John Fogarty: Memories of my uncle Bill Cooper

Stephen Cluxton leads Dublin out in the 2019 All-Ireland final against Kerry. John Fogarty’s late uncle Bill had Dublin in his heart and was there to see the five in a row. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

I want to tell you a little about my uncle Bill Cooper. Bill passed away peacefully but suddenly on the Monday before the All-Ireland football final this year.

Only 58, his loss is going to take some getting used to. Warm as he was wicked, he was a raconteur and a reciter. To be in his company was to be entertained.

Bill was always playing the divil. He took credit for plenty of things such as being an influence on my brother’s and my formative years. He claimed it was him who passed on the love of Liverpool Football Club. Not that we have any recollection of it but you’d go along with him if only for the flights of fancy he would conjure. Think Dermot Morgan’s Charlie Haughey.

When Liverpool ended the 30-year wait for the league title, he was on WhatsApp the following morning. “I got a call from Jimmy Case last night,” the message started. “We shed a tear over our fallen heroes Emlyn and Tommy. Jimmy reminded me of the night I put three past Clemence in a charity match in Anfield. 1983. 20 I was, up front with big John Toshack. Exhibition football. They still talk about it down the Derby Road.”

A few years ago, Bill came close to buying a horse with my father. The thought of it thrilled him and he articulated it in the only way he knew how. Another message. “And now over to Lord Cooper, winning owner of Farranshone Lass who won the three-year-old fillies race in Ascot on Saturday. He’s with the winning syndicate on the lawn quaffing vintage champagne.

“And that’s John Fogarty Senior who sourced the filly. John, of course, from Kilfeacle where his brother Joe trains and breeds at his stables. Fogo, as he’s known in racing circles. A very modest and knowledgeable follower of the equine stock. Once played polo with Prince Charles. Well done, Johnny. Three cheers.

“Hold on, a call there from Abdul Abdullah from the United Arab Emirates. ‘€1.3m, you say? ‘No,’ say the syndicate. ‘We’ll hold out’.”

Bill liked a bet. Strike that, Bill loved a bet. Leopardstown and Limerick would command his attention today and this week. It will be a long time, hopefully never, before I receive a tip and don’t immediately think of passing it onto him. You mightn’t see the race yourself but he wouldn’t be slow in letting you know the result.

Dublin was his heart. Like his late brother Eamonn, he was shaped by its songs and stories. Clearing out his car, we found his five-in-a-row ticket from 2019 in the glove compartment. He took great pride in his father Paddy’s 41 years of service to Guinness, starting off as a 14-year-old labourer and finishing an engineer.

And Limerick was his blood. He fiercely admired his mother Madeleine’s staunch ties with her home. She was aghast at what she maintained was an inaccurate depiction of her Limerick in Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. Asked once why after so many years living in the capital, she hadn’t lost her accent, she replied: “I never found one better.” Appropriately, his local was The Halfway House, owned by Limerick man Gerry O’Malley, in Walkinstown where Eamonn Rea — up to his death last month — had been working weekdays for a number of years and with whom Bill would chat about sport and all things Treaty.

Bill’s sport was rugby and he was bona fide Lunster. Aside from his mother’s influence, his years playing as a pup for Lansdowne alongside Moss Keane, who he revered, made a deep impression on him. At his funeral, his best friend and former Ireland prop Tom Clancy spoke eloquently about Bill whose pride in Tom representing his country was infectious. Tom had a pre-match ritual of tumbling head over heels onto the pitch and blessing himself. He was our hero because “Tommer” was Bill’s.

We kept a seat for Bill at our table on Saturday. I lost count of the number of Christmas Days I shared with him. Now I try to count them. The constant ball-hopping. The hilarious and often tall stories. The songs towards the end of the evening. I could open every window and still not find an air but Bill’s voice was sweet and it soared.

The day after the All-Ireland SHC final, I WhatsApped him a photo of The Halfway House festooned with the green and white and the ‘Luimneach Abú” 1989 Ford Fiesta parked outside. “Was in there this morning,” he lied in his reply. “Myself and Eamonn Cregan sang ‘There Is An Isle’. Not a dry eye in the house.” Less than three weeks later and there was hardly one as it was played in the crematorium.

“You’ll be talking about me for years after I’m gone,” he used to joke. We will, Bill. We will.

Ten match regulations you mightn’t know

Often cited, but rarely read, the GAA’s match regulations for 2022 were issued last week.

Here are some of the more unheard of directives that have been formed by the Central Competitions Control Committee:

• “Teams shall be provided to the committee-in-charge for the official programme, and to the media, four days before the game.”
• “Official team personnel (selectors/coaches) may act as Maor Camán, but substitutes, injured players, or members of the extended panel may not.”
• “Substitutes are not allowed a kick/puck around at half time.”
• “The team captain shall lead the parade, and only the 15 players commencing the game as per official team list may march in the parade, in team jerseys & numerical order.”
• “For all senior inter-county games, sliotars with yellow leather will be used. For all other games, if there is an agreement between both teams, officially approved sliotars with yellow leather can be used, otherwise, sliotars with white leather shall be used.”
• A team taking the field late before a game shall be subject to a €100 fine (county) and €20 club for every five minutes or part thereof up to 15 minutes, and thereafter for every minute or part thereof up to 30 minutes. A team responsible for a half-time interval being exceeded shall be subject to an €80 fine (county) for every minute or part thereof; Club — Fine €10 for every minute or part thereof. And a team responsible for an interval period allowed being exceeded by more than 10 minutes shall be forfeit the game.
• “Selectors must sit in their designated area.”
• “Ball boys are not permitted.”
• “At least 30 seconds will be provided to teams after the anthem, this is to allow for any team huddles or warm-ups, before they are required to get into position for the start of the game.”
• “Selectors/coaches cannot act as a medic person without advance approval from the committee-in-charge.”

Unlimited subs plan must have limited run

It was confirmed last week that the forthcoming pre-season competitions will once more allow managers to empty their benches.

We quote GAA director of club, player, and games administration Feargal McGill again: “When I say unlimited substitutions I mean you can use every substitute, you can use 11 substitutes.

“I suppose it’s trying to take the, I shouldn’t say the competitiveness, but it’s trying to make it easier for players to avoid injury and commit to the provincial competitions when they have only had three weeks of collective preparation.”

Outside of blood and head subs, anything more than five replacements benefits the stronger teams. The change from six to five in accordance with the change in the black card rule to a sin bin was an equalisation of sorts, preventing the stronger teams from utilising their better panels.

Of course, some managers have pushed for more. Last June, former Kerry manager Peter Keane called for the temporary increase to seven subs to be expanded from the league into the championship “purely from a player welfare point of view and being able to look after fellas and get fellas out. If you look at it, it seems to be soft tissue injuries and muscle injuries that are predominantly the issue here.”

Some years back, Jim Gavin openly admitted he would put no limit on substitutes if he had the choice. The best never want to be shackled but for competition’s sake they must.

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