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Friday evenings sports programme ‘Injury Time’ This a recording from the West Coast United FC, 40 year celebrations. Contributions from Pat Coyne, Joachim Lydon and Paul Gannon from West Coast Utd, Johnny Morris Burke FAI, Niall O’Ruanaigh Bearna na Forbacha, Mike Rafferty The Galway Advertiser, and Kurt Lydon from West Coast Utd introducing special guest on the evening, former Goalkeeper with Ireland and Celtic FC, the legendary Packie Bonner. Broadcast Friday the 20th Of December 2024
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Friday evenings sports programme ‘Injury Time’ This a recording from the West Coast United FC, 40 year celebrations. Contributions from Pat Coyne, Joachim Lydon and Paul Gannon from West Coast Utd, Johnny Morris Burke FAI, Niall O’Ruanaigh Bearna na Forbacha, Mike Rafferty The Galway Advertiser, and Kurt Lydon from West Coast Utd introducing special guest on the evening, former Goalkeeper with Ireland and Celtic FC, the legendary Packie Bonner. Broadcast Friday the 20th Of December 2024
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Jan-Joel's Fish Van, Connemara West, Diamond Hair Studio, Brodericks Electrical, Clifton Supply Centre, Wildlands Winter Wonderland, O'Douley Family Jewellers, Diamond of Ringbine, Connemara Holiday Lettings, Kylemore Abbey, and West Coast United are all sending Christmas wishes and thanks to their customers and clients. They also mention special offers and events happening during the holiday season. Jan-Joel, from Jan-Joel's Fish Van, would like to wish all his customers a very happy and happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your business throughout the year, especially the regulars. From me, Mitchville, again, I'm sure always. The directors and staff of Connemara West would like to thank you most sincerely for your help and support for our work this year. We wish you a safe and peaceful Christmas and good health and happiness for the New Year. 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Gift joy this Christmas when you shop in store or online at Kylemoreabbey.com. Kylemore Abbey, a story so timeless it's still being written. This program is kindly sponsored by Kylemore Abbey and Gardens 095 52001. Hello, good evening and you're very welcome to our special injury time program here on Connemara Community Radio for this Friday evening. We are bringing you a recording from the West Coast United celebrations which took place last Thursday evening in the Abbey Glen Hotel and those celebrations were the celebrations of 40 years of West Coast United. In the recording you will hear an introduction by Pat Coyne and Joachim Leiden from West Coast United. We'll also hear from Paul Gannon from West Coast United, Johnny Morris-Burke who is the FAI Development Officer, Niall Rooney from Barna Na Feirbeicke, Mike Rafferty from Galway Bay and the Connacht Tribune. Kurt Leiden introduces a special guest on the evening who was Paki Bonner and there was also some presentation on the evening. So this is a recording from the West Coast United 40 year celebrations last Thursday in the Abbey Glen Hotel. Good evening folks, great to have you all here. I'd like to introduce you to Joachim Leiden, one of the, probably one of the longest serving members of West Coast United. So give him a huge welcome. Thanks Pat, I'll be very brief now. My job tonight is just to welcome you all to the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel for the 40th anniversary of West Coast United. When we started back in 1984, I think we were happy enough just to play football and get a few years under us and I'd like to say that the club has kind of progressed over the years from going from strength to strength. So at the moment we have more teams than we ever had. I think everybody's enjoying the football a bit more, the pitches are a bit better. The weather hasn't improved but I suppose over the last couple of weeks I've spoke more about West Coast's 40th anniversary on every radio station. I felt like a politician at times. Tonight is about celebrating the last 40 years. The future will be the future. Some brilliant players played for the club over the last 40 years. We'll be celebrating them tonight. We'll be honouring a few people as they go along. And just to welcome a few special guests that we have over here to my right. The great legendary Irish goalkeeper, Peggy Bonner is with us. Another legend of Galway United football, young Jonny Morris Spork is with us. Jonny has been a true friend of the club for the last 30 years. He's one of those people that you can rely on. If you're ever in a corner, Jonny will get you out of it. An absolute legend. Welcome Jonny, great to have you with us tonight. Also with us tonight we have the voice of radio. We didn't quite make it to television yet. The great Mike Rafferty is over there from Galway