Marty Clarke

[zoyler]

Very interesting article and interview with Marty Clarke in The Age today.  Article is by Martin Flanagan whose family originated in Elphin in the 19th cent.

Flanagan visited Ireland a few years ago and was very impressed at a Mayo/Roscommon champioship game by the fans & McDonnel I seem to remember.

[ExiledGael]

Any chance of posting it or a link?

[the green man]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/marty-time/2008/08/27/1219516565855.html

[muppet]

From Elphin to Australia

I had an interesting e-mail recently from Liam Coyle, an Armagh man who lives in Boyle. Liam is a frequent reader of this column but, as an Armagh man, he doesn't share my admiration for Peter Canavan, "a footballer of great skill however, a pity about him specialising in the art of the dive."

Liam sent me a cutting from an Australian paper in Melbourne 'The Age.' He writes: "the Age has a very good columnist by the name of Martin Flanagan who writes much in the style of Tom Humphries of the Irish Times and is able to make a connection between sport and the rest of life. With a name like Flanagan he was bound to have West of Ireland connections and it turns out that his family originated in Elphin."

Liam sent me an article by Martin in the Age entitled 'Lost Generations.' In the article he refers to Thomas Flanagan, 'one of my convict forebears' who arrived in Tasmania with William Smith O'Brien in 1848. Thomas Flanagan was from Elphin in County Roscommon. Statistics for the famine from that area are particularly severe.

Thomas had eight children to feed. Along with his brother John, he was convicted for stealing food and a small sum of money and sentenced to Van Diemen's Land, where the big property owners were crying out for farm labourers. Thomas and John went to the Brickendon property, near Longford (in Tasmania), Ned Kelly's father was a few miles away. Ned's father sailed to the booming gold town of Melbourne after finishing his sentence, met a spirited young Ulster woman named Ellen Quinn and the rest, as the say, is history. My people stayed in Tasmania. Within our family, as within most Tasmanian families, all memory of the old convict was lost. But lost with him also were the songs and stories and dances that are part of the Irish way.

The Flanagans were reborn in Australian working-class culture, which meant Labour politics and sport football, mostly. Four years ago, when I met Patrick Flanagan, an old cattleman from Elphin in County Roscommon, he had told me the Flanagans have only ever been interested in four things football, politics, cattle and horses.

As I say, Thomas Flanagan was forgotten. So were my other Irish convict forebears. Football went some of the way towards filling the gap left by their absence. So did the Kelly legend.

The people who best helped me to understand my history were Aboriginal people from the "stolen generation". They understood what is lost when that something is broken that connects us to a past that is personal. They also gave me the belief to keep searching for new connections.

Ten years ago, after we got our convict records which told us the 'native place' of each of our convict forebears and the fact that old Thomas was from Elphin, I mentioned the fact in this paper and a number of people contacted me who were connected. One of them was a kind, gentle woman with a fine singing voice called Grace Kelly.

In a couple of weeks, with one of my brothers, I'm going back to Elphin. Last week, we went over to Grace's house to talk about it. At one point she got up, went out and came back with a green hardback book she thought I might be interested in, a history of Gaelic football in Elphin, said to be the centre of the game in County Roscommon.

You can learn about a place and its values by the early names of its football club. Collingwood, for example, was formed in the 1890s from the old Britannia club. Elphin's first teams, in the 1860s and 1870s, were called the 'William O'Brien's'. I certainly hope I get to see them play.

The 'Elderly Priest' and Miracles

Writing in the Age on June 25th, 2005, Martin writes: "It's been a big week in football. Elphin, the village where I've been staying, played Clann na nGael in the Roscommon county club championship. Both clubs have proud histories.

Originally known as the William O'Briens, Elphin went into abeyance in the 1880s, its members splitting over the issue of an illicit love affair between Ireland's champion of Home Rule, Charles Stuart Parnell, and Kitty O'Shea, a married woman. Best player for Elphin in its most recent engagement was Colm Rock. Of medium height but quick and strong, Colm altered the tempo of the match every time he was involved.

Later, in the pub, I discovered that he watches the Australian football replays shown on the Gaelic channel (TG4) and is taken with Jason Akermanis. Quite a few people in Ireland follow the Australian game in this way. "They're fierce, hard footballers, those Australians," an old man told me.

Elphin's game, which it won, was played at the other end of the county. On the way home with the coach, John Kelly, we stopped for a drink at Jimmy Murray's pub in Knockcroghery, a village burnt to the ground by British irregulars during the war fought for Irish Independence when Jimmy was a boy.

