THE MAYOS ABROAD Brendan Parsons, Conor Horan, Damien Keane, Frank Molloy and Seán Malee celebrate victory with Dunedin Connollys of Edinburgh. Missing from photo: Daniel Loftus.
Patrick Ward
WHILE Louisburgh have sealed their place in the semi-final stages of the All-Ireland Junior Club Championship, six proud Mayo men have also made a little piece of history by qualifying for the last four.
Conor Horan (Swinford), Brendan Parsons (Charlestown), Seán Malee (Kiltimagh), Frank Molloy (Bohola Moy Davitts), Daniel Loftus (Ballintubber) and Damien Keane (Westport) have enjoyed remarkable success with Dunedin Connollys of Edinburgh, helping them defeat Irish opposition for the first time in the club’s history last Saturday.
Keane was away on holidays, but the other five started in the Scottish club’s 1-9 to 1-6 victory over Rosenallis of Laois in the All-Ireland JFC quarter-final.
Molloy, a 39-year-old veteran who has previously lined out for the Mayo seniors, scored the all-important goal for Connollys, while his brother-in-law Malee chipped in with two points.
“Frank is 39 going on 19. He’s the Maurice Fitzgerald of our team,” joked Malee (34).
“It was a tight game, very cagey at the start,” said Horan, a former Mayo under-21 footballer. “We were down a few men with boys away on holidays and there were a few lads injured too. “The first ten minutes were hell for leather with everyone running at each other and it was only something like 0-1 each at that stage.”
This stage of the All-Ireland Junior championship is not unfamiliar to Kiltimagh native Malee, who is now in his second year playing with Connollys.
He was centre half-forward for the Kiltimagh side that agonisingly lost out to Kerry side Castlegregory in the 2009 final after extra-time.
“Obviously there’s a bit of unfinished business there,” he admitted.
“I didn’t play well that day and we did leave it behind us because we were the better team. When it went to extra-time that day, their bench was just that little bit stronger than ours, but we should have won it in the 60 minutes.
“Two points up with 30 seconds to go, it’s hard to take that. I’d love to get back there and there are not too many Mayo men with All-Ireland titles,” he explained.
The six Mayo men all joined the club after moving over to Scotland in a bid to mix with fellow Gaels on that side of the Irish Sea. Malee says there is a big social aspect to the set-up of the club, though they take their football very seriously.
“Essentially it’s kind of a social thing. It’s the easiest way of meeting guys, because when you come over here to a new city, the best thing to do is go training with a new team.
“To be fair to the guys that are over the team, they have a hard task trying to keep everyone off the beer in Edinburgh, because there’s obviously so much happening around here all the time. It’s a social thing though, there’s a good team spirit there.
“It’s not dissimilar [to playing at home] at all, and it’s definitely not a piss-take,” added the former Galway Utd star. “It’s very serious. Cormac O’Gara, who is over us, is very serious and has everything really well-organised. We started off the year with a strength and conditioning for 12 weeks. It’s slightly different because the level of intensity isn’t there early on in the year.”
Dunedin Connollys will face Rock St Patricks of Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final on January 28, and a victory there could set up a potential final showdown with Louisburgh. Watch this space!