BFM. Just to thank everybody for coming out tonight. People, just to thank everybody that travelled a bit to be with us tonight. There's a loud table over in the corner there from my villa. And they're joined by Niall Rooney from Beren and the Purple Heart as well. I'm not sure if Pat Manion is with us from up there. If he is, welcome. It's great to have a mixture of clubs from our own kind of Irish supporters on a night like this. You're all very welcome. We're going to enjoy the celebration tonight. I think Paul Ganlon is going to come up and introduce our first guest tonight. And we'll get into the night. Thanks very much Joel. It's an honour to be asked to introduce this guy. He's a Midlander from that great soccer town up at Lownes. His local club would have been Temple Villa but he's not an Aston Villa supporter. Just check that out before we begin. He never got to play adults for Temple Villa because he was kind of fast-tracked into youth academy at Lowne Town. And he duly went up through the ranks at Lownes. Played League of Ireland for Lownes. Went to Longford for a time. Came back to Lownes. And then it was Galway United's good fortune that he signed for them in the mid to late 80s. And he was part of that iconic Galway United team that won the FAI Senior Cup in 1991. I was just looking at Johnny Glynn's famous goal there on YouTube a couple of nights ago. He then went to Sligo Rovers where he finished his career. And the FAI saw the great potential that this guy had quite apart from being a player. And they brought him in and he did his coaching badges and so on. And he went on to become one of the most highly regarded and respected coaches in the FAI. And ultimately went on to become an FAI Development Officer. And he's 23 years in the role now. And it was in his capacity as FAI Development Officer that West Coast United came to get to know him. When we started our annual West Coast United Primary Schools Soccer Cup. And Johnny has come out every single year without fail. And if the greatness is in the longevity and the consistency and the humility and all those essential qualities. Then Johnny Morris Bourke is that person. An absolute gentleman. A pleasure to deal with. Kids love him. Tremendous rapport with the students. And I think he enjoys the time out in Letterfrack. It gives him a break from the rigours of coaching the coaches across Ireland. Because that's the big role he plays in development. Making sure that everyone's on the right coaching pathway across all the clubs. Johnny it's great to have you with us. And thanks for all the years and many many more years to come. With the help of God. Thanks Johnny. Good evening everybody. First and foremost I'd like to thank the club for the invitation here this evening. I'm a little bit embarrassed. Paul that was a lovely speech. Whoever told you those lies. I just don't know him. He's the wrong guy. No thanks very much indeed for those kind words. No it's always been a pleasure to come out here to West Coast. All down the years Joachim and the club keeping the game alive on the West Coast of Ireland. The Western Seaboard. We've had great days out at the primary, fives, all that sort of stuff. Coming out doing coaching courses etc. I wish the club all the best and continued success. Forty years is a long long time and it's tough going out there to keep clubs going and surviving. So I wish the club the very best of luck and continued success going forward. Thanks very much indeed. Enjoy your evening. We're not going to keep you very long. Delightful to have Patrick Bonner here. The memories this man has given us in the Irish films years ago have been lovely. Secondly a good friend Brian Hughes and Ronan Hughes. They're great lads. They've really looked after us. From the day we mentioned that we're going to have it here we all felt relaxed and it's brilliant. Fair play to you all. The lads that put in the effort. Dean, Joe, Kurt, Damo, all the lads. Everyone that was involved in organising this thing has been top notch. I want to tell a quick story. You know this whole night is about stories, about fun, about West Coast. It's been an absolute for most of you. I was only there for a little while. It was the best while though because I had really enjoyed it. We had great days on the road. We had fantastic days on the road. I was there as a paddy fish. Lord have mercy on him said to me, you should have been a runner lad. A runner lad. I couldn't play football for love nor money but I could run. My problem was I couldn't stop. I used to end up way beyond the end line. Johnny Kane used to score goals on my behalf. Thank you Johnny. And Paul Gannon as well. Now Paul. We have a great man here. Joachim has been at the forefront of West Coast United for years. Years. His brother Pat invited me to be part of West Coast and I joined up and we spent lots of days travelling all over the county, all over