I did the best part of 4 years in England in college. Got my degree and im now working in Boston this last 6months. The girlfriend who i picked up in england (she's english!) got a job over here and i followed her over.

i played a good bit of ball in england and even took up hurling. the standard the football was played at in england would wet your eyes to see. low. to be honest most of us played to be with an irish crowd and to gossip about the matches back home.

i hope to do the same here.

wingwonder (UK) - Posts: 535 - 07/01/2009 14:24:20    174961

What's the work scene like over there Wingwonder?

joenot90 (Armagh) - Posts: 22 - 07/01/2009 14:52:07    175002

MiddleEastExile.
Posted a message earlier but vanished.
Great to hear from you and giving an insight to who you are and on Dubai also. Played a bit of football myself around NW London a good few years ago.Did our own training in Gladstone Park. Keep in touch. Sorry to hear about the missus but sure she has her health.
3inarow.
or Triona
Are sure you are not my grandmother? Checked the Ellis Island website and the records seem to tie up.

Real Kerry Fan (None) - Posts: 2957 - 07/01/2009 14:52:49    175005

Hag and cheese - Back in time? What do you mean? You'll know all about it when you are getting the ship from Queenstown...

Real Kerry Fan - You could be right. Are you Walsh? From this side of Brosna?

3inarow2008 (Kerry) - Posts: 204 - 08/01/2009 03:26:14    175515

Real Kerry Fan - I'm from 10 mins down the road from Gladstone Park, who'd did you play for or can I ask that? I notice no one ever mentions the club they're from when posting a thread. I suppose that's whole pont of having an alias is it?

MiddleEastExile (UK) - Posts: 26 - 08/01/2009 09:42:48    175548

re:3inarow2008

take plenty of fruits for the trip home you don't want to get a case of scurvy

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 08/01/2009 10:20:27    175574

Finishing off college over in Liverpool, just as well with the way the construction industry has gone! Hopefully it will be sorted by the time I finish 2010.

Spuddy (Mayo) - Posts: 345 - 08/01/2009 11:11:44    175627

MiddleEastExile
County: UK
Posts: 6

No prob.
Played for a while with the Geraldines. Then the Kingdom. New Eltham days. Played a good few matches also in Ruislip and next to Wormwood Scrubs Jail. Lived in Dollis Hill in those days. Visited the Galty etc in the weekends.Toured the usual pubs in Kilburn and Cricklewood first.

Real Kerry Fan (None) - Posts: 2957 - 08/01/2009 12:50:06    175718

RKF No mention of Diceys? surely any self respecting Irish man in London has been to Diceys. Played with Kerry Gaels under age myself before they merged with the Kingdon and became KKG. Funnily enough i've a few friends still round there and they've got more into the GAA now although they still play soccer (we'd call it football but i guess on HS that's blasphemous). One of them is giving up his Arsenal season ticket next season and like me, has recently taken up a much higher interest in GAA. With me, living in Dubai you see a lot of people with a few quid and they become right ******* and forget where they've come from. the guy i live with actually said to me after a recent trip back home that he was "out with a load of poor people", I kid you not. On a bigger scale the footballers of today make me sick with their carry on and me and my mate have had enough of the circus. I used to be a QPR season ticket holder but now they want over 700 quid for it! My cousin plays with the London ladies, i have several uncles invloved with their local clubs in Ireland and looking at the sacrifices they and so many other GAA people really has made me realise why you get into sport in the first place.

MiddleEastExile (UK) - Posts: 26 - 08/01/2009 13:40:35    175768

Hey RKF - did you ever hear of a Workmen's Club called the DOB (Done Our Bit)?

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 08/01/2009 13:42:03    175771

Been in London since 1967 originally from south Monaghan.Played for South and O'Hanlon here 1969 to 1972. Watch the games in local pub where for some strange reason the punters never support the Ulster teams. I love to cheer on all the minnow sides unless they are playing an Ulster side.
I also have a soft side for Dublin because they bring a great atmosphere to Croke Park. I can't see the logic in bringing say Kerry v Cork or Mayo v Galway to Croke Park for a 1/4 final game to a half empty stadium when such games could be played to a full house much nearer home with the resulting greater atmosphere.
For 2009 the A.I winner should come from Tyrone Dublin Armagh or Monaghan.

PJ Deery (UK) - Posts: 42 - 08/01/2009 13:49:29    175779

I left dear auld Connemara over 10 years ago to find work in London town. The older brother had the farm at home and jobs were fairly scarce so I thought I'd make the leap and find my fortune.
Looking out of the door at home you can see lush green hills rolling into the clouds whereas now I see only hard grey mountains in the form of tower blocks. It could dampen your eyes if you let it. Despite the population, London can be a very lonely place. You can become a stranger in a crowd of strangers with little interaction with those that you meet, especially in those early days when I was but 'Paddy off the boat'.
The pointing the finger off the steering wheel of the car to acknowledge a neighbour or whoever whenever there was a rare passing on the quiet road has been replaced by the lifting of a different finger on the scrambled traffic jams of the North circular.
The pulling on of a strong pair of boots and heading up the land has been replaced by the wearing of shiny brogues which burn your feet and a tie round your neck like a noose pulling you into place in front of the monitor screen.
The ability to pick any direction to walk in and not meet another living person for ages, if at all, has been rendered impossible as now I'm crammed into this over populated sprawling metropolis.
Only knowing the name of the old lady who lives literally next door whereas before you knew all of your neighbours (and their business) despite not even being able to see their houses from the gate.
It sounds like I'm on a huge downer about my location but the stubbornness and hardiness of being an Irishman helps when being put in this environment. I joined the local GAA team which I sometimes still tog out for & have a rake of mates from the four corners of Ireland, I go to the local Irish pubs and the Church even has an Irish Priest. Sure I head home a few times a year, and leaving Connemara tears at my heart every time, but my life is in London now. I'm married to a fine London woman, I have a good job and the city can give you almost everything you want or need. But I will return home one day which the wife has agreed to. That first smell of a turf fire whenever I'm back sometimes makes me question why I ever left. And those hills.

