Brothers in Sport Read online

  His mobile phone rings as our conversation nears its end. He is needed across the city in Nowlan Park, the home of Kilkenny hurling. Just for an hour or so. Something small but important. The Henderson contribution continues.

  The Earley Brothers

  The late Lt Gen. Dermot Earley celebrates his daughter Noelle’s elevation to Ladies Football All Star status in 2009, flanked by his wife Mary and daughters Anne Marie and Paula. © Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE

  As the shrill of the final whistle drifted into the air over Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon at the conclusion of the 1985 Connacht football final, the end of an era had been signalled. Mayo had won the provincial title and the supporters began to spill onto the field in celebration. In the middle of the field, Mayo’s Willie Joe Padden heard a familiar voice offering congratulations. He turned to take the hand of his old adversary, Dermot Earley, and they both felt the bolt of emotion. This was Dermot’s final game in a Roscommon career that stretched back almost two decades. He deserved more than a handshake. Willie Joe shouted to his team-mates. They nodded approval. Dermot was hoisted on their shoulders. The Mayo supporters halted their charge and applauded the vanquished hero.

  Paul Earley stood watching a short distance away. His sense of disappointment at the loss of a major game was temporarily suspended. All his life he had lived proud in the knowledge that his eldest brother, the age gap being sixteen years, was a hero to football followers not just in Roscommon but all over Ireland. But this acknowledgement of his status by peers who should have been celebrating their own triumph was something extraordinary.

  Back in an emotional dressing-room, where another old stalwart, Pat Lindsay, had also announced that he was retiring from the inter-county game, Paul had little time for deep thoughts. But he realised that he was lucky to have had the opportunity to play with Dermot even for a brief period in the Roscommon colours.

  ‘Like every kid I dreamed of playing for Roscommon one day,’ says Paul, ‘and following Dermot all my life just added to my determination. But because of the age difference, it never really occurred to me that we would get the opportunity to play together. He had transferred to Sarsfields in Newbridge when I was still in school so we had never even played together for our club, Michael Glaveys. He had been a huge influence on me even though I had grown up at home, the youngest in the family, when Dermot had already moved away to start his army career.

  ‘My life as a child revolved around school, going to football matches and following Dermot. And I had a special time. I was attending secondary school in Ballyhaunis between 1977 and 1981 and Roscommon never lost to Mayo in those five years in either League or Championship. So myself and a few other lads from Glaveys were going to school on Monday mornings with big smiles on our faces.’

  In 1981 Paul had been a member of the Roscommon minor team that won the Connacht Championship. It had been the first real opportunity Dermot had had to assess the potential of his youngest brother. For a number of years he had been hearing encouraging reports about Paul’s ability and his dedication to football, but his life in his adopted home in Kildare and a busy career in the army meant that he never got the chance to see Paul play.

  By the start of the National League campaign in October 1981, the Roscommon team manager Tom Heneghan de-

  cided an injection of new blood was needed. Paul was snatched up in the recruitment drive. The two brothers played together for the first time in a League game against Galway, watched by their proud father, Peadar. They lined out alongside one another against Sligo and Galway in the 1982 Connacht Championship before Paul was lured to a brief career in Australian Rules football during 1983 and 1984. He returned in time to be part of the final chapter in Dermot’s career in 1985.

  ‘I was only seventeen when I first played with him and I think I was in awe of him and the rest of the team because of everything they had achieved,’ recalls Paul. ‘The most important thing for me growing up was to emulate him by playing for the county, but the fact that we had a few years together with Roscommon was a great thrill.’

  Dermot wrote of their relationship in his biography, The Earley Years: ‘We didn’t get to know one another until we played together. I enjoyed playing with him. I consider him to be a far faster and more skilful player than I could ever be, even though he was often playing in my shadow. He was a great utility player. It was great to get to know him as a person. It was good to have somebody to confide in about my frustration with my own game. He had different opinions about other players and about the game and I found this interesting. We talked about other aspects of life and this was enriching for me.’

  On 23 June 2010, the entire nation was stunned when Dermot Earley died after a short illness. Though it was known everywhere that the army chief-of-staff and sporting legend had been ill for some months, it was hard for his friends and fans to come to terms with his passing. His funeral on 25 and 26 June was attended by tens of thousands of friends, admirers and contemporaries. He was buried with full military honours in St Conleth’s cemetery in Maynooth. At the wishes of his wife Mary and family, an All-Ireland Championship qualifier game between Kildare and Antrim went ahead in Newbridge on 26 June. Dermot Junior played. That is the Earley spirit.

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  As a young married couple from Mayo setting out in life in the 1940s, Peadar and Kitty Earley had gone through a few postings during Peadar’s career as a national schoolteacher. By the time their eldest son Dermot was seven years old in 1955, they were settling into what would become their permanent home in Gorthaganny, a small village in west Roscommon just a short distance from the border with Mayo. Dermot was born in Castlebar and in later years would be claimed by many a Mayo football supporter.

