Some excellent posts here, and I can relate to a lot of them.

Left Ireland 4 years ago, and was a (fairly) regular poster while I lived in Essex. Was unlucky enough to be posted in Colchester ( a squaddy town where the Irish accent wasnt the most welcome) but I found the people I worked with to be most friendly. Spent 3 years in Colchester, and spent lots of money traipsing round the country lookin for places to watch the football at the weekends, and flying home for most MAyo games.

Moved closer to London, where I played my first game of football in years - that resulted in torn ligaments, dislocated shoulder and displaced collarbone!!!

This year, decided to up sticks and head down under. In Melbourne now, so starting football training next week. Every time I'm talking to someone from home its just doom and gloom so I dont see myself returning any time soon.... :(

essexile (Mayo) - Posts: 429 - 15/01/2009 13:01:20    181135

good man essexile - sorry about the shoulder but good to see you recovered!!!!
You would want to watch your self when playing brisbon and i know a legend that plays for them ;-)

FromTheNa (Mayo) - Posts: 583 - 15/01/2009 14:23:17    181196

Just pushing into my thirteenth year here in he uk. i cam over to study for 3 years with great intentions of getting the first flight back at the end of the 3 years and find myself hear still. Aspirations of returning home are a slowly fading light as life as i know it finds me firmly rooted here. i have stayed for one reason (at least initially)and thats GAA. for the first year i flew home frequently to play games bit as time passed it became a non runner. i then joined a club in the london leagues and found it was the answer to all my homesickness. the desperation to get home at the end of the 3 years slowly changed to "sure i mght as well stay another few years" i come from a massive senior club at home so get involved in any major way was always going to be a challenge whether on or off the field. from day one here i have felt part of the club and everyone is treated equally. i should say i am not involved in a senior club where things are more reminissent of home but a so called yo yo club hovering between intermediate and junior. we are outside of london so player pool can change dramatically from year to year where as in London itself new arrivals are attracted to the biier or more sucessful clubs or they know someone involved already. the transformation of the kid of irishman coming over here now has been amazing. when i first started palying ball over here i was the only one on a panel of 25 who was not in the construction sector. now out of a similar number its the opposite only a handful of lads in construction the rest in shirt and tie jobs. i have been lucky over the years and have managed to keep playing, get into coaching, ladies , underage and mens teams and a bit of refereeing so keeps you involved all the time. the quality of football peaks and dips from year to year but that s to be expected. it is an awful shame there is not more effort into the county setup as there are probably the players in london to allow both the footballers and hurlers to compete at there levels but there is no incentive here to play. London born players are no longer been overlooked when they turn 18 but he has nothing to aspire to when he sees the shambles that is the county setup. THe current fooball manager Noel dunnig has done a world of work trying to improve things for players and raising standards etc but with very lacklustre backing from the board. the westawake was right in saying that it can be lonely over here. i am stettled with two waynes but live away from the the club base so in the winter months i see feck all of the lads. (can't wait for those cold training nights to start) in essence the GAA is what you make it over here. as far as i can see all club welcome people to become involved whether at a playing level or not. there are loads of lads around me who have come over and not bothered getting involved. to me its their loss. i dream of the day my home club would get to a all ireland club or my county would win another sam maguire (god knows its been a while) but haveing been here a while now i'd really like to see a london club doing well in the club championship to get some recognition forthe efforts over here. lets hope that strats in ruislip sunday!

toolbox (None) - Posts: 68 - 15/01/2009 14:33:59    181223

Well RTE might've managed to make a pig's ear of celebrating 125 years of the GAA but the contributions here more than make up for it. They give a truer reflection of the importance of the association than P Kenny ever could and give a real insight into the Irish abroad. I know I started the thread but I can honestly (and personally) say (thanks to the superb posts) that it is probably the most enjoyable one I have ever read on HS. Keep them stories coming lads!

