ‘Fido’, ‘Lal’, ‘Kempes’ and the late, great Miko Nolan do battle for Galway Rovers. I was hooked from the start, and have been ever since.

Fast forward to today – stepping into the bedroom of my two daughters is like stepping into another dimension. Hairclips are scattered around the place like confetti, there is a doll buggy in one corner and an overflowing box of ‘dressing up clothes’ in another, with silver tiaras and a rainbow of princess dresses spilling out over the sides.

In the midst of this princess paradise is a Galway United scarf and flag, and while they look out of place, there is no way our eldest child, Eabha (5) would have them anywhere but within easy reach in her room.

Curious as to why Daddy had to leave just after dinner every Friday night to go to work, she asked a number of times to be brought to a Galway United match, and having gone once, she is now hooked herself.

Just as I travelled to Terryland Park with my grandfather 30 years ago, Eabha accompanied me and Granddad Christy to a couple of games last season, making her the fourth generation in the family to support United. It is ‘our’ thing now, a little time between father and daughter, sharing an experience, forging a bond that will never be forgotten.

That is the reason more than 100 United fans turned up to a public meeting in Terryland Park last Thursday night to plot the rescue and recovery of a club they hold dear to their heart – the passing down of a legacy.

It has been a tumultuous few weeks for the club, but the hard work is only starting now. The Galway United Supporters’ Trust has finally been handed the day-to-day running of the club, and faces a mighty battle to try and win back the hearts and minds of the countless number of people who have fallen out of love with the club for one reason or another.

It was not so long ago when the attendance at Terryland Park was in the thousands. Last season it was regularly in the hundreds. The arguments made by non-attendees are numerous – it’s cold up there, the standard is not great, they don’t win anything, there are not enough ‘locals’ in the squad.

Galway United is referred to ‘they’ by the people who say ‘we’ when talking about Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea. It is amazing that the lack of Galway players in any of these squads has escaped their collective attention; Galway United’s honours list from the last 25 years is exactly the same as that of Spurs, one main domestic cup and two League Cups; footage from the first Manchester derby of the season is being used as a cure for insomnia; and as for being cold, put on an extra layer of clothes!

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