  Peadar loved football and was a dedicated member of the GAA. Within a year of arriving in Gorthaganny he was the prime mover behind the founding of a new GAA club which he called Michael Glaveys in honour of a local man who had been a great sportsman as well as a freedom fighter and was killed in 1920. Meetings were held in the Earley household or the home of another official. Peadar served in every position – chairman for long periods and secretary for other long periods. His sons watched proceedings and got an early understanding and appreciation of the politics and administration of the GAA.

  Dermot was the eldest. Deirdre, Margaret and Peter followed, and Paul was born in July 1964. By that time Dermot was a boarding student in the famous football nursery of St Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen and was showing great promise as a footballer. He was just fifteen when he was selected to play for the Roscommon minor team in 1963. Two years later he won his first Connacht Championship when still a minor and played in Croke Park for the first time. Roscommon lost to Derry by three points and Dermot missed a penalty. But there were other highlights that year: he also played for the Roscommon under-21 team and in October was selected on the senior team for the National League.

  His rise to national attention was accelerated in 1966 when he was a member of the Roscommon team that won the All-Ireland Under-21 Championship. Now enrolled in the Army Cadet School in the Curragh, Dermot found himself preparing for the final among the opposition of Kildare. He was just eighteen, but showed a maturity beyond his years and played a major part in a rare national success for Roscommon. Three years later he played in another under-21 final, but Roscommon lost to Antrim.

  With such a supply of talent being provided it was expected that Roscommon would begin to make an impact at senior level. But the 1960s proved to be a frustrating time. Dermot had to wait until 1972 for success and many observers consider his performance in the Connacht final against Mayo that year as arguably his greatest for the county. Partnering Gerry Beirne in midfield, Earley was in commanding form and crowned his display with a goal that followed a thundering solo run through the middle of McHale Park.

  Hints continued to drop that the 1970s might prove to be a more lucrative decade. Roscommon reached the National League final in 1974, but were denied victory by a last-
minute equalising goal from Kerry’s John Egan. Kerry won the replay, but Earley’s performances were rewarded when he was included on the All Stars selection at midfield alongside Kerry’s Paudie Lynch. That celebration led to one of the few major controversies in his career. Selection on the All Stars at that time meant a tour to the United States the following May for a series of exhibition games. However, the All Stars rules had strict disciplinary guidelines at the time and a player who served a term of suspension was not eligible for selection. Even if a player was suspended following selection, he was not allowed to tour. For the only time in his illustrious career, Dermot Earley was sent off during a National League game in Croke Park against Dublin in February 1975. An innocuous tangle with Dublin’s Jimmy Keaveney led to a scuffle. It was brought to an end when Dermot punched Bobby Doyle on the nose. He was sent to the line. ‘It was the most devastating thing that ever happened to me playing football, much worse than losing the All-Ireland,’ he recalled. ‘As I walked back to the line the realisation of all the things that were going to happen came to me. First of all, it meant there was a blot on my career. I always wanted to be as fair as I could. Even if I fouled, I always felt it was wrong afterwards. To be warned by a referee is a blot on your copybook, but to be sent off is incredible.’

  A two-month suspension meant he would miss the All Stars’ tour. When an appeal failed, friends pressed him to travel even though he could not play. New York’s ‘Mr GAA’, the famous John ‘Kerry’ O’Donnell, invited him to travel and offered to pay Dermot’s expenses. Eventually, with the role of assistant to tour manager Seán Purcell as his official title, he did accompany the team.

  Injury and overseas duty with the army in the Middle East interrupted his career, but he was back for the 1977 Championship and the most exciting period of his football career.

  Dermot was one of the most experienced players with Roscommon in 1977, alongside Pat Lindsay, Harry Keegan, Tom Heneghan and Mickey Freyne. They were joined by a new batch of players that included future All Star Tony McManus, his brother Éamon, John ‘Jigger’ O’Connor, John O’Gara and Danny Murray. They won four Connacht Championships in a row and the National League in 1979 when Dermot won his second All Star award. They also reached the All-Ireland final in 1980 where they lost to Kerry in a game most observers believe they should have won. Conditions were tricky on the day, but Roscommon seemed unnerved about facing the All-Ireland champions, who were bidding for their third title in a row. Roscommon exploded into action and were 1–2 to no score ahead after eleven minutes, but they failed to maintain the momentum. Two brilliant saves from Kerry goalkeeper Charlie Neligan boosted Kerry’s bid for another title and they held on to win by 1–9 to 1–6.

  The game led to some recriminations. The Kerry man-ager Mick O’Dwyer was critical of what he believed was Roscommon’s physical approach and some treatment he said was meted out to particular Kerry forwards. In his bio-graphy Dermot addressed those claims: ‘In all our discussions and practice sessions there was never once any mention of stopping, tripping, holding or kicking an opponent. When they got the ball our job was to be as close as possible, to be absolutely committed, to harass, to chase and to contest, but always to play within the rules. When we got the ball our job was to be as elusive and creative as possible. At no stage was there even a hint that we should go out and be physical.’