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 15/01/2009 15:38:18    181328

i was 20 years old when i went to dublin, and headed off to boston, but ill never forget my roscommon girl shes the....Well where to start, spent a year in boston wasn't really in the gaa scene because of where i lived, it wasn't near any club, went back to ireland after a year. Came over here(london) 1 year later for a few months as couldn't get a job at home, or back in boston(would love to but...) at what i studied in college, worked in a bar for a few months to help me get the job(wont mention the pub its well enough known but working in a pub its a very very tough job in terms of your personal life and the direction it takes....)so i have to be forever grateful that london gave me the chance as i really was in last chance saloon in terms of getting a job, I got on a graduate placement scheme with a good company, how i managed that i dont know given i never got the easier applications! So i returned home as the position wasn't to start for another 6 months - iwish i had travelled but i had no money, you never save money in a pub!!! ANyway I came over to London with -500 and a high limit on the Credit card, I had worked for a few months at home but i never save for changes in life, so i had no money coming over, plus a holiday over in the states for 4 weeks before moving to london didnt help. Arrived June 6th 2004, a friend who was in uni over here at the time told me not to worry about gettnig a place, he would sort something, came over with no place,did a days sorta introduction or wahtever they call it, spent all the day on my work laptop trying to find accomodation, as i had no place to stay and was staying in a hostel in st pauls(thats another story, sleeping - or not - bums to the wall job! :D). That night, tubed it back to southgate as wanted to look for places round there as i had been in the wishing well there about 6 months before, had dinner and asked the guy would he mind holding onto my bag for a few days while i lookd for a place as i didnt want to leave it in st pauls and it was a huge bag, the chap there was very nice and let me leave it in their storage area! Spent two nights or 3 nights in the hostel, on the 3rd or 4th night rang a lady called sana, said i could see a place in wood green. Headed up to wood green fairly fast. Arrived about 7.05 and by 7.08 i told her id take the place. I was still at the bottom of the stairs, it was a maisonette,the flat was up the stairs. She asked when did i want to move in, I said immediately, things got a little complicated when she started asking for different proofs of identity etc as i had just moved over there was no proof for any of that stuff, plus with my eagerness to move in right away she was very wary. Sana was a muslim, french whose parents were african. She never ventured out, i mean outside her room. I lived in this place for 4 months, no friends, not even a tv for a month, to say it was lonely was an understatement, i had no friends over here, work people lived outside of london and were a bit older than I was, I had no mates or family over here and the people from the pub werent there anymore bar the manager and we had had a fallnig out.

pronane (None) - Posts: 324 - 15/01/2009 16:48:30    181450

I started to go to pubs on my own like a loser!!! Anyway eventually I met a girl outside a place, who introduced me to a few others. Long story short a couple of years later I got involved with a club and things have changed a hell of a lot. I bought a flat in neasden, bought a car and thought ill stay a while longer. Im still here. The GAA has had a big part in my life since i moved here. It got bigger this year. All ill say is never forget where you have come from, being irish stands us out from any other nation. Ive become more proud of my irishness with the more stories i hear from old folks. For example a good friend of mine from home who i grew up with was a great footballer, he stopped playing, but last monday i met a guy who told me about a lad from my town who plaeyd with them in the 70s said he was a great wee footballer, the lad was this fellas father. He continued to tell me more about his time over here(i never even knew his father had ever lived here, and im not sure he knew either!) Never forget where you come from, whether you work in the city, in the sticks, on a site at an investment bank or whatever. The last few weeks personally have been pressurised, getting stuff done outside of work has taken up a lot of my work time, work are getting rid of the financial services area i work in, and the fella i was renting the 2nd bedroom in the flat told me today he is moving out in a month. When it rains it pours as the man says, but im sure ill find my way out of this one too. London is a tough place though, and Id advise anyone coming over make sure you have some base or reach out through a club or whatever. People are very good like that over here, irish people i mean, they look out for eachtother. But there are far better places than London, especially at home and more so in the states.

pronane (None) - Posts: 324 - 15/01/2009 16:48:40    181452

well said jayo, hit the nail right on the head

irlande (Fermanagh) - Posts: 535 - 15/01/2009 16:59:47    181477

Having read all the preceeding posts, I thought I might as well as add my bit of a story. Came over to study in '76, not long after getting a serious knee injury playing minor football just before county trials, which I might have made(?) Have to say, that from landing off the plane, I never gave the GAA a second thought. Studied(?) at Hatfield Polytechnic until I was asked to leave on Mar. 17, if you don't mind. Started working in London and moved around to Oxford, Acton, Parson's Green and now, Leeds. It was in 1986 that I managed to persuade the local pub in Parson's Green to allow a lock-in to watch the AI final (lost!!!). All through this time, I hadn't ever thought there might be football in Britain, never mind London. After marrying the good lady, we eventually moved to Leeds in '87 with our first lad. When he was about 10, we were approached about "football" and agreed to take him training the following Saturday. It was only when it started that I realised the training was for Gaelic football. My lad was soon joined by his two brothers and I was hooked. Got myself elected as club secretary shortly afterwards(still there) and helped to organise a trip to New York/New Jersey for our under 16's, followed by our first dinner dance with Sam Maguire. I'm now on the County Board as PRO. The three lads still play and are all members of our open-age teams. I suppose it was because there weren't any Irish at college, so the GAA never entered conversation , and I didn't give it much thought. It was only in London and running into a few Irish lads that the GAA came into focus again for me. The local pub (The Albion) in Acton was full of Irish, although, no games were ever shown. It was in the Jolly Maltsters in Parson's Green that I saw the Kerry v Tyrone final. Both pubs are now closed curiously enough!!!

