St Mary’s FC reunion brings back treasure trove of memories

“We were afraid of no opposition and teams did not like playing against us, that’s for sure”.

This was the spirit of the history making St Mary’s team who won the Leinster Senior League Division 1 in the 1984-1985 season.

In doing so, St Mary’s became the first Athlone football club to win the Leinster Senior League’s main prize, a feat which has not been repeated since by a football club from the town.

The club recently marked the 40th anniversary of that historic success with a well attended reunion in McNeill’s Bar on Connaught Street.

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting with St Mary’s founding member and team manager, Seamus Hayes, along with three members of the successful squad, Tommy McArdle, Gerry Quigley and Tom Walters. Tales from the sporting memory vaults flowed and an energy filled the room as the quartet recalled the journey to achieving such a monumental success in 1985.

St Mary’s was formed in 1976 “to give players that were not playing with Athlone Town an opportunity to play at the highest level outside of the League of Ireland. We were not set up to rival Athlone Town,” Seamus recalled.

Initially, the club had two teams playing in the Counties League, but in 1977 following a successful application, St Mary’s moved to the LSL where they started their quest for success in the bottom tier of the competition.

“We were ambitious but we were deliberately placed in the lowest division as the LSL hierarchy weren’t too bothered with teams from outside Dublin at the time,” Seamus said.

Such was the attraction of playing in the LSL, that St Mary’s started to bring in new players who “all could do a job at that level” and momentum began to grow within the squad.

McArdle, Quigley and Walters joined the club in the late ‘70s and they described Seamus as a “hard task master”. They felt that there was a special connection among a squad of players whose aim was to climb the LSL divisions.

“We were extremely competitive, but we also had a very hardworking committee behind the team who were crucial to the success of the club,” Seamus said.

St Mary’s played their home fixtures in Shannonside Park (where Golden Island Shopping Centre is now located) and Seamus is quick to praise the late Tom Diskin who allowed the club to use his land as clubs from the capital travelled to Athlone for what were highly competitive encounters.

Tommy recalls Dublin based clubs arriving in Athlone and when they stepped from their bus “on a cold winter’s day with a howling wind blowing in from the River Shannon, we knew we had won the game before a ball was kicked”.

While the Shannonside playing surface was of the highest calibre, Seamus recalling Standard Liege using the facility to train prior to their European Cup tie with Athlone Town in September 1983, Gerry recalls times when the goalmouth in particular would turn into a “mudbath”, the St Mary’s goalkeeper Kieran Curley bearing the brunt of its weather impacted condition.

“We would shower in St Mary’s Hall after our games but there were times when Kieran was so dirty that we’d throw him into the boot of a car to go from Shannonside to have our post match shower,” Gerry said.

Such convivial moments added to the team’s camaraderie, Tommy also recalling an incident against Fatima Celtic in Dublin when Jimmy Greene went to take a throw in and “never came back”.

“Jimmy always took a long run up prior to taking a throw in. He made his way through the crowd gathered on the sideline who then decided to block off his run back towards the pitch. We were all looking around wondering where Jimmy had gone. Such moments just added to the team spirit,” Tommy said.

As the league victories started to accumulate and progress was made, St Mary’s were on the brink of promotion to the top tier of LSL football. According to Seamus, however, such was the desire for the competition committee not to have “teams from outside Dublin” competing at the highest level, a new division was formed, Division 1A. This was met with much opposition from the St Mary’s committee, management and players who voiced their displeasure with the action of the LSL.

“They just didn’t want us to go up to the top division,” Tommy said.

Division 1A was conquered and eventually the club arrived at their ultimate destination, the LSL Division 1.

“Such was the quality of player and the spirit in the group we had we were more than capable of playing at that level. We defended tightly, and broke with the ball at speed, we played with pacey wingers, Gavin Drummond and Eugene Mullen, while Kevin Coughlan who arrived from Tullamore played up front,” Tom added.

However, in their opening game of that top tier season, they faced Aer Lingus who were a “top, top side”.

“It was a real eye opener, they dominated the game and we were running around like zombies. We won the game 4-1 from our only four shots on target. We had to get used to playing to such a high standard on a regular basis,” Tommy said.