  That defeat marked the beginning of the end of a team considered unlucky not to have won an All-Ireland Championship. They did reach the National League final the following May but lost to Galway, despite a trademark thunderbolt goal from Dermot. Weeks later, in the biggest shock in years in Championship football, Roscommon were beaten by Sligo in the opening round of the Connacht campaign.

  Throughout his playing days, Dermot also developed his career in the army, serving abroad as well as in various senior administrative positions in the Curragh. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1995 and to colonel in 2001. He became major general and deputy chief-of-staff in 2004 and in April 2007 Dermot became chief-of-staff of the Defence Forces.

  * * *

  Paul Earley (right) shares a joke with two other legends of Gaelic games, Peter Canavan (left) and Nicky English (centre). © Brian Lawless/SPORTSFILE

  Paul was part of the earliest experiments between Gaelic football and Australian Rules. The two organisations were in the initial stages of discussions about potential links when the youngster from west Roscommon spotted an advertisement in the Sunday Press looking for interested young footballers to take part in trials in Dublin organised by the Melbourne Demons club. His sister Denise was living in Australia and that was certainly part of the attraction.

  ‘I was a mad sportsman, I loved playing sport and you can imagine what kind of an opportunity it presented to me,’ he explains. His father and guiding influence, Peadar, was ill at the time, so Paul withdrew from the trial. Seán Wight, a Kerry minor with a Scottish background, and Dubliner James Fahy were chosen to travel. Peadar Earley passed away in February 1983 and Paul took some time to decide on his future. Dermot returned from a tour of duty in Lebanon for the funeral but football was barely mentioned.

  When Paul’s interest was revived, after a period of mourning, a special trial was arranged for him in Artane in Dublin. A Christian Brother, Tom McDonnell, saw enough to provide a recommendation to the Demons that the young Earley had potential. By May, he had decamped to the capital of the state of Victoria and a completely new way of life. ‘London had been the extent of my travels up to then so you can just imagine what it was like to travel to the far side of the world at that time,’ he says.

  His late arrival meant he had missed pre-season, but that merely introduced him to an even more frenetic way of life. ‘They just immersed me in football for the first couple of months. It was non-stop. Even today when I am coaching here I apply some of the things I learned then. I had a football in my hands almost all the time. It is one of the things that sticks in my mind, because the coaches were constantly telling you to keep a ball in hand. If you were sitting down, they wanted you to have the ball; watching television, they expected you to work with it. You brought a ball with you when you went for a walk. They wanted the ball to become an extension of your hand, to make the ball a natural part of your movement. It was a way of preparing you for whatever situation you encountered in a game. When the ball came to you, you were expected to get it with one grab; they didn’t want it to take two grabs. That was one too many.’

  For most of his waking hours, he had a coach in attendance. When he wasn’t training, he attended clinics. ‘People think it’s getting used to the oval ball that causes the greatest difficulty for players coming from Ireland but it’s not. You learn the skills quickly. The biggest problem is game sense, game awareness, what to do, where to run, particularly in how you deal with the tackle. When you get the ball you have to move with pace, accelerate away from the tackle. In Gaelic football you have time to look up and see what is happening around you. If you do that in Australian Rules, you get nailed.

  ‘The biggest thing was the emphasis on skill development. Every session started with basic skills work. You might kick a ball back and across with another player maybe fifty times – left foot, right foot. You then work on the hand pass – right hand, left hand. They never allowed you to lose touch with the basic skills. As a professional player, they believed you should be able to perfect the skills on both sides of your body and they worked hard on that. As a coach now I put more emphasis on the skills side. Sometimes we neglect that here and we allow players to develop them themselves. We don’t spend enough time on the biomechanics of kicking and catching, and running and hand passing. We spend more time on teamwork and tactics, fitness and physical preparation to the detriment of the skills. We have improved a lot, but there is still some distance to go.

  ‘For example, when Tadhg Kennelly went out the first thing they did was to change his running technique because they felt it would cause him some difficulty long-term with
injuries. That wouldn’t have happened here. That’s professionalism – it’s about having the time and a number of different specialist coaches who can work on different aspects of the game with players. They are able to dissect the game and the players into component parts and allocate specialist coaches to work with individual players – be it a psychologist, a kicking coach, or a strength and conditioning coach. We are trying to do that here now, but with limited time it’s just not possible to do it to the same extent. It’s amazing how much time coaches here do put in with the players, but there are just not enough hours in the day after work to do it. Coaches have plenty of time with the players there; the players have plenty of time to do their work and to rest.’

  For many reasons which he articulates well, Paul has no fears about players being recruited by the Australians. They are treated well, most come home and when they do they are better footballers for the experience. ‘Most of the guys who have gone out will say they are looked after well, the environment is great, it’s the great outdoor life. It’s different to the soccer apprentice in England who will have to do all the menial tasks and is way down the pecking order. In Australia, the Irish are integrated very quickly. There is no class distinction of any sort. It is full-time, so you can manage your body in the right way to play at your peak all the time.