Connacht. And Jesus, we did. We had great days. We were up in Sligo as far as I remember and Lucy was pregnant with Danielle so that tells you how long ago that was. So we were on our way back from Sligo. I don't know how the game went. The crack on the bus was so good we didn't give a damn how the game went but we ended up coming back and we had a stop. I think it was in Castle Bar and the bus driver said, okay everybody you've got half an hour or whatever. So we all got off the bus. Got our bite to eat. Crack was good. Crack was good. Gerry Samuels was telling the stories. Gerry could tell a story from Sligo to Letterfrack. And I mean that. It could last from Sligo to Letterfrack. So we got our bite to eat or whatever and we all went to the sweet shop and we filled, you know the shovels for the sweets, those shovely things and you put in whatever sweets you want. But to reckon in fairness to him, he bought two bags of sweets and he came onto the bus and he said, lads there you go. And he put a bag into his deer bag and I looked at Johnny Coyne and Johnny Coyne looked at me. Boldness happens straight away. Halfway back on the bus anyway we'd scoffed all our sweets and we thought, I wonder what's in Joe's bag. So we snuck the bag back and we took the sweets out and there were lovely jellies and we ate them. It cost a lot. And we put his dirty socks from the game into the bag, rolled it up, put it back in his deer bag and that was it. He didn't talk to me for three weeks. It was a cooling off period. It was a certain cooling off period. But that was one of those great days on the road. The other story I'd like to mention, we were over in Woodford, was it Joe? Way over near Portumna. Way over near Portumna. We were selling tickets at the time. Big Dan will know this. Dan was really pushing us all at the time and he was keeping us all on track. We were selling tickets for the Euros in 1988. That just shows how old we are. But I was up at the bar at 7 and I said to this guy, you're a regular customer in the bar, they'd love to see us all coming in. And I said, would you like to buy a line? And he goes, Jesus, he said, I'd love to. But I didn't know where to keep them. But we did. We sold a lot of tickets that year, didn't we Dan? And the person that won that actually went on and enjoyed an absolute fabulous, fabulous championship. Because Ireland of course beat England. Does anybody remember that? Ireland beat England that year and we went on to qualify for Italia 90, which, you know, that put the whole country into a spin and the economy boomed and it's been an absolute legend. Paki, you know what the crack is. You know the crack. But anyway, we're going to invite Niall Rooney up to say a few words. And fair play to you all for coming out and about. Fair play to Brian and Ronan. Can we have Niall Rooney for a few words? Folks, it's a pleasure to be here tonight. I also heard that West Coast were going to have an anniversary, 40th anniversary. I said, I'm on that ticket. Myself and Joachim go back a long way and what a club, what a great grass roots club this is. You know, the next stop is America. And what you have to contend with out here between the weather and obviously the other codes, which is difficult, I'm involved with a grass roots club in Barrow-in-the-Forbica. We also have the same challenges in our Gaelco club. But I think West Coast is a fantastic grass roots club. It's, I mean, I'm big into grass roots. I'm with a great table over there, another fantastic grass roots club. What I'd like to say is, listen, on behalf of all the grass roots clubs in Galway, you're a fantastic club. What you have to contend with, I mean, if West Coast are going to play Lough Rea, just think of the distance and the cost. And the people out here who have been involved with this club are a testament to grass roots football. And we can all learn from a club of your size and of your innovation. Myself and Joachim go back a long way. We work together as grass roots clubs. We feed off each other. We chat together. And it's a pleasure, on behalf of all the grass roots clubs in Galway, to say congratulations on a fantastic night. It's fantastic. Brilliant. It's a fantastic location. Of course, just one person who I think we should remember tonight is a great, he died in January this year, a great friend of this club, Martin Horgan. A great grass roots man who Joachim and himself were great friends. I knew they spoke many, many times. And I suppose Martin was a doer. A doer. And you have in many clubs doers. They're very fair and between. You've got doers here like Joachim and other people in the club who started the club. I mean, Martin will be here tonight. He'll be the first person in my car with Joe Keaton. And Martin was a great sounding board like Joachim is, like other grass roots clubs like Mine Villa. And we're all together in this community. And the other person