Pauric Nicholson had come on board to assist Seamus as joint-manager in 1984 and it was also that year when St Mary’s hosted Shamrock Rovers in the fifth round of the FAI Cup.”Shamrock Rovers had a number of players who would go on to play in England and represent the Republic of Ireland at international level. Unfortunately, we lost 3-0 in a game which was played before a big crowd in St Mel’s Park but the core of that team would be the players who eventually achieved LSL First Division success a year later,” Tommy said.

Prior to the start of the title winning season St Mary’s played Athlone Town in a pre-season fixture and having won the game 4-0, Tommy knew that the level of performance and spirit in the team would serve them well in their quest for silverware.

“We never believed that we were beaten even when we were behind in games, we were a resilient team,” Tommy said.

“We trained like professionals and some of our training sessions were more difficult than playing games. The team spirit was continuing to grow and on bus journeys to Dublin, we would stop off in Kinnegad for tea and toast and returning home the team always visited Cassidy’s Pub in Maynooth adding to the morale,” Tom added.

Gerry recalls travelling to Pegasus in South Dublin for a Thursday night fixture and having arrived at the ground with mere minutes to kick-off, they were informed by the referee that he would call off the game if they were not ready to play immediately.

“We just put on our jerseys and went out to play with a determination and a ‘let’s get stuck in here’ attitude and we won the game. There was simply no motivation needed when we played,” Gerry said.

The quartet said they they were determine to prove to the LSL hierarchy that there was a team with players of a high quality capable of winning the top division outside of Dublin.

Along their journey St Mary’s encountered a young Paul McGrath who was playing for Dalkey United at the time.

“I wanted to sign Paul. I spoke with him but unfortunately he was working as a security guard in a Dublin hospital at the time and just couldn’t commit to St Mary’s,” Seamus said.Tommy described McGrath as the “best player he came across” during his LSL playing days, but there were others too, Seamus referencing Republic of Ireland international Ronnie Nolan, who played with Bank of Ireland, as a player who “could have played with Manchester United” such was the standard at the time.

In a 26 fixture division St Mary’s lost just two games all season and won the title with three points to spare over closest rivals Bluebell United, the ultimate dream realised.

The club toyed with the idea of going to play in the League of Ireland after they won the LSL First Division title, but after lengthy discussions with the committee, they opted to stay in the LSL due to the potential costs involved.

“My motto was never look back, always look forward so I suggested the idea of playing in the League of Ireland but unfortunately it wasn’t to be,” Seamus said.

Seamus departed St Mary’s in 1986 after 11 seasons as player/manager. With his son Anthony just born and his well known Athlone business Music World now open, he just could not give the role the time it required.

“We all had given so much to the cause and we were all becoming parents so there was other aspects of our life which were becoming important,” Tom said.

“Yes, we were on a mission to fight the establishment and we eventually achieved our goal,” Gerry added.

The team began to break up after that historic winning season, St Mary’s also losing the use of their Shannonside ground. They relocated to Tormey Villas (which later became the home of AC Celtic), but not owning their home venue proved problematic and was one of the reasons why the club eventually disbanded in the early 1990s.

The memories remain forever etched, however, and even to this day, the quartet say they are stopped on the streets by locals to talk about St Mary’s and the joy the club gave to the many supporters which the club had in Athlone.

“So many people have such fond memories of St Mary’s. Only one month ago I met Eamon Carey, who played with our second team, in Flannery’s Bar, and the topic of conversation was solely about St Mary’s. On another occasion Seamus and I were chatting outside the former Westmeath Independent office and a passer by shouted over ‘are you picking the team?. That was the legacy of St Mary’s,” Tommy said.

As our conversation reaches its conclusion, the energy in the room remains palpable, the memories vivid, the laughter plentiful. Such is the connections which sport continues to bring to so many. For a period of time St Mary’s were the high achievers of junior football in Athlone. The club’s legacy remains and will continue to do so long into the future.

The men who made history: LSL Senior Division winners 1984/85

Jude Quigley, Kieran Curley, Tommy McArdle, Paddy Hogan, Declan Gaffey, Jimmy Greene, Gerry Quigley (captain), John Rafferty, Padraig ‘Dutchy’ Dully, Kevin McCormack, Gavin Drummond, Liam McNamara, Brian Flynn, Peter Keenan, Christy West, Declan Byrne, Eugene Mullen, Clive O’Neill, Tom Walters. Joint managers: Seamus Hayes, Pauric Nicholson.