SOME DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE!

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to tell a true football story. I hope that the story will be of interest to the older type of person in The Avondhu catchment area. Albeit, this story is especially meant for the younger readers: The athletic ones, the agile ones and the tryers who are lost sometimes. Incidentally, I was lost many times in sport… yes… even though I’m agile!

To begin: I was a secondary school student in 1964. It was my Leaving Certificate exam year. At the end of March, Fermoy F.C. were scheduled to play Glasheen F.C. (Cork City) in the second round of the F.A.I. Minor U18 National Youth Cup. Glasheen F.C. were rated the second best youth side in the country. The excitement was something else! Because, our team was good!

This writer was 17 years of age. On the sunny Saturday afternoon (the day before the F.A.I. Cup match), this writer and his brother, Noel (15) , were in their kitchen on Patrick St., just ‘hangin about” the kitchen in good mood, ad libbing (without restraint; freely). In the previous year, 1962, Noel had worked his socks off for The Swifts F.C. in the Town Juvenile (U16) League Final. Noel understood football.

Anyway, I said to him: ‘I was dreaming all this week that I’ll do something great in the F.A.I. Cup match tomorrow (Sunday). Noel said: ‘Do you think you’ll score a goal?’ ‘No! I won’t score a goal; but, I’ll shoot at goal, a spectacular shot. ‘Only one?’ ‘But I don’t think it’ll be a goal. I’m certain’. I had a belief in myself. My brother believed me. And it happened exactly….. I kicked the football only once in that match… it was the shot at goal and it’s well-remembered. Why one touch of the football in 90 minutes?

The football was in our half of the pitch all the feckin’ time. Two English football scouts observed. This writer saw them! For the younger readers, this is the piece of the action where my dream came true. The Fermoy area was besieged (crowded round) for the first 35 minutes of the match.

This writer stayed on the inside-left position, near the sideline, on the halfway line, to keep the well-known Glasheen centre-half back, Christy Lynch, away from the action around the Fermoy area. This writer was the only man forward. I can do it from memory. At about the 35th minute, Danny Flood (St. Bernard’s Place) was tired of the monotonous Glasheen attacks.

So he ‘took the bull by the horns’. He faced and tackled Glasheen and he won the ball near the Fermoy end line. He dribbled out a bit and he found the right half-back, Gerry O’Mahony (captain) near the sideline. Danny sent Gerry away speedily on a dribble to the halfway line.

This writer was in the inside left position on the other side of the pitch. I was marked by their centre-half. Gerry booted a very hard, low, long ball across the pitch, slightly diagonal, towards me. My adrenaline flowed. This was F.A.I. Cup football! This writer sprinted at top speed towards the fast moving ball.

The centre-half was at my left shoulder. I knew what to do: I thought about my dream! At speed, I stretched my right instep under the fast ball and flicked the ball, with a jerk, from my instep. The ball glided from the half-way line (where I was) to almost glance the crossbar at the top right-hand corner. I was so happy that day. We drew (0-0).

We were still in the F.A.I. Minor U18 National Youth Cup. We held ‘the second best’ scoreless! Cherry Orchard (Ballyfermot) won that cup in 1964. Yes! For the younger readers especially: I believe that some dreams that you care to dream of really do come true.

Was I dreaming when I thought I’d have a spectacular shot at goal in the second round of the F.A.I. Minor U18 National Youth Cup? I’m a truthful man.

Footnote: Just sad that my friend and town league colleague, Raymond Bobby O’Shea (St. Mary’s Tce.), didn’t share in the drama (the sequence of emotional events on the pitch; but, he attended the match.

Yours sincerely,
Tom McAuliffe, One Cool Cat - Fermoy F.C. Minor U18 Team, 1964

HOW LONG DOES FERMOY HAVE TO WAIT?

Dear Sir,

The citizens of Fermoy do not realize how lucky they are. They have their own area engineer residing amongst them, the Tanaiste demonstrated his environmental credentials to them by sending two of his much recycled ministers to comfort them in their time of need.

Fermoy has been flooded quite a number of times in recent years. The town is located at the bottom of a saucer shaped terrain and the river Blackwater has been neglected for years, probably at the behest of the salmon anglers association. Various types of obstruction have grown larger, year by year as more flotsam is accumulated.

The free flow of the river during heavy rainfalls is impeded and eventually rises above the level of the drains carrying surface water which within the saucer shaped area has no place to go except in to the shops.

Your local area engineer can do nothing sensible about it now. It is too late. He should have been screaming out for the river problems to be addressed by the authority responsible for river works years ago. When all obstacles have been removed and the river is flowing freely, then an assessment can be made and weaknesses strengthened.

How long more will Fermoy have to wait. Rathcormac has been waiting 11 years for a new primary school.

Yours sincerely,
Richard Prendergast, Mondaniel, Rathcormac

SEEKING RELATIVES

Dear Editor,

I am seeking information regarding my parents. My name is Deirdre Ann Kelly and my parents were Patrick Michael Kelly, who was born in 1924, he was the son of John Kelly a surveyor of customs and excise.

My mother was Margaret Mary Collins, born 1930, daughter of a naval officer. They were married in London on April 22nd, 1954 at St Ignatius Church. My mother died in 1979 and I am trying to trace her relatives. Both my parents came from the Cork area.

If anyone has any information will they please e-mail me at dazkelly@dundee.ac.uk or telephone me at 07874924528.

Yours sincerely,
Deirdre Ann Kelly