Wests_Awake (Galway) - Posts: 877 - 08/01/2009 13:56:50    175786

Post of the Year already by Wests_Awake. Poetic and heartfelt to say the least. I often think the same about Kerry and me living in Dublin, I can only imagine what it's like over there. Hang in there man.

3inarow08 (Kerry) - Posts: 2455 - 08/01/2009 16:48:44    175865

Legend post, West_Awake - very powerful indeed, fair play to you.

Some of the stuff on this thread has been outstanding - keep them coming lads.

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 08/01/2009 16:56:25    175874

jesus west awake i can relate to a lot of the stuff you say there . im in london over ten years now . live in essex where there is no longer much of an irish community . even the local irish pub has turned into a supporters club for the english rugby team . i have never really played much GAA over here . i suppose in my hay day i was a poor junour player . not a great one for the fitness . i too have married a good london woman and we have two childern . i still see some of the older irish boys ( in ther 50s and 60s ) and i have to say most of them still have the pull of home . london has given me a good life and sure i have the ould sky box hooked up to get the RTE , tv 3 and so on . so on the summer sundays i can watch the GAA while the misses cooks the sunday roast . ill be be back in laois tomorrow night and after a few pints in the local ( the only one for 3-4 miles ) it will be like i never left . i hope one day to take my son to croker to see the mighty laois play in an AI although i would say i have a few years to wait .

essexman (UK) - Posts: 2 - 08/01/2009 20:41:38    176091

so i landed at kennedy and a big yellow taxi....

milhouse (Cavan) - Posts: 469 - 08/01/2009 20:52:49    176101

Cheers lads. Re-reading my post I realise that I sound a bit maudlin which isn't really the case. I wouldn't change a thing as that would be a betrayal to my wife and the good friends that I have made over here.
To put some meat on the bones, as it were, I first moved over in 1994 to the Elephant & Castle and lasted only 2 weeks! As I'd had the mountains under my feet I just couldn't settle in, to quote the Rare 'Ould Times 'the grey unyielding concrete' of London. It didn't help that my landlady was an alcoholic and due to being in the wrong pub at the wrong time I experienced a wee bit of anti Irish sentiment. I left a well paid job scaffolding with a couple of sound lads from Donegal who I met on the Old Kent Road and headed back to Ireland with my tail between my legs.
I didn't have the stones to go back to Galway so soon and as a failure, so I stayed with some family in Meath with the notion that I could get work in Dublin and ease myself into city life. And it was in Dublin watching the soccer world cup that I met a fella over from Ealing who said he'd set me up if I ever fancied giving it another go.
After the ceasefire in August that same year I decided to try again. And to bring this tale back onto track in regards to what this messageboard is all about, it was the joining of a GAA team which helped me land properly. Meeting lads the same as myself, having the same craic, singing the same songs and playing a sport I knew and loved meant I had my own little corner of home and I cherished it.
I enrolled at night school to get a bit more of an education and things started to piece together. I moved around a good bit searching for a gaff in a place that I'd like and ended up with a hell of a woman (the wife). Oh and let me tell you lads, Gypsy Hill, Stamford Hill, Forest Hill, Merry Hill & Mill hill are as flat as Holland compared to the Maamturk, Partry and Sheeffry mountains and hardly a bit of green!

And essexman, never give up on the dream of Laois in an AI. And carry Ireland around in your heart at all times. It works for me.

Wests_Awake (Galway) - Posts: 877 - 09/01/2009 09:45:38    176354

Wests_Awake, post of the year!
I am the exact same every time I leave Croagh Patrick to come back here (Liverpool). Its only a town compared to London but when you are in a place on your own it can get lonely, but like you say, the the Irish in you is what keeps you going! The other half is over here now too so that makes it easier. The scousers are good craic but thats mainly due to a lot of Irish roots here. Only guff ive had was off two cockneys but thats all it was guff. Love going into the Pog Mo Thoins pub/St Michaels Irish centre - owned by people whos family are from Kiladoon, louisburgh - to watch the Gaa and have the craic with exiles doing likewise. Havent played gaelic over here yet but enjoy the craic playin rugby league, good bunch of lads. Hoping to have a crack with Mitchells gaa this year.

Spuddy (Mayo) - Posts: 345 - 09/01/2009 11:12:43    176453

i can relate to lot of stuff the guys are saying on here, went to university in Aberdeen, RGU to be precise, there is 2 University's in the city both with big Irish student populations and both having Gaelic football teams, again as said the standard of football would dampen your eyes but it was more a meeting place for all the irish lads and gals get together. there is a massive Rivalry between the two teams in the city with many a fight on a friday and saturday night lol which is mad considering we're all irish in a foreign city at the end of the day. Got to see most of scotland in the scottish league and championship and then there was the british championships as well. Currently back in ireland but could be leaving soon as me job isnt too safe at the moment. any Guys here in Canada at the moment?

paddyogall (Mayo) - Posts: 5110 - 09/01/2009 12:19:06    176516

MiddleEastExile
County: UK
Posts: 7
Followed Chelsea when I was there and Jayo didn't hear of that club.

Real Kerry Fan (None) - Posts: 2957 - 09/01/2009 12:39:18    176533