Carnaross (None) - Posts: 189 - 15/01/2009 17:03:25    181484

Amen JC. This is quality, quality stuff. Fair play to everyone who are posting their stories. Keep them coming!

RMDrive (Donegal) - Posts: 2202 - 15/01/2009 17:10:44    181501

meant to say i live across from gladstone park. directly across from it on dollis hill lane. Funny that many of us have the GP connection!

pronane (None) - Posts: 324 - 16/01/2009 13:18:14    182259

pronane
County: All
Posts: 161
Good post. Wishing you the best of luck in these trying times but I am sure you will come out the other side smiling. I lived in Humber Road,Dollis Hill many moons ago. I heard that there were a lot of changes in that area over the years ie motorway etc. Must take a trip around that area for nostalagia sake. Keep in contact with us and let us know how you are getting on.

Real Kerry Fan (None) - Posts: 2957 - 16/01/2009 14:05:41    182300

Esexile I had the dislocated shoulder as well. Bloody painful. Kept popping out so ended up needing surgery. OK since then.
This probably is the best thread I've seen on HS. Keep it up lads

mossbags (Galway) - Posts: 1089 - 16/01/2009 14:36:45    182333

mossbags wasn't much good anyway, but my kneecap used to dislocate the whole time around the age of 15/16 so gave up the soccer and gaelic. Then it happened a few times when locked, and cos walked on it made it ten times worse. Had surgery and went back "training" with the team last year, training as really all I was doing was running around like an eejit, its funny how you are when you havent done something in a while, plus there is always that feeling of nothing going in 100% for fear of something happening again - very hard overcome.

Someone said to me last night, funny how it came up given this thread, but "London is a place for lonely people". I think thats very true, look in a starbucks window and you'll see for yourself.

Where did they train in GP, its a bloody hill I cant imagine anyone ever training or playing there, was it the other side of the tracks?

pronane (None) - Posts: 324 - 16/01/2009 16:11:52    182471

'mossbags wasn't much good anyway'

He was what ud' call a 'grafter'. :-)

mossbags (Galway) - Posts: 1089 - 16/01/2009 16:23:04    182478

There's a damn good bloody book here lads - or at least a very good play - and Jayo better get a slice of it!!! Do you hear me Roddy D, Jim S, Neil J et al ....................

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 16/01/2009 16:39:05    182490

mossbags thats not how that meant to read!!! I meant i wasn't much good!!!!

Not mossbangs wasn't much good, im sure you were/are deadly!!!

