Preaching the GAA gospel in Manchester
April 30, 2011Born into a GAA-mad family in Westmeath, Fergal Kiernan is now a familiar face on the Manchester GAA scene where he is involved as a player, referee and administrator.
A Contracts Manager with the Murphy Group and the father of five young children, including three-year-old triplets, Fergal still manages to find the time to line out for his adopted St. Peter's and referee local fixtures. In addition, he has served as Chairman of St. Peter's for the past six years, is Assistant Secretary of the Lancashire County Board, is Chairman of the Lancashire Competitions Control Committee (CCC) and is the County Board's Referee's coordinator. He was also involved last year with the Lancashire team which lost the All-Ireland JFC semi-final to Kerry at Old Bedian's in Manchester.
"It's very time consuming but I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy it," says Fergal.
"I came to work in Manchester in 1998, unaware that there was a local GAA scene. But about a year later, I was driving along and came upon a Gaelic match being played. I stopped off and got talking to St. Peter's team manager Sean Hopkins and the next thing I was back playing football after an 18-month lapse.
"I'm still playing for St. Peter's, I've won a few honours with them and we have got a great panel of players at the moment. However, it's different from home in that you have players coming and going all the time due to work commitments and so on, and it's hard to get a settled team. Like any overseas GAA club, we're always on the lookout for new players."
The Kiernan family are well known in Westmeath GAA circles. Fergal played for three different clubs in the Lake County - Ballynacargy, Bunbrosna and Mullingar Shamrocks - and was part of the Ballynacargy team which won back-to-back county JFC and IFC titles in 1995 and '96. His younger brothers Noel and Sean still play for Bunbrosna with Noel, who was part of the extended Westmeath senior football panel last year, having captained Bunbrosna to an IFC title in 2006.
His older brother Enda, who won an IFC medal with Ballynacargy as early as 1987, now lives in Cork where he works as a Senior Executive Engineer with Cork County Council and is heavily involved both as a player and as a trainer with Cill na Martra, which is the club of Cork football star Noel O'Leary.
After spending five years in Bolton Street where he studied Architecture and Engineering Surveying, Fergal worked in Tara Mines and then on the M50 and Lee Tunnel projects for PJ Walls in Dublin and Cork respectively. During this time, he continued his football career with Na Fianna in Dublin and Douglas in Cork.
Fergal then moved to Manchester where he worked on the Runway 2 Project at Manchester Airport for AMEC. He subsequently joined the Donegal-owned firm MPB and was the project manager for their Rail and Concrete Frames Divisions for five and two years respectively. In 2006, he took up his current position with the Murphy Group.
Established almost 60 years ago as J Murphy & Sons Ltd and with offices all over the UK and in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, the Murphy Group is one of the most recognised names in the building and engineering industry, being integral to the UK's infrastructure and increasingly part of the foundations of international markets.
Employing 3,000 staff, the Murphy Group had a turnover of £700m last year, despite the recession. It is currently working on a £300m drainage and groundwork project at the new Olympic Stadium and Village in London, having previously carried out underground tunneling work at the site.
Based in the Fallowfield area of Manchester and boasting about 70 members, St. Peter's field football teams at under 12, under 14, junior and senior level. They are affiliated to the Lancashire County Board along with fellow Manchester-based clubs Oisin's, St. Brendan's, St. Anne's and St. Lawrence's as well as John Mitchell's and Wolfe Tones from Liverpool, St. Patrick's of Chester and Ellan Vannin Gaels from the Isle of Man.
St. Peter's were formed in 1977 are one of Lancashire GAA's most successful clubs and since joining them, Fergal has played in no fewer than seven SFC finals, winning five of them. He is also the holder of an All-Britain Club IFC medal won in 2004.
In 2009, St. Peter's reached the Lancashire SFC final, the Wolfe Tone League final and the Pennine League final, only to lose all three of them. John Mitchell's, who reached the All-Ireland club JFC final a couple of years ago, defeated them in the championship decider, but St. Peter's have beaten them twice last year.
Since becoming St. Peter's Chairman six years ago, Fergal has been involved in various fundraising activities and is grateful to the club's sponsors for their continued support. He began refereeing three years ago and has since taken charge of SFC, SFL, JFC and JFL deciders in Lancashire. Needless to say, he is hoping that he won't be appointed to a SFC final until his playing career is over!
"As the referee's coordinator for Manchester, I'm involved in organising training courses and recruiting new referees," he explains.
A Manchester United season ticket holder, Fergal is married to Abigail and has five children - Megan (11), Nevan (five) and three-year-old triplets Donagh, Fiachra and Duvessa. Attending to the needs of such a young family would be enough for most people to take on, but such is Fergal's passion and appetite for the GAA that he finds it impossible not be involved.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife for all her support over the years, without her I would not be able to spend so much time away from home. I would also like to thank our team manager Sean Hopkins for all his hard work over the year, and also to all past and present players for all the great memories and history we have made for this club.
"Special wishes go out to our club president Gerry Finn who has been ill in hospital for the last few weeks, we all wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to him collecting along the sidelines again!"
The St. Peter's Club Committee is as follows: President, Gerry Finn; Chairman, Fergal Kiernan; Secretary, Aidan Farry; Assistant Secretary/Registrar, Cathal McDermott; Treasurer, Ronan Gallagher; Assistant Treasurer, Damien Conaghan; Joint PROs, Joe Corcoran and Patrick O'Brien. Tweet