I'd like to remember is, I know he played with your club and I'd be very close to his father, Finnian Sheridan, Rean Sheridan, who passed away. And, you know, and Rean actually played in the, I was talking to Finnian there a couple of weeks ago. I have a photograph of my house in Barna with, I have twins. And Rean played for the district league team under 12. That's about 12 years ago in the Goblet Cup. And there's a picture in my house of Rean there playing in goals. And it brings back so many memories to me and the good times that Rean had. And I think we should think of Rean tonight. Finally, just to say thanks Patrick for coming. We appreciate it. And John Byrne, we really appreciate on behalf of grass roots clubs coming out here. It's a long distance from the Pale I think or from Donegal, but we really appreciate it. But on behalf of all grass roots clubs, we wish West Coast United all the best in the next 10, 20 years. And we'll leave it behind you. God bless. Thanks guys for all the stories and the nice words and some of the stories may or may not be true. But we'll leave it at that for tonight anyway. So, great friend of ours in the club, Mike Rath is going to say a few words. Mike Rath, he's been with us again I suppose since the very, very, very start. Great coverage in the Current Tribune, in the Daily Star, on Gobby BFM, always a great friend. If anything we need to publicly say, he's always there. So Mike might say a few words. Thank you Joe. First of all, on behalf of Denise and myself, we're grateful and delighted to be invited to come out to safety tonight. And anything I need to do with West Coast United you're in a positive environment. Joachim, as you mentioned, we go back a long way in the sense of communication. We never played together or maybe we played against one another back in the day as they say. But I think sport and football and tonight as people meet and talk of the different generations, sport is full of memories. And I suppose, OK, I'm sitting beside Paki and Paki can tell tales all night of all the international football and all the environment that people have. But it's the kids who are playing at under 10, under 12, the kids who come down to what Niall was just talking about, the grassroots. And when those kids go home and they tell their tales, and I'll just go to sort of half a repeat of a tale, it's a second-hand tale that I got from Josh tonight. Paki, there's a photo of you down there, saving a shot from a certain eight-year-old Josh Lydon. But after that game, after that save, Lucy and Joachim told their son that his shot was so strong that it broke your hand, right? And, you know, that tale has sort of lived a long life in the family. But also, when people meet in different environments, you talk. And sport is a great sort of medium. I look down and I see Paul Gannon. And I know when I started sort of writing and doing bits on the radio first, Paul was the contact. And it was through him that I maybe developed a relationship and obviously carried on through Joachim. I also know Kurt has put in a huge amount of time here. So I suppose the part that I played is just maybe highlighting the achievements of the club. I was just looking at the boards down there. And West Coast United might be out in Letterfrack and playing Claddagh Duff as well, and players coming from all these parts. But the players have made a mark on the game. And just looking at some of the... I know there was a team that went to Sweden, all young people. Obviously those kids are going to remember that. I don't know whether Noel Varley is here or not. I haven't seen him, but... Good man, Noel. I know Denise and I were strolling as we regularly do come out to Pinamar and drive around. And we actually stopped at the pitch in Letterfrack one day. And there was this guy, I don't know if he was working or pretending to be any of it. I said, yes, I know him. It was Noel Varley. I said, Noel, what are you doing here? I said, I thought you were in Canada. And he had for a few years. I couldn't put up with another Canadian winter. So he said, I came home to here. But Noel went and he played with Galway United. He played at a level. There's a photo downstairs of a young man that I don't know. Zach Mulkerins, I think is his name. Right? And he was part of the Kennedy Cup team from Galway a couple of years ago. So you maybe have the bigger clubs, whether it's Dalton Devon or Mervie United or Marion Moore or Calgo, wherever. But in that sphere, Zach is as good as, and he's from West Coast United, and he's as important as anybody else on that team. And that's what sport brings. It doesn't make any difference the size of your club or how many members you have. But sport is a community in itself. So we congratulate Zach on his achievement. I hope I can, you know. And I also know just, it's only tonight I heard that, is it Jack Weeges? I hope I'm pronouncing