From Tipp to Kilburn, and back again
September 02, 2010I was a young fella when I left, 18 years of age," says Borrisoleigh native Mick O'Dwyer matter-of-factly. O'Dwyer has spent his entire adult life domiciled in London, but neither the broad Munster accent nor the attachment to Irish life has deserted him in the past 35 years. "There were a lot of Irish people emigrating in the 1970s. What could you do? There wasn't much at home for us."
The situation now, says Mick, is probably even worse. Whereas leaving the old sod for England was a passage to certain employment for generations past, there are no such guarantees these days. "A lot of us left Ireland during the '70s and '80s, and I'm seeing the exact same thing now. It used to be boatloads of people, now it's planeloads. And the only difference now is that it might be even worse. There might have been a lot of work in London in the past but it's a bit harder to make your way now. There is still some work, but there's no such thing as long-term employment now."
His father, Mick Joe, had worn the Tipp senior jersey for a few league matches 1949 and '50 and won three county senior titles and six North Tipp championships with Borrisoleigh, captaining them to the last of those in 1955. So hurling was in the blood, and shortly after touching down in the English capital, Mick became involved with the Glen Rovers club in Kilburn. He had played underage with Borrisoleigh, and was never going to let the fact that he was no longer in Ireland put a stop to his playing days. "I played for Glen Rovers in the '70s and '80s." he recalls. "The main man there at the time was a great Cork man called Mick Murphy, who's an icon of London GAA. He was a member of the County Board and was a selector with the London team, and gave great service to the game here."
In addition to playing with Glen Rovers, Mick also served as chairman of the club and subsequently spent time playing with Desmonds, a club which had won five London senior championships in the space of ten summers from 1983 to '92. With the Celtic Tiger stretching its paws at home, however, hundreds of emigrants headed back across the Irish Sea and the GAA-playing population in London was decimated, so by the mid-90s the decision was taken to amalgamate Desmonds and Glen Rovers. By that stage, Kilburn Gaels had been established as a juvenile club, with Mick O'Dwyer one of the founding members, so it made sense to bring the newly-amalgamated adult club under the Kilburn Gaels banner.
In those early days of Kilburn juveniles, Mick and his cohorts were akin to GAA evangelists, spreading the word of Gaelic games. "I don't think there were any young lads we had at the time who were Irish born," he says. "There were a lot of second- and third-generation Irish youngsters but we also had a lot of their schoolmates from ethnic minorities - there were a good few Indians, Pakistanis and Africans playing for Kilburn Gaels."
After its formation in 1997 the adult Kilburn Gaels club started out in intermediate and took just three years to win that competition and progress to senior. The breakthrough to the top of the tree has yet to come but Kilburn are knocking on the door, making four semi-finals in a row and reaching the final in 2006, where they came up against Robert Emmetts. Since the economy imploded in Ireland, there has been a new influx of players, and hopes are high that the eagerly-awaited first senior title is not far away.
O'Dwyer, whose London-born sons Michael and Francis remain key members of the Kilburn senior side, says, "We've had an overhaul of players over the last few years, with a lot of lads coming over from Ireland again. We have a brilliant coach in Brendan O'Connor, a Clare man who's been involved with Kilburn ever since the early 1990s. We're going well in the championship again this year and I've no doubt we'll get there yet."
As if serving London GAA as a player, selector and administrator over the past 35 years is not enough, Mick has also been a referee of some distinction in the London game, taking charge of two London senior hurling championship finals and several intermediate deciders during a distinguished career with the whistle around his neck. He feels that his background as a championship-winning player served him well in the refereeing game, and he feels the GAA would be better served if former players graduated to become referees these days. "When you've been a player you know what the players are going through, you know the rules and you understand their frustrations," he says. "But how do you make them want to do it? You can put whatever incentives you like in front of them but they have to want to do it. It has to be in them."
Mick also feels that the media should lead the way when it comes to respecting match officials. "Refereeing in London is the same as refereeing at home," he says. "No different - we get as much abuse as anyone. You look at rugby. A referee makes a decision and it's adhered to, no questions asked. But it's not just the players who respect his decision, the media do too. There's too much criticism of GAA referees from the media in general, and if that continues then it's hard to make players act differently."
Talk turns to All-Ireland final day. Mick will again pack his carry-on bag and board a plane bound for Dublin before September 5th, ready to push his vocal chords to the limit to cheer on his countymen attempt to derail Kilkenny's bid for an unprecedented fifth successive crown.
And he will have a few family reasons to hope the Premier can upset the Cats, with his cousin Brendan Maher, who captained the Tipp minors to All-Ireland glory three years ago, likely to start at midfield in the final. "There are two Borrisoleigh lads on the team, Brendan Maher and Paddy Stapleton, and I'm over the moon for them in particular. I couldn't swear to it, but I think there's been a Borrisoleigh man on every Tipperary All-Ireland winning team, including Bobby Ryan, who captained the team in 1989. So there's a great hurling tradition in the parish, and hopefully we'll have a couple more All-Ireland medals this year."
Pundits and bookmakers alike make Kilkenny strong favourites despite the likely absence of star man Henry Shefflin, but Mick O'Dwyer is more than hopeful. "For 63 minutes of last year's final Tipp were the better team, but things collapsed around us a bit after that," he says. "The lads are getting stronger and stronger with every game. They had a bad start to the year against Cork but they've come back to form since then. I'd be quietly confident we can do it this year, even if Shefflin is playing."
***
Mick O'Dwyer is Contracts Manager of the Tamdown Group, a company with a background of 40 years in the construction business in the UK. Initially established by Monaghan man Tom Mohan and Mick McDonald of Mayo, Tamdown remains very much a company with an Irish leaning, with Dubliner Keith Breen and second-generation Mayo man Mick Morris currently occupying leading positions.
With an annual turnover of £60m, Tamdown Group specialises in all areas of construction, from groundwork to concrete frameworks to regeneration projects. It numbers Sainsbury's among its portfolio of clients and recently completed a seven-story concrete frame structure for the College of North West London. Tweet