He's 88 now and sitting in the back bar. In 1943 and '44 he captained Roscommon to its only two All-Ireland victories and has that combination of modesty and ease with others that characterises the best sort of leader. We have a drink with Jimmy and are photographed with him while a man in the front bar sings Song of Ireland and is applauded for his efforts. The next day, Roscommon played Mayo in the semi-finals of this year's competition. In a page long column in the Roscommon Herald before the match, Fr. Liam Devine revealed that he believed in miracles.

That, and that alone, persuades Fr. Devine to pick Roscommon. Lacking the elderly priest's deep reservoir of faith, the rest of the sporting press have been markedly less optimistic about Roscommon's chances. Nevertheless, it is a grand occasion. The wholly amateur game is staffed by volunteers and a certain spirit pervades the day that is lost to professional sport. Hyde Park is full, horns blare, the colours of the two counties are waved.

The game is possibly even faster and more free-flowing than our own with the extra thrill that goals detonate the crowd in the way soccer goals do. Roscommon plays with heart but soon makes the sort of mistakes in defence that signify a team under stress.

Mayo has an outstanding player, Ciaran McDonald. The Australians tried to rough him up last time they played Ireland and found he was as tough as wire. In this game, it is his skills that are on display. He hits balls as subtly as a snooker player, rapidly undoing the Roscommon defence.

Six points is a lot to lose by in Irish football. Roscommon loses by eight. The players swap shirts at the end of the game." It is good to read an Australian's perspective on our native game. I want to thank Liam Coyle for his letter and the enclosed cutting from 'The Age'.

Elderly priest! And I thinking I was relatively young. The woman who congratulated me on my 80th birthday last year must be right. I am really beginning to believe what people are saying. Ah well, I suppose none of us is getting any younger.

I had intended to deal with Dr. Seán Murphy's interview on Kerry Radio regarding Kerry's preparations for the 1955 AllIreland final. Next week, perhaps. I also must mention the marvellous achievement of the Kilglass Gaels junior quiz team in winning the All-Ireland title for the third time in a row.

[orangeman]

I'll stay if I think I can be as good a player in this game as I am in the Gaelic game."

[Tyrones own]

I'll stay if I think I can be as good a player in this game as I am in the Gaelic game."

He'll be home sooner rather than later then so with an air about himself like that!

[tyssam5]

I'd say he's just doing the same thing as Kennelly so he can get some money. Wonder would he be making any yet?

[scalder]

"Irish Football"...FFS

"NI" on his arm, well indoctrinated it seems, should feel right at home standing under the Auzzie flag with the Union Jack in the corner...

[SLIGONIAN]

"Irish Football"...FFS

"NI" on his arm, well indoctrinated it seems, should feel right at home standing under the Auzzie flag with the Union Jack in the corner...

Found this quite strange aswell, doesnt really make any sense. NI on his arm, he is a catholic from the North right. .

[orangeman]

"Irish Football"...FFS

"NI" on his arm, well indoctrinated it seems, should feel right at home standing under the Auzzie flag with the Union Jack in the corner...

Found this quite strange aswell, doesnt really make any sense. NI on his arm, he is a catholic from the North right. .

This bit doesn't make any sense at all - don't know what he's at here.

[corn02]

"Irish Football"...FFS

"NI" on his arm, well indoctrinated it seems, should feel right at home standing under the Auzzie flag with the Union Jack in the corner...

What's the problem? He has always said he supported Northern Ireland, is there anything wrong with that?

[full back]

What is the problem?
He is a catholic from the North & his team of choice is N Ireland
Big deal

[AZOffaly]

Exactly, I take it as a positive. So he's happy to be identified, and to identify himself as 'Northern Irish'. Fair play to him if that's what he feels. It's a positive that a lad who describes himself as 'Irish - at a push' would still feel comfortable in the GAA world. Vive la difference.

[scalder]

I just find it a strange thing to write on your arm, well I actually find it strange to be writing anything on your arm, can't imagine anyone down this end of the country if they found themselves on the other side of the world writing ROI on their arm.

[full back]

I just find it a strange thing to write on your arm, well I actually find it strange to be writing anything on your arm, can't imagine anyone down this end of the country if they found themselves on the other side of the world writing ROI on their arm.

Maybe that is why he is there & you are here scalder

In all seriousness, a lot of psychologists use this type of thing now to remind players of certain things during games. If this works for Clarke then he might as well keep it going