his name correct. But to me, because I write and I do it on the radio, I know the names, but I don't know the faces. I'm sorry. But I know you have a great career. You scored tons of goals. I just heard tonight that you did your knee. So I hope that you can get back playing again. And you're a young fella. You have plenty of time. So all these people here are just setting standards. They're setting standards for this club. So from the likes of Joe Ackham and Paul and Johnny Kane, he's down there somewhere. And I remember Al Finney. They were the guys who set the early standards. The next generation is sitting somewhere here. And all I just say is, again, thank you very much. Delighted to be associated in some shape or fashion with West Coast. And long may the club continue to thrive and develop. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to introduce our special guest this evening. 1990 World Cup. I was 10 years of age. And I was sitting down watching a penalty shootout. And my mother grabbed me and she said, we're going to the beach. And I said, no, I'm not going anywhere. And I listened to that penalty shootout on the radio. And never did I think that I'd be introducing Paki Bonner here this evening. When you look at his career as a footballer, and looking at it there over the last few days, 641 appearances for Celtic. And never a substitute appearance amongst them. Four league titles for Celtic. Three Scottish Cups. One League Cup. 80 caps for the Republic of Ireland. Three major tournaments that, you know, people here today, most ages, they're 30s, 40s, 50s. Euro 88 and World Cup 90. World Cup 94. They were fantastic. And, you know, Paki Bonner was that man that was there at the back in every game and the folklore. And that penalty save in 1990 in Genoa was just brilliant. Without further ado, let's welcome Paki Bonner. Thank you. Delighted to be here. I feel very humble. And thank you for the invitation for coming to this very, very special occasion. This is such a beautiful gathering, isn't it? Yeah, wow. And can I say that I haven't been to this hotel. I've been out in this part of the world, but I haven't been to a hotel. And it's beautiful. I'll be back with my wife, I think. But just to say to you all that I am very humble because this probably is as close as I can get to where I come from in Donegal. Yeah, I was sitting at the bar tonight and I was having a great conversation with these brilliant gentlemen talking about their upbringing here in this part of the world. It was so familiar to me when I grew up in Donegal. Beside the sea, fishing, pulling doves, cutting seaweed, turf, all the things that all of you have done, yeah? And that's us folklores. You know, we have a different life when we're young, yeah? Yeah, but we go off. Johnny Morris never experienced that from up low. Never. Never. Never. Oh, the Bob's in the Midlands, yeah. The Bob's in the Midlands. He was very happy there with the silver service that came out because that's what he's used to. He's used to. I also was very interested in Joachim. I've never heard the name Joachim before, to be honest. But he does tell me that his name is in the Bible. Unlike my name, Packie. But Patrick's there, and that's why there was Chris and Patrick. I grew up in Donegal, way down in Burtonport, in the North West. We had five sisters, and I had twin brother Dennis, who probably has got me into a love for this part of the world, Galway, because of course he was down here and played with Galway many, many years. And he's renowned down here in his time. And I was down here a couple of years ago at an event, and for years, Dennis, up in Donegal and different places, was always Packie Boner's brother. And it pissed him off so much, every year when it was happening to him. And then I came down here to Galway to speak at this event, and this lady came straight up to me and says, Oh, you're Dennis Boner's brother, aren't you? And I was able to go back up and tell him, and he was delighted. He was delighted. Recognition. But he loved Galway, and I loved Galway too, coming down to this part of the world and seeing things. You know, I went away to Celtic when I was 18 years old as a young man over there. The great Sean Fallon from Sligo brought me over. And the first thing that Sean Fallon did to me was bring me into the dressing room, straight into the first team dressing room on the first day to meet all the great Celtic players. You can imagine a young fella from Donegal, Packie, yeah? Coming in and walking around and shaking Danny McGrane's hand and Roy Aitken and Tommy Burns and all these guys. And what an experience. And then just to be able to go then after that and sign with the club. Jock Steen signed me. I was his last signer. He came over to the Ballyrain Hotel in Letterkenny. Imagine Jock Steen now. Imagine Mourinho coming over to Letterkenny to sign a young goalkeeper who nobody