New York Pulls Out of Ulster C’Ship

By Eugene Kyne

WHILE the tone of the recent meetings of the GAA in New York has been both solemn and somber with news that Connecticut State hurlers and Meath footballers are both pulling out of this year’s championship, these developments were not unexpected in view of the continuing trend of reverse immigration to the booming Celtic Tiger.

But New York Gaels were greeted last week by the biggest reality of all when the GAA made known their intentions to the Ulster Council that the New York hurling team would be withdrawn from the Ulster Championship for the 2007 season. The lack of players for the present season was cited as the reason, with the hope that they will return to take part in the competition in 2008.

The main reason that the news came at this point in time - New York GAA Chairman Seamus Dooley announced the news at the GAA banquet on Saturday night with Tommy Fahey the guest of honor and 450 guests on hand was the Ulster convention last weekend, and they were getting ready to set in stone schedules for the coming year.

New York GAA Secretary Larry McCarthy said that the news went out on Friday night to Ireland, and it was the proper protocol to follow as Ulster needed to know what was happening.

“We are tremendously disappointed of course, but the players are not there this year. We hope to re-enter the competition in 2008,”said McCarthy.

That sentiment was echoed by John Riordan, vice chairman of the New York GAA. “We are very disappointed but we have no choice as we lost 11 players from last year’s team,” he said. “It was fantastic to be in the competition, and Ulster has said they will let us back when our situation changes.”

John Kelly has been the hurling chairman for the past three years, and New York has lost five club teams in that time due to loss of players. Connecticut State, Waterford, Limerick, Clare and Westmeath all have disbanded, with just four now contending for the 2007 title. They are New Jersey/ Kilkenny, Offaly, Tipperary and Galway.

Kelly stated that last year’s historic run to the Ulster final was fantastic, but the number of players who left that New York team over the winter months was too much of a hurdle to climb.

“Alan Gleason, our player of the year, Adrian Guinan, Cathal McKeever, Matt Mitchell, Hugh O’Leary, Tom Moylan, Paul Murray, Martin Finn, Sean Corrigan, have all or will have left New York by the spring,” Kelly said.

“John Madden has retired. It was too much to overcome. We did not want to put a team out that would not have been competitive. It would not be fair to New York or to Down, who were supposed to make the trip in May.”

One of the main players in the run to the Ulster Championship final last year was former player, mentor and chairman of the New York GAA Monty Moloney, who took over the fortunes of the New York hurling team two years ago. Under his tutelage they pushed Antrim to extra time in 2005 and beat Derry in a famous victory in 2006 before going down to Antrim in the Ulster final last fall.

The Galway native told the Irish Voice that the backroom team he assembled, Mark Comerford, Mike Kennedy, and Peter Slattery was the best he had the privilege to work with in his over 40 years involved in hurling in New York. Moloney was in the top chair when New York entered the Ulster championship, and he said it was definitely 20 years too late.

“Teams from the sixties had unbelievable talent, and also in the eighties with access to Ireland a lot easier, it would have been a perfect time to participate in the championships there,” Moloney said.

“We had a great run over the last eight years, but it’s last year we got a real shot. We didn’t avail of it and the players, when they look back, will feel that they missed a chance at history. Injuries didn’t help, and if the game had been played in the weeks after the Derry win I feel we could have beaten Antrim.

“It was more historic than we will ever know now that we will not be contending this year.”

Moloney added that he can see club hurling in New York suffering in the future, as players will not have the added incentive to push themselves for the county team. He says that he pushed to be involved in the Ulster Championship in his tenure at the top to improve the club game.

Moloney also talked extensively about the 1967 New York football team that will be honored at halftime of Sligo vs. New York in the Connaught Champion-ship game on May 13, and he remembers players like Paddy Cummins and Brendan Hennessy who were involved in that monumental win also plying their trade with the hurley.

“Noel Tierney, who was the top full back in Ireland at the time, was shown a clean pair of heels by Paddy that day, and Galway never knew what hit them,” Moloney recalled.

Where to now for New York in hurling circles? They will put together a squad of players to contend for the Eddie Burke Cup which is played for at the end of the season when the Christy Ring Cup winners come stateside. The North American Board will also have a team in that competition.

If quality players come into town over the next 12 months, then certainly another effort at the coveted provincial crown would be on the cards. It is very hard, however, to gain momentum again when the downturn comes, and most of the players that are leaving Ireland at the moment are heading to Australia, where they settle in for a one or two year period and then return to Ireland. Hundreds of names can be read on the GAA transfer wire each July and August when they head for the summer down under.

Ireland is in a downward cycle itself when one looks at the major steps it took from 1998 to 2004, but it is still striding forward in comparison to the 1970s, ‘80s and early ‘90s when leaving was in the top two of choices on the horizon.

This means tougher times ahead in New York for the GAA. When GAA President Nickey Brennan spoke last year of getting ready for the 100 year anniversary of the GAA in the city which occurs in 2015 he may not have been aware of the tumultuous times that lay ahead, but the arrival of the new surroundings at Gaelic Park will heighten interest, and a three to five year plan needs to be set in place with clubs and player availability the top priorities on the agenda.

Waiting for clubs to reveal what their plans are is not in the best interests of the association, as the familiar announcement of disbandment is a common tune. Now is the time to look at next year, as it can bring stormy weather.

Making sure clubs finish on positive notes, finding out about monetary concerns within clubs and making sure summer players are available for clubs that need them in earnest may be ways to ensure that individual clubs ride out the storm and survive into the future.

And the Minor Board needs to be embraced intensely as their players of today must be the senior boards of tomorrow.