pronane (None) - Posts: 324 - 16/01/2009 16:54:24    182506

Started Liverpool University in 1981, the year of the hunger strike, also the riots in Liverpool, to help me feel at home! I soon got a taste for Higsons bitter and English girls. Looking back, the North was a scary place at the time, and there wasn't much work about for someone with my special skills and talents. I played football for John Mitchel's; we had a couple of decent players - Fran McMahon from Armagh, and some Kerry fella who had an All Ireland medal (Brendan Lynch?). The rest of the team was mainly students and some second generation Irish; not many were coming to Liverpool for the work! The matches were mainly in Manchester; most Sundays we'd get a beating and a soaking in Cheetham Park (if memory serves). We did get to a Lancashire final, but lost to St Peter's. Liverpool was a dump at the time. The City Council was single handedly taking on Thatcher, and losing. The Council had no money, so staff weren't being paid, rubbish was piling up on the streets, and bodies in the morgues. God it was cold that first winter in a Clash tee shirt and a duffle coat. I got warm once a week, on Saturday afternoons, on Gwladys Street or the Kop (I'm a bluenose, btw), mainly down the back of my leg, and only very briefly! The first time I got the boat back to Dublin, it felt like I'd left Kabul and landed in Gaza. Dublin was a ******** then, even compared to Liverpool (but no longer). Graduated. Got a job, moved around, played no football for about 3 years. Landed near Oxford for a while and played for Swindon Shamrocks for 2 years with a few Cork and Limerick boys, but mainly second generation. We got to a Gloucestershire final and lost to Bristol. Met my (English) wife. On the move again, and finally settled in Northants, which is a GAA free zone. Played 1 season with a team in MK (Erin go Bragh maybe) when I was past 40 and should've known better. I've passed the mantle on to my boys; they go to a Catholic school, where Gaelic football is on the PE curriculum, and they go on tour to Ireland every year. But mainly, they play soccer. Luckily for them, they've chosen to follow my county, but not my soccer team! The last few years, since online, Setanta, and cheap flights, keeping in touch with the GAA has never been easier. Links to football at home before the www were the local paper (x 2) in the post every 2 weeks (thanks dad!) and Sunday Sport on crackly MW in the car. I even picked up coverage on LW of Tyrone v Laois in northern France one summer. Nowadays, I get a daily fix online. I haven't been to many McKenna cup games, or NFL, or early rounds in Ulster, but I've managed to get to the marquee games down the years, including all 5 AIF's. The 1 thing I miss is not really feeling part of it, especially the last 5 or 6 years when we've really had something to smile about in Tyrone. I can read all the build up, and the after matches in the papers, and the banter on HS, but it's not the same as being there when it's the topic of conversation in every pub or shop you go in, and the bunting is up, and cars and sheep are getting painted. If I ever move back, it'll be in Championship season.

joemo (Tyrone) - Posts: 37 - 16/01/2009 17:28:33    182530

Good post Jayo!,
I landed over to NY about 5 years ago, at the height of the boom, had planned on going travelling but settled with a few friends over here and landed myself a bar job in manhattan, everything was goin more than good, good job, plenty of cash, great weather and lifestyle!!! Not to mention the women,they love the irish accent! The friends that were here all moved home for one reason or another and to be honest i was seriously considering it until the signs were on that the economy was down the drain, i will admit being illegal over here does take its toll.. i've missed many a wedding and unfortunately many a funeral too.
On the upside the standard of ball isn't bad, although it varies from year to year, we had a great team about 2 years ago that would have given any senior team at home a good run for their money, and the craic is always good, drinkin beer in the sun isn't the that bad ya know!!! Seems to be a lot more irish comin out the last few months, so we'll wait and see!!!!

Irl_Yankee (USA) - Posts: 1 - 16/01/2009 17:47:37    182545

Hello folks This is my first post on the forum although I've been a reader for a long time. This is a great thread though so I was tempted to get logged in and respond. I've been in England for over 8 years and am moving home again shortly. I have to say I've had a great over here: moved over for uni and then stayed for work and the country has been good to me I have to say. Have had very little GAA unfortunately although I've kept watching the games on TV as much as possible over the years and coming home for as many matches as I could. I'm really excited to be moving back and picking up the ball again, but I will miss the many friends I've made over here. I have to say, the impression we often have on our wee island about the English can be pretty misleading as on the whole I've found them to be lovely people. Definitely lacking in the family ethos and so on that we still hold dear at home (although that does seem to be eroding) and it takes quite a bit of effort at times to become friendly with your neighbours, but once you are friends they are generally sound as pounds. However, shortly I will no longer be in exile - woop woop!

bert (Tyrone) - Posts: 105 - 16/01/2009 17:52:06    182549

Higson's beer, Joemo? That brings back memories. Mind you it was the only decent pint in the City.

I lived in Manchester, beer capital of the WORLD. Boddies, Holt's, Robbies, John willie Lees................


Now you all know why I don't drink anymore. Got to the stage I was spilling most of it as the glass kept shaking.

I loved England, mind you I played a bit of Irish traditional and every pub in Manchester were mad for it, except the Irish pubs, strictly C and W. Played in quite a few parts of England.

I was also a clog Morris dancer and drank/danced all over the country. after the dancing it was always a massive music session.

I played for St Brendan's football, St Michael's hurling in Manchester, it was all the one club, and I played for Lancashire at the hurling. I note on the UK board here that St Brendan's are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. I was going to go, as they still owe me about 8 medals, and then I discovered the guests of honour, and pride of place on the night.

Yes, Tyrone, seniors and minors. And music by Philomena Begley.

They can keep the medals.

patrique (Antrim) - Posts: 13709 - 16/01/2009 21:29:54    182700