Club Information

Chairman's Address

CLUB LEGENDS

Often when players are involved with teams, be they successful or otherwise it is often easy to forget about those players who laid the foundations to the club and those who helped make the club what it is today.

St Brendan's are fortunate in that some of their finest players have remained with the club after they finished playing e.g. Packie Hughes, Tommy McDermott and Noel Collins to name but a few, there are many more who have passed through and moved on either back to Ireland or to some other part of England.

Listed below are just a few of the players that contributed hugely to the make-up of the St Brendan's over the years.

ZinZan Brooke

The day the All-Blacks came to town

In the moments prior to their match against St. Brendan’s one Tuesday evening in July 2000, St. Claret’s midfielders Tony Murphy and Martin Hession could have been forgiven for thinking that they had entered some parallel universe, far removed from the dull, drizzly field that they were standing in at Ruislip.

Indeed the sight that greeted them as they stood awaiting the throw-in would not have looked out of place on any given Saturday in Eden Park, Auckland in the not too distant past. Renewing a partnership that has stretched from the Auckland Marist Club, to the Auckland team, on to the New Zealand All-Blacks and the London Harlequins was St. Brendan’s regular Bernie McCahill and his long-time friend Zinzan Brooke. The fact that this particular double act had also excelled together in the colours of Roskill Rangers (later Marist Rangers) in the Auckland Gaelic League almost inevitably led to this latest chapter being written.

Zinzan, retired from top class rugby by captaining the Baa-Baas at Twickenham. Despite not having played competitive Gaelic football for a decade Zinny’s natural footballing instincts as well as his impressive physique were undoubtedly crafted into a potent weapon by Tommy McDermott at the team’s training ground in Osterley. Indeed, the early signs shown during his debut were more than a little promising as he used his line-out skills to break ball down to his team mates and even got an opportunity to attempt one of his trade-mark drop kicks at goal.

Finbarr Gantley.

On arriving in London Finbarr joined the St Gabriels Hurling club. Through connections with Sean Coughlan he made contact with St Brendan's and began to play football for them. He captained the team to the 1976 Intermediate Football league Final win.

In the late 1970’s he moved back to Ireland and won an All-Ireland Senior Hurling medal with his native Galway in 1980. His sons are currently part of the Galway senior hurling panel.

Eddie Costello.

The temperamental Meath man plied his trade as a jockey before joining the Brendan's in 1974. He was a tricky forward of some pedigree and was picked to play for London in their game against the Rest Of Britain at Wembley Stadium in 1975.

Captained the Brendan's to the Intermediate Championship in 1977 and remained with the club until 1982.

Enda Garvey

The Mayo born centre back played with the club from 1966 to 1972, retiring from the game at 27, never to play gaelic football again. A majestic fielder of the ball and excellent reader of the game, Garvey had the distinction of never being booked whilst playing for the Brendan's, a remarkable record for a defender.

He would almost certainly have played for London on a regular basis had it not been for his decision to retire so early. His departure was a great loss to both the Brendan's and the game of football in London.

Iggy Donnelly

The County Tyrone man from the Dungannon Clarkes club joined the Brendan's in 1970, having played for both the Tyrone senior and junior team. Narrowly missed out on an All-Ireland Junior medal in 1968 with Tyrone but made amends in 1971 when he was part of the London team that defeated Dublin.

He was part of the Intermediate League and Championship winning teams of 1976 and 1977 respectively and continued playing senior right up to 1992, when he came on as a sub in the senior Championship first round replay against the St Clarets.

Iggy has served the club in all the major administrative roles and also as a selector on the senior county team on a number of separate occasions. He is currently treasurer of the London County Board.

John Collins takes a look at the role Dungannon man Iggy Donnelly has played in the GAA in London over the past thirty years.

Feeding the habit is always the challenge that faces anyone with an addiction, whether you be an extreme sports participant, going off looking for the next biggest challenge to conquer, an individual with a substance dependency or, as in the case of Dungannon exile Iggy Donnelly, someone who is just addicted to the GAA.

In the thirty plus years since he left Dungannon, possessing not much more than a well established reputation as a fine footballer with both Dungannon Clarkes and Tyrone, Donnelly has been a key component in the further development of Gaelic games in London, firstly as a player, then as a mentor and now in a dual role as both mentor and Treasurer of the County Board.

When he first arrived in the English capital, having tasted success with Dungannon when winning both Intermediate and Minor Football Championships, Donnelly’s biggest desire was to avoid playing football altogether.

However, as anyone who has ever spent time away from home will no doubt be able to testify, as much as you will try to avoid the game, the game has a tendency to find you.

Having been pursued by several clubs, to the point where people were sitting outside his house waiting for him, Donnelly finally took his first steps in GAA in London when he agreed to play for St Brendan's in the west of the city, a club with a strong tradition of recruiting players from this part of the country; players like Noel Collins from Moy, Conor and Finbar Drayne from Donaghmore, Enda Cullen from Tullysaran, Ronan Harte from Armagh, Packie Hughes from Emyvale and more recently John McShane from Killyman and Shane McNulty from Donaghmore.

The torch was lit so to speak as far as Iggy Donnelly’s relationship with London GAA was concerned and now, over three decades later, he is very much at the fore of all that is going on in London GAA.