knew. Jock Steen was sacked two weeks later. And then Billy McNeil, of course, took over. And I had a brilliant career. I got into the team fairly quickly and it happened for me. And it gave me the opportunity to experience something that I would probably only dream about. My name, just think of the name Packie going over to Scotland, by the way. We didn't have any Pakistanis down in Donegal. And the Pakistani community over in Glasgow was huge. And they were all big Celtic supporters. I bought my first house, which was a little semi-detached. And my brother and my friend Conal and Sean came from Dublin. They all came over for Christmas. I'm training. I have to play. They're all on a party. And we ran out of all the essentials. New Year comes along. We ran out of essentials. And I said to Conal, my mate, right, you're coming with me down to the shop to get the bread and the milk and so on and so forth. And the only shop that was open was the local Pakistani shop, the corner shop. And we go down to the shop anyway and I'm down at the bottom of the shop and Conal's up at the top of the shop and he shouted out to me, Packie, what kind of bread are we going to get here? And little Abdul was behind the counter and he chucked it out of the shop. You're insulting me. And I had to explain to him that this was my name and we became great friends after that. And the Pakistani community was my big supporters in Glasgow. You can imagine. But Glasgow was a brilliant place and then I met my wife over there and I didn't think about the future and I didn't think about probably 40 years later that I would still have to be in Glasgow. When you get into that situation with a girl and you marry her and you don't think about these things. But we live in Glasgow and I've got my kids over there. We've got twins this year. I'm a twin. Dennis is a twin. And I ended up with two girls. They're a year and a half old. Beautiful little girls. And Dennis' boy had two boys, twins, a month later. So there's something going on in that part of the world, yeah, that us twins are taking over. So we have a wonderful life there. But listen, I got the opportunity to play for Ireland. And we have a dream and everybody has a dream. And you were talking about 1990, 1988, 1990. I was very lucky. I was 26 years old when Jack took over. I had only nine caps. Nine caps when I was 26. Now, the young kids that play the game did probably about 40 or 50 caps at that stage. But I had nine caps. And then all of it came under Jack. And think about that great, great man that we put in. He won the World Cup and so on. He walks in. And he's not intimidating, I would say, but he was a leader of people. And he had a great squad. And he picked up a few, Ray Houghton and John Aldridge and those along the way. And it was a wonderful squad. Think about it. Can anybody name, and I do ask this question, Johnny knows it and John Byrne knows it and the people that's been around me a few times myself. Can anybody name the team that played against Scotland at Hampden when we beat Scotland in Hampden? Can anybody name that team? I'll give you a hint. That was a goal. I was very lucky. Lawrence did the goal. Right back, think about this now and think about the players we had and think about the teams that they played with. Yeah? Right back, Paul McGrath. Manchester United. Centre backs, Mick McCarthy was with Man City at the time and then came up to Celtic. Kevin Bourne, Manchester United. Left back, Ronnie Whelan, Liverpool. Midfield, on the right, Ray Houghton, Liverpool. Centre midfield, Mark Lawrence who scored the goal, Liverpool. Alongside him, Liam Brady who had just left, Juventus. Think about it, Juventus. On the left side, Tony Galvin who played with Tottenham Hotspur and up front, Frank Stapleton, Manchester United and John Aldridge, Liverpool. Wow. And David Leary couldn't get in the team. David Leary from Arsenal and then Roy and them all came in. But when you think about it and try to compare where we are now, what changed football was the Bosman ruling. The Bosman ruling came in, allowed people to get contracts, to move and all over the world then players started to come in and so on and the Scottish, the Irish and so on were no longer in the big clubs and that's changed football for maybe, was it for the better, maybe for the worse, we don't know. But anyway, that's the context of things just now when we look at it. Jack was a wonderful leader, wonderful leader and for younger people in here and I talk about Jack, Jack says to me when I was 28 years old, he says, you, he says, you're in charge of everything defensively. Wow. Everything defensively. Now, think about it from a leadership perspective, nobody ever said that to me in my life before that you're in charge of this and that. I had to then tell Paul McGrath, Liam Brady, Mark Lawrence and all of these guys where to be on the pitch for defensive set