by Tom deignan

THE National Basketball Association finals are approaching their conclusion, with the L.A. Lakers aiming for yet another title. 

Since the New Jersey Nets were eliminated last week, there really is no New York area basketball team to root for.

So, perhaps the team to watch now is the FDNY basketball team. Steve Collins, who works out of Ladder 147 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and his teammates recently won a big game over an Israeli squad.

Now the club is prepping for a couple of big games in Ireland. On June 9, the team – made up of firefighters from all over the city, with quite a few Irish Americans among them – begins a trip that will take them to games in Dublin as well as Belfast.

The trip will be a return of sorts for Collins, whose parents came to the U.S. from Clare. He’s been to Ireland numerous times, but many of his teammates will be setting foot – or sneakers, if you will – on Irish soil for the first time.

As Collins explained, a trip to Ireland for a team of New York firefighters these days inevitably takes on special meaning.

“(The team) never went over to Ireland before. We’ve talked about going overseas to play another team from Ireland for a while,” explains Collins, who’s been on the fire department for seven years now, all of them in the house known as “Da Pride of Flatbush.”

After the attacks of September 11, of course, such a trip was hardly a priority. But the mourning period after 9/11 gave Collins and so many other New York firefighters a chance to meet guys on the job from Ireland, not to mention all across the U.S. and around the world.

“So many guys from Ireland came over to the states (after 9/11),” said Collins. “We thought it’d be a nice idea to go over there to thank them personally.”

Paul McCann of the Dublin Fire Brigade is among those Collins struck up a relationship with. He is looking forward to visiting McCann – and many other firefighters throughout Ireland – to thank them personally for their support during the most trying time in the FDNY’s history.

“The guys are really excited about seeing another country and seeing the other fireman there,” says Collins. “It’s the brotherhood of the job...everybody made an effort to come to New York City after 9/11. But if it happened anywhere in the country, they would have gone there.”

Of course, these days, stories about the noble brotherhood of firefighters have given way to almost daily headlines about drunk driving incidents, and fights between firefighters and cops, and other unseemly stories.

Asked about this, Collins sighs and diplomatically chooses not to comment. Either way, for a team of guys like Collins – and others, with names like Downey, Curran, Long, Horan and Kelly – a trip to Ireland to play basketball and meet fellow firefighters is surely a welcome opportunity to get in touch with their roots as well as their calling.

Collins, a Brooklyn native who has eight brothers and sisters, himself played basketball at Xavier High School, and added that a good number of his teammates played college ball.

But while the games in Dublin and Belfast will surely be intense – the FDNY squad will be taking on the Tolka Rovers while in Dublin; other details were still being ironed out as the Voice went to press – equally important will be the time Collins and the team spend with their Irish counterparts.

The team will also be greeted by the Lord Mayors of both Dublin and Belfast. They also plan to visit numerous historical sites and memorials in Ireland, among them a memorial to fallen 9/11 firefighter Sean Tallon.

Tallon’s parents came from Ireland and he worked out of Ladder 10, located in the shadow of the World Trade Center.

But for all the sadness inherent in such visits, Collins – whose brother Michael is a deputy chief with the NYPD – says the team is also able to focus on thanking Irish firefighters who supported them when they needed it.

Of course, the FDNY will be there if firefighters in Ireland ever need similar support.

“Its a good feeling,” said Collins

Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan@irishvoice.com.