Having won an All-Ireland Junior Championship with London in the early 1970’s, Donnelly continued to play club football all the way through to 1992 when he made his last senior Championship appearance for St Brendan's, coming on as a late sub in one of those tactical moves which sees a manager opt for experience in a tight corner.

By that time, his excellent knowledge of both the game and players was being recognised by some of those further up the food chain in the London hierarchy and in 1993 he became a selector on the London county team.

During that time, the Exiles entered the National League for the first time and Donnelly played a key role in that initial venture into full time participation as a county team, which saw them gather five points from that first league campaign.

Having been a key playing member of the St Brendan's for nearly twenty years, in which time he helped to establish the club as a solid senior side, Donnelly then set about helping the club in an administrative role, holding the posts of both Secretary and Treasurer at different times throughout the nineties.

His ability as an administrator was well recognised by others in the county and by the end of the decade he was installed as Treasurer of the London County Board, a role he has held for the past six years.

However, that desire to be out on the paddock still burns inside of Donnelly and this year he is back as part of the management team with a county side that is slowly starting to show signs of improvement.

The task of trying to run a county team in London has been made almost impossible by the huge turnover of players coming through the county set-up. The immigration train that Donnelly and thousands more like him pulled into London on no longer runs and the choice of players that the county has is no where near as high as it once was. In fact, the shortage of players has been so extreme that in the last decade more than a dozen clubs have folded due to a lack of playing numbers.

Perseverance though is the watch-word in London and to that end people like Donnelly are to be applauded.

Currently the team is being managed by Roscommon man Noel Dunning, who at 32 is surely the youngest manager in inter-county football and he is being assisted by former Cavan goalkeeper Paul O’Dowd, as well as Donnelly and Laois man Liam Brennan.

Of the players available to them for selection, the local talent from this area is represented by Paddy and James Quinn from Derrylaughlan, Ronan Walsh from Drumquin, Johnny Niblock from Magherafelt, Darren McGeehan from Ballinderry and Aiden McLernon from Randalstown.

Thinking back to his time in Dungannon before becoming another exile, Donnelly has fond memories of his years with both Tyrone and Dungannon and especially the trip that the county made to New York in the late sixties.

Of his fellow players, he would point out the likes of Art McRory, Fr Faul, Dessie Slater, James McArthur and Paddy Joe Hughes as some of the best players he had the privilege to play alongside during that time, although he would feel that Dr Tommy Campbell was the best of the bunch that he played with.

Having been taught by Iggy Jones when he attended the Presentation Brothers, he of course was exposed to a tremendous football education, although his sporting talents didn’t stop there, with Donnelly, having been poached by Ken Armstrong and Jimmy Davison, also appearing for the Cookstown Dodgers basketball team along with John Campbell.

After school he got employment with the Craigavon Development Commission during which time he met with a young Armagh girl called Maura Shannon, who is of course nowadays better known as Maura Donnelly and shortly after that particular union, they headed to London to make their new life.

Iggy is still a regular visitor to the area where his brothers John and Kevin still live and he also has a sister Rosaleen in Belfast.

Back in the present, Donnelly now works as a contracts manager for VGC in west London and in what spare time he has, he faces the challenge of trying to keep the finances of London County Board in order.

When he took over the Treasurers job he inherited a financial situation that had London quite literally running to stand still, such were their financial obligations they had trying to service a debt in access of £1m.

However, thanks to some very prudent work for Donnelly and the Board, that debt has now been reined in and the County Board is very much operating on an even keel.

With the imminent sale of the counties former playing fields in New Eltham about to be completed, London will find themselves in a situation where they are several million pounds in the black and with that huge turnaround in financial fortune, will come a whole new batch of headaches and problems for those, like Donnelly, entrusted with balancing the books and keeping the treasury in order.

With an association as long as Donnelly has had with London GAA, the one thing they can be sure of is that the man from the “Ponda Rosa” won’t be found to lack the appetite for the challenge and it will serve as one more way to help him feed his habit.

Mick McGovern.

A second-generation Irish man, born in Hayes, Mick was something of a latecomer to Gaelic games. A professional footballer with both QPR and Swindon Mick was only able to play Gaelic during the soccer closed season.

A superb athlete, always in top physical condition, Mick soon excelled at Gaelic and played for the county team in the Connaught Championship in 1975-76-77. He was a member of the London team that beat Leitrim in the 1977 Championship match in Carrick-on-Shannon, the only occasion that London has been victorious in that competition.

Jim Regan

Limerick man Jim was one of the founding members of the Brendan's and despite the fact that he was never considered as one of the great players his contribution to the club is still valuable. Renowned as a tireless fund raiser in his early days Jim served the club as treasurer for a number of years.

Always on hand with refreshments Jim was also a dedicated kit man for the team for many years.

He still carries out those duties even today, but alas he now looks after the St Clarets jerseys.

The Keenan Brothers.

Comprising of Gene, John, Jimmy and Kevin, all four brothers served the Brendan's loyally for a great number of years, virtually from its beginnings.

Jimmy was probably the most noted of the brothers as a player and was regarded as an excellent wing back, whilst Kevin was noted for his great work rate and effort. John was the only one never to play for the club, but was nonetheless a dedicated and active club member.

In the late 1970’s the brothers joined the St Josephs for whom they did continued to work hard for and nowadays their off-springs can be found playing for the Josephs in the Intermediate ranks in London, with most of them having started their playing days with various under-age teams, with whom Kevin in particular was actively involved in preparing.