Local hero faces test of loyalties

GEORGIE FITZPATRICK was always a popular man in Kilkee. His easygoing manner and a phenomenal football service record for club and county is the type of stuff that gains you kudos in this part of West Clare.

The boots were decommissioned 10 years ago, but he’s back to being stopped on the streets of the lovely seaside town. And he is loving it.

Fitzpatrick didn’t go the usual celebrity route of a trip to the jungle or a desert island to revive his fan club. Instead he moved to Limerick. That forward planning (he has been living and teaching on Shannonside for almost 20 years) has at last borne fruit this month.

On Sunday, St Senan’s Kilkee travel to the Gaelic Grounds to play Monaleen in the AIB Munster Club SFC quarter-final, and George’s son Barry will be continuing a proud family football tradition. But not for the honour of Clare.

“We spend every summer below in Kilkee. Barry, who has always played with Monaleen, has lots of friends down there from those days while his cousins Michael and Noel O’Shea will both be playing for Kilkee.

“I was down there on Sunday and yeah there was a bit of slagging but it is all good craic. Fellows were crossing the road to have a few words, guys I hadn’t seen in years. The Kilkee crowd reckon I am a Monaleen man now but if you cut me I’d bleed the blue of St Senan’s, not the red of Monaleen!”

Few would doubt that. Fitzpatrick is football royalty after almost two decades of senior with Kilkee. A short spell for Parnells in Dublin was the only break between 1973 and 1996. (Indeed the year after he left Dublin, Parnells won the county title). And it wasn’t just Kilkee. Through the ‘80s he ran midfield for the county team. Most of those seasons were as barren as the Atlantic-pounded coastline that makes up the home parish. But in his 30s things started to change.

“After moving back down from Dublin I won two Clare championship in 1989 and 1992 in two famous - or should that be infamous - games against Doonbeg! We went on to contest the Munster club finals on both occasions. The first time we were beaten by Castlehaven and then three years later by O’Donovan Rossa.”

Fitzpatrick loved those days. Clare, amongst the algae in the footballing pecking order, were amongst the big boys and suddenly he found himself on the field against the likes of Niall Cahalane, Larry Tompkins, Tony Davis and the late Mick McCarthy.

The men from Kilkee did well but failed to make the bonds of the province. Clare’s success in the 1992 Munster decider against Kerry seemed set to change that but Doonbeg in 1998 and Kilmurry-Ibrickane last year are the only sides to have lifted the provincial crown in the last 13 years.

It mattered little to Fitzpatrick. That maybe a tad harsh - it mattered a little less. A spell with the Clare U21s, a co-commentator slot on local radio and summer holidays by the seaside ensured he kept his west Clare roots. But he was also developing an increasing grá for his new home and place of work in Monaleen. Again football was the vital ingredient.

“I started with Monaleen after I finished playing. I started coaching the U12s with a friend of mine, Phillip Odell. We took this group of players all the way up along, winning U14, U16, minor and U21 this year and most of those lads are eligible again next year.”

That U21 side is like a petri dish for developing talent for the senior setup, with seven featuring on the county championship winning senior side. Barry was amongst them - and won the man of the match in September’s final.

“He got speed somewhere,” admits a proud father, “but it wasn’t from me,” he adds with a laugh.

“He is in UL studying PE and is under severe pressure between hurling and football, study and work. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Fitzpatrick is not the only Monaleen parent with mixed emotions. Paul Kinnerk’s mother is from Kilkee and father is from Doonbeg. Patrick Keating, too, has connections in Doonbeg and Carrigaholt while the mother of captain Fergus Melody is from ‘Shannon Gaels country’.

The Monaleen approach to Limerick’s annual battle against competing sports is an interesting one - let the players have the final say.

“From an early age our approach to players was that we didn’t care about their other sports” adds Fitzpatrick. “If fellows wanted to play soccer or rugby then we let them. Another thing was ball work - the days of running fields around the field are long gone. You want them to enjoy playing, and training, and that is what we did. Once they could turn up to play or if they turn up reasonably often to training, then that was enough for us. By doing that we haven’t lost any players to others code.”

He cites Sean Cronin as an example. The 19-year-old plays hooker for Shannon and has represented his country. “Despite all his commitments he loves the football,” Fitzpatrick explains, “and loves to play.

“I don’t think it is fair to tell an amateur player that they cannot play other games. That has been our strategy and it has worked for us.”

And with some success. Monaleen are annually in the shakeup for county honours and three years ago beat Stradbally and Clonmel Commercials before falling to Nemo in the Munster final. Thomond in the ‘70s apart, they are the only Limerick team to make the provincial football decider.

“Both teams are very talented. The difference on Sunday may be the run-in. Kilkee have had two very tough recent games beating Doonbeg and the Clare and Munster champions Kilmurray in the final. Monaleen won their final in early September with a facile win over St. Kieran’s. That’s eight weeks without a serious game. That factor could swing it for Kilkee.”

And if Kilkee win?

“I was back there after they beat Kilmurray in the Clare county final.

“I wouldn’t change that habit on Sunday.”