pieces. Corners, free kicks. I talked to Gerry Payton who was my other goalkeeper compatriot and I had no goalkeeper coach. Then I would talk to Mick McCarthy and Kevin. So what did that do for me and I had to go and organise everything it gave me responsibility. It gave me something in the team responsibility that I'd never had before in my life and I grew into a person and think about that team, the leadership that we had in the team. He said the exact same thing to Ray Houghton from offensive free kicks and set pieces. So Ray had to do all of that. But what he did say, he says, if you get it wrong, you're bloody answerable to me. So, we always knew that he was the boss and he was the boss but he treated us like absolutely individuals, players, human beings but he had a fantastic what about him also. A fantastic what and he made us relax. And the environment we grew up in and that was fantastic. I think all of you, maybe the younger guys, by the way, the younger guys are all well dressed. See them all in their ties. You older guys, what's happened to you John? I'm looking around here and these young guys, young guys, look at them and they're all in their ties like myself. You know what I mean? But, you know, from Jack's perspective, I remember a lovely story. What we used to get also was we used to get two jerseys per game and when you were in the squad, the commercial bit of the squad was the bit that you made a wee bit of money on the side. You didn't get fees and so on. You didn't get a lot. So a wee bit of money at the end of the thing if you qualified and you got a bit of commercial things. So you got three points if you were in the team. You got two points if you were on the bench and if you were in the squad you got one point. I got all the points. I got all the points. But anyway, Bernie Slaven was in the squad that we were playing against. Remember the time that Paul McGlashan went missing? Was any of the older people in there? Younger guys wouldn't know this but he did go missing and we had to go up and try and get Paul out of somewhere and take him home and we got him down to the hotel but he wasn't in great form. Let's face it. And it ended up then Jack picked him in the team. Jack picked him in the team. When we went to warm up and go out Paul was missing. And Jack said Where the bloody hell is he? Where is Paul? Paul was still out in the bus and he wasn't fit to play. But Bernie Slaven was in the squad but he wasn't on the bench and then suddenly Jack had changed the line-ups and he had put Bernie on the bench. But we got two jerseys and normally what would happen when you get two jerseys if you weren't playing you might have got a charity and somebody asked you to put a jersey in and you would go and get the jerseys signed. So Bernie's on the bench we're getting the last 15 minutes we're drawing the game and Jack turns around to Bernie and he says Get warmed up! Get warmed up! And nothing happened. He watched the game Bernie was still sitting on the bench and he says Get warmed up! And Bernie says Jack, I can't go on. What do you mean you can't go on? And he pulled down his zip and he had a jersey on and they were all signed. All the players signed the jerseys. And that was a good old day. Can we get away with that now? It'll be in the papers all over the place. So that was Jack but he was a fantastic man. I loved him with a passion and I think all the players loved him. We had a great do up in the K Club just before he passed away and he was there. Everybody arrived. Every single player that could come arrived because they loved Jack so much and that whole experience we had. The other thing of that experience was the fans. I think we were so open. Fans would come and come into the hotel families would come in and we were all part of something that was going on. I think all of you too that was around felt part of it. I remember going back to Donegal afterwards and going into houses and going into maybe neighbours houses and old people that maybe was never interested in football before but suddenly they had a passion for the team and they all loved Jack for some reason. I would have loved to have been able to bottle up whatever he had and sell it because he just was able to connect with everybody around the country and we loved him absolutely dearly. I got a letter from a woman from Roscommon during that period. She was a lovely lady and loads of letters but this lady wrote to me and says we're from Roscommon we're out on the farm and she says when the games are on everything stops. She even said the hay making stops. Now anybody that's been on a farm you don't stop the hay making for anything but she says we all go in and we have a grandmother in the house and we all gather around the grandmother to watch the games. And she says the grandmother she says our grandmother is a huge supporter of you because you come from Donegal and she says and