Irish American Savior for Limerick

Irish Voice Sport

Irish American Savior for Limerick

January 24, 2008

By Cathal Dervan

This is the man who has just been confirmed as the savior of senior soccer in the city that gave Angela’s Ashes and Frank McCourt to the world.

Limerick 37, the most recent name for the most senior football team on Shannonside, was in grave danger of extinction until the Irish American entrepreneur arrived as the knight in shining armor on Monday.

Standing alongside Football Association of Ireland (FAI) bigwig John Delaney at a press conference in the Treaty City on Monday, McCarthy promised to put his money where his mouth is once he gets to grips with the ins and outs of Irish football.

All I can promise him is a fairground ride to match anything on offer at Disney in Orlando or California now that he is a fully signed up member of the Irish soccer family.

Now I happen to know a thing or two about the McCarthys, and I tend to like them. After all, I married a McCarthy from Cork, and one of my other favorite people in the whole world is a McCarthy from Barnsley, who captained and managed his country as you well know.

They are astute people, the McCarthy clan. They know the value of a dollar and they know when to spend one, so I can only assume that Jack of the McCarthys is a sensible and decent man.

What can he expect as the kingmaker down on Limerick? For a start he is about to become part of the fabric of a city that is sports mad.

It is no coincidence that the Munster rugby team, heroes on Saturday as they downed Wasps to stay in the Heineken Cup, play their best matches at Thomond Park not far from the Ennis Road Gaelic Grounds that are home to some of the most passionate hurling fans in the land.

Limerick is also the home to J.P. McManus, one of the great success stories of Irish business and a man who went from the JCB to the top of the wealth list with more than a little help from his keen eye for the horses and a gamble.

Sporting Limerick is the badge that J.P. has paraded on the shirts of the Limerick team in his role as sponsor, so that alone tells you exactly where his heart is.

Then there’s Andy Lee, who will fight as a professional for the first time in his home city when he takes to the makeshift ring in the University of Limerick on Saturday, February 2.

Already the fight is a sell-out, already the city that never sleeps if there’s a big sporting occasion on can’t wait to reclaim the Detroit based world middleweight prospect Lee as one of their own.

Jack McCarthy is arriving into good company as the savior of soccer in a city that has attracted far too many negative headlines in recent years. The fact that his arrival was announced on the day the government unveiled substantial plans to rebuild the city’s most crime infected areas is, I suspect, no coincidence either.

Limerick needs investment, and Limerick soccer needs a Godfather. An Irish American seems prepared to fill that role just as his compatriots are now bankrolling Liverpool and Manchester United over in England.

So what can McCarthy expect from his investment? For a start he should walk into this new phase in his life with his eyes wide open and a very old football saying ringing in his ears.

Those who have been there before, as investors in many clubs across the world, know there is truth in the theory that to make a small fortune in football, it is best to start with a large one.

The other promise I can make Jack McCarthy on these pages is that he will experience every emotion possible in the coming days, weeks, months and years as he comes to terms with Irish football.

This game isn’t called the beautiful game for nothing. There is little in the world to match the thrill of watching your team put the ball in the back of the net, the old onion sack as Jimmy Magee used to call it, whether your team is Dunshaughlin Youths, Limerick 37, Arsenal or Ireland.

The game takes a lot of effort and can give a lot of pleasure. It will also offer up heartache, headache and sheer frustration –- and that’s just following the international team.

If McCarthy and his team can get it right in Limerick they have a city just waiting for a big soccer story. If they deliver that story then he will get more satisfaction than any amount of money can buy, no matter what his investment will amount to by the time he’s done.

Enjoy the white-knuckle ride Jack -– it will be unlike anything you have ever experienced before!

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