Silke recalls the days when his Corofin side came of age in ’98

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

You would often wonder what makes an All-Ireland winning team so special. One of the best people to answer this is Corofin’s Ray Silke, who has not only the distinction of captaining his club to their first All-Ireland senior club title in 1998 but, later that year, he replicated this feat when leading Galway to a famous Sam Maguire Cup triumph for the first time in over three decades.

Sometimes, you’d wonder if Silke gets the credit he deserves, for what he achieved that year was truly remarkable. Remember, this was a time when Gaelic football teams from the West of Ireland – more often than not – travelled with fear and trepidation when they crossed the Shannon and headed east for Croke Park.

Silke, though, was not just part of a movement, he was determined to change all that. His secret to success – a strong sense of destiny, unity of purpose and raw talent. In ’98, both Corofin and Galway had all those in abundance. However, on the eve of the All-Ireland club finals, it is of Corofin Talking Sport has come to chat Silke about.

“It is hard to believe it is 20 years ago,” says the 47-years-old, as he recalls those heady days of yonder year with his club. “The memories of ’98 were fantastic. We had come in on the back of a good few defeats [at provincial and national level] in the years leading up to it but I kind of felt it was our time. Within the camp, there was a sense of it was now or never.

“Tony Murphy and Paul McGettigan led a super management team. Ger Keane was also involved back then and he still is a selector 20 years later. He is an example of the unsung hero who does so much at club level and it doesn’t always get noticed.

“You also had Martin Goggins, who was an excellent coach, and he had a line ‘smash and grab’ – of go up and collect the spoils and go home again. The fact that we were the first team from Connacht to win it adds a little bit of a historical context to it as well,” he says proudly.

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