she lights the blessed candle for you and she puts the blessed candle on top of the TV when you're playing and then at half time she goes up and moves the blessed candle to the other side of the TV just so it's over the top of me you know what I mean? The connection with people and that it was so simple time then it was a fantastic time. So that's what you guys are also involved in here in this club. When I was out today with Joachim I did the picture with John and I could see what was going on there and I could see the development probably that has gone on probably over the last 40 years from where probably there was no dressing room like in Donegal where I came from to now I've announced her pitch I'm in with her pitch and all of that work and you've got to look at it and say all of the people that's been involved in that process has done a fantastic job to give an opportunity to some of these young people around this table and people, ex-players to get the opportunity to just go and play football and have fun and if some of them get the opportunity to go on and go on into maybe the same sort of house that I have then fantastic but it's about opportunity and you guys are doing a fantastic job and please continue to do it My final thing I want to say to you is that as we get older we kind of keep going back to the good old days aren't we talking about the good old days the young guys are probably really sick of it my kids say oh dad don't start again but we go back to the good old days my son Andrew now he's 40 years old 40 years old but when he was a little boy and I was at the height of my career at Celtic he was at this local school St. Caddix down the road and every Christmas they have a school set at that time and they always ask somebody would you know come along and open the school set somebody with a bit of a name and this particular year because he had started school I was asked to come along so Andrew goes to school and they make a big surprise out of it and all the kids then Anne went down to pick up Andrew from school and all the kids came running out of school and all excited and Andrew came running down the hill across to the lollipop woman across to Anne mum mum and Anne says what is it guess who's opening the school set this year it's the Celtic goalkeeper Pat Warner is coming to open the school set and Anne then had to tell him there was a silly old dad who was and he started crying oh not dad not dad not dad so the lesson there is no matter where you go in life and wherever you get to the top you are still silly old dad and you start off somewhere in life and get an opportunity and you must always think back to where you came from and appreciate all the things that people do for you so listen the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best luck and the best 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the best luck A little token for Mike Rafferty please The next presentation is for our good friend from the FBI John Morrisbrook and of course our very special guest on the night Becky Bonner We've another few presentations we've run through them fairly quick This one is for a guy that's played a bit of football in pub leagues back in the years back at the very start before West Coast was even started He's been a Trojan behind the club for years and years The home of our race night every year our major fundraiser Every time we need a go to man Gerry Coyne West Coast Final was formed back in 1984 by a bunch of lads that probably were ahead of their time and a lot of a lot of obstacles in their way for 40 years that came after that but a good honour just a trophy to one of them tonight a man of the start as he's been held almost every job in the club I suppose over the years still out on Sunday mornings with the kids the academy kids at 5 to 11 years old and I suppose that longevity as Paul said is almost everything so we'll just call on Gerry Mullan for an award Next one up is the man that made it all happen I suppose back in 1994 you can have a team you can have everything set up but every team needs a leader every team needs a manager and who better I'm sure who better than Big Dan The next award is for a defender that was tenacious in the tackle he was generous as a sponsor and I suppose probably measured as a coach and a manager here with under 15 David Welch And our last award for the evening is to a man that I suppose we wouldn't be sitting here this evening as a group of 130 odd people a man that held every single job in the club from a manager to a coach to the line and pitches PROs and every job you could imagine in between Joachim Leiden Now ladies and gentlemen there's a band downstairs waiting to entertain you all well done thank you very much In the centre of the field Dan's the favourite player He's the man He's the man He's